From the New Sounds Live Concert Series, recorded at Merkin Concert Hall, as part of the Ecstatic Music Festival, hear the Bang on a Can All-Stars unveil brand new works commissioned for them. Listen to two world premieres – one by Puerto Rican-born composer, multi-instrumentalist, and robotics/electronics manipulator, Angélica Negrón- and the other by composer/performer/professor George Lewis. Also, listen again to commissions of music by drummer and composer Lukas Ligeti and guitarist Thurston Moore.

The 2018 commissioned work by Angélica Negrón, “Turistas,” written for one of her “dream ensembles,” the Bang on a Can All-Stars, is also a response to how “her music doesn’t sound Puerto Rican.” In it, she samples reggaeton beats, “messes up” some salsa and clave, throws in bomba, and Sesame Street, and refracts these through the prism of humour with a side of eye-rolling.

There’s also a historical work by drummer/composer Lukas Ligeti, his “Glamour Girl,” which draws on rhythms of continental Africa – specifically Burkina Faso and Uganda, and manipulated & interlocking rhythms, which asks the non-drummer players of the All-Stars to turn into a group of drummers on their pitched instruments.

Then, listen to music that explores the space between noise and music, with a previous commissioned work by guitarist Thurston Moore, and a brand-new piece by the genius-award winning composer, trombonist, improviser, and computer music guru George Lewis. Lewis introduced his own world premiere work, written for the All-Stars, as “nine minutes of noisy stuff and then you can go on to something else.”

PROGRAM #4084 NSL BoaC PCF 2018 (First Aired: 2/27/2018)

ARTIST:American Composers Orchestra 
WORK: Angélica Negrón:  Me he perdido (I’ve Gotten Lost) [1:30]
RECORDING: Live, Brookfield Place, Oct. 16, 2015
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: American Composers Orchestra

ARTIST: Bang on a Can All-Stars 
WORK: Angélica Negrón: Turistas [8:42]
RECORDING: Live, Ecstatic Music at Merkin Hall Feb. 15, 2018
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: angelicanegron.com

ARTIST: Bang on a Can All-Stars 
WORK: Lukas Ligeti: Glamour Girl [11:28]
RECORDING: Live, Ecstatic Music at Merkin Hall Feb. 15, 2018
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: lukasligeti.com

ARTIST: Bang on a Can All-Stars 
WORK: Thurston Moore: Stroking Piece No. 1 [8:59]
RECORDING: Live, Ecstatic Music at Merkin Hall Feb. 15, 2018
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: lukasligeti.com

ARTIST: Bang on a Can All-Stars 
WORK: George Lewis: Float, Sting [9:15]
RECORDING: Live, Ecstatic Music at Merkin Hall Feb. 15, 2018
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: music.columbia.edu/bios/george-e-lewis