Second Sundays: Streamcast & Open House, August 2014

Performances, open studios, and non-stop festivities as Pioneer Works opens its doors for the monthly celebration of life and art. This month features the cinematic tunes of Big Lazy and electro-pop from Sierra Leone. Stop by! Listen in!

SECOND SUNDAYS is a monthly series of open studios, live music, and site-specific interventions presented by Pioneer Works the second Sunday of every month. The series showcases artists in residence along with musical performances and DJs, curated in partnership with Olivier Conan.

Sunday, August 10 from 5:00-10:00 PM
Studios of artists & scientists in residence open at 5PM.
Live music curated by Olivier Conan starts at 7PM.

BIG LAZY
Guitarist and composer Stephen Ulrich has been leading the trio Big Lazy for close to twenty years. At once stark and otherworldly, Big Lazy is a moody surf-like outfit full of tremolo guitars, slowed down tempos and exotica touches. Their cinematic music evokes noir, spaghetti western, Lynch and Tarantino soundtracks – but Big Lazy’s organic and uncontrived music remains beyond category. Ulrich’s many other musical projects include a number of collaborations with members of Balkan Beat Box as well as countless TV and film scores including the series Bored to Death.
“Big Lazy, the elegantly gritty instrumental trio led by the extraordinary guitarist Stephen Ulrich, plays stunningly beautiful music that evokes everything from truckers’ romps to the haunting film scores of Bernard Herrmann.” – The New Yorker

JANKA NABAY AND THE BUBU GANG
Janka Nabay is the king of Bubu – Sierra Leone’s brand of electro-pop. Back in his hometown of Sierra Leone, Janka electrified traditional Bubu music by adding drum machines and synthesizers and giving it a frantic edge that made him a national hero. Now based in the US, Janka has hooked up with musicians from Brooklyn and DC (where he lives) who call themselves the Bubu Gang. Janka and his musicians share a similar fascination with the old and the new, mixing modern beats and analog keyboards with call and response vocals, improvisation and touches of 70’s psychedelia. The collaboration seems to capitalize on the best of all worlds and the result is musically stimulating and just as danceable as Janka Nabay’s early hits. David Byrne’s label Luaka bop released their first full-length album a little while back.