Be Here Now: Contact @ EMPAC at RPI, 9/3/09

Canadian new music ensemble Contact performs a program titled “Elevated,” featuring an evening of compositions by Pulitzer Prize winner and Bang On a Can co-founder David Lang.

The live musical performances will accompany a set of short films. Or is it the other way around?

Included in the evening’s presentation will be “Wed,” a delicate solo piano piece set to a film by artist (and dog lover) William Wegman. Filmmaker Bill Morrison contributes the visuals to “How to Pray,” with guitar and cello weaving a sinuous soundtrack atop a martial drumbeat. Lang has also re-invented the Velvet Underground’s seminal classic, “Heroin,” as a meditative piece for voice and solo cello.

Other featured filmmakers include Matt Mullican, Doug Aitken and the fabulous Guy Maddin.

Sounds like a hypnotic evening of sounds and visions.

Contact performs at EMPAC at RPI in Troy on Thursday, September 3.