Helmut Lachenmann comes to town, plus DJ G Notorious’s Dubwise monthly
By SUSANNA BOLLE | February 26, 2008
This week we’re hitting the sonic extremes, beginning with HELMUT LACHENMANN. One of the most inventive composers of the past three decades, Lachenmann has two concerts coming up — one at the Goethe-Institut this Saturday, and another on Wednesday at New England Conservatory.Lachenmann may compose for traditional instruments, but he uses them in radically unconventional ways. “Lachenmann’s æsthetic is about opening people’s ears to a new way of listening,” says violinist Ari Streisfeld of the JACK Quartet, who will perform an all-Lachenmann program at the Goethe-Institut. “He approaches each instrument as if it were a found object and asks himself ‘Okay, how can I make a sound out of this?’ and figures out all sorts of different ways of playing it.”
Some of Lachenmann’s most overtly experimental works are his three string quartets. The JACK Quartet will perform two of them, Gran Torso (1972) and Grido (2001). At NEC, the Callithumpian Consort will play another lauded Lachenmann opus, “ . . . zwei Gefühle” . . . , Musik mit Leonardo.
At another end of the sonic spectrum, we have DJ G NOTORIOUS bringing the hot new UK club sound, bassline house, to Enormous Room on Sunday. It’s a genre that cares not a whit for textural subtleties; as its name suggests, this young cousin to dubstep, grime, and UK garage is all about bass. DJ G Notorious will spin a set of the bounceable stuff as part of his Dubwise monthly.
JACK QUARTET + HELMUT LACHENMANN | Goethe-Institut, 170 Beacon St, Boston | March 1 | 617.262.6050 | CALLITHUMPIAN CONSORT + HELMUT LACHENMANN | Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough St, Boston | March 5 | 617.585.1260 | DJ G NOTORIOUS + CDBUZ + PANDAI’A | Enormous Room, 567 Mass Ave, Cambridge | March 2 | 617.491.5550
Related:
Noise patrol, Disco lives!, Wintry mix, More 
- Noise patrol
Wednesday, the mighty Heathen Shame, one of Boston’s most ferocious bands, unleash their high-decibel mayhem at the Piano Factory in the South End.
- Disco lives!
Hard to get to but wonderful to visit, Jamaica Plain is one of the secret jewels in the Boston crown. DJ Joseph Colbourne, "Color Mix" (mp3)
- Wintry mix
There are so many interesting and unusual musical happenings this week, it's almost more than this little column can bear.
- The low end
The British rave revolution of the late ’80s/early ’90s is accurately viewed as the source of the ever increasing number of dance genres in the UK.
- Keepin' it real . . . sort of
The 2009 Boston Cyberarts Festival (April 24–May 10) includes a handful of shows that focus on computer-simulated environments, both real and imaginary.
- We {heart} Schoenberg
Now we can add James Levine’s Gurrelieder to the list of the BSO’s historic triumphs.
- High techno
A prime place to go if you wanted to hear cutting-edge and classic techno from Germany, Detroit, and beyond has been “Make It New” every Thursday at Middlesex Lounge.
- The home front
Space and place, journeys and returns structure and punctuate Jewishfilm.2006.
- Mixed signals
For those who heard German electronics maestro Felix Kubin slice the air with fried keyboards and speed-tweaked samples at Boston’s Goethe-Institut last November, his return to the States couldn’t come soon enough.
- Local lunatic
When GG Allin’s prolonged and ordurous interrogation of his own existence ended at last in June 1993, when punk rock’s abuser-in-chief finally exited the reeking stage via the trapdoor of an overdose, the informed consensus was . . . well, that’s that then.
- Blues Crews
After the first stomping instrumental of his set at the Mai Cramer Memorial Real Blues Festival, guitar hero Ronnie Earl took a moment to tell the audience that the concept of church is a gathering, a place where like-minded people come together for an invocation.
- Less
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Music Features
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, Entertainment, Music, Concerts and Tour Dates, New England Conservatory of Music, Jordan Hall, Helmut Lachenmann, DJ Notorious, Goethe-Institut, Less
