Terminal Affirmative is the opening track of James Ilgenfritz's 2019 release You Scream A Rapid Language. This video, recorded in 2019 by Yuri Zupancic, feat...

Renegade William Burroughs is known for his challenging and hallucinatory prose as well as his deeply experimental streak. He helped to pioneer the art form of Cut-Ups, repurposing of previously published materials into new art forms. In celebration of the publication of The Travel Agency is on Fire edited by Alex Wermer Colan, EiO commissioned 11 new compositions for ensemble and voice based on Burroughs' Cut-Ups of modern writers including Arthur Rimbaud, Jean Genet and F Scott Fitzgerald among others. These 11 new works were premiered by James Ilgenfritz's Anagram Ensemble featuring vocalists Megan Schubert, Amirtha Kidambi, Nathaniel Adams and Michael Douglas Jones. Burroughs' texts challenged the commissioned composers to reorganize their musical work around non-linear narratives and ideas and embrace a logic of sound and experience. Premiere performance: October 17, 2016 at the Stone, NYC. Commissioned Composers: Jason Cady, Natacha Diels, Anne Guthrie, James Ilgenfritz, Travis Just, Lukas Ligeti, Charlie Looker, Elliott Sharp, Aaron Siegel, JG Thirlwell, and Katie Young. The Travel Agency is on Fire event was produced with the support of the Center for the Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center. ---- Anagram Ensemble James Ilgenfritz - director, basses Brian Chase - drumset, percussion Jonathan Singer - vibraphone, percussion James Moore - guitar Pauline Kim Harris - violin Sarah Bernstein - violin Megan Schubert - soprano Amirtha Kidambi - soprano Nathaniel Adams - tenor Michael Douglas Jones - baritone Nathan Koci - conductor Anagram Ensemble integrates the performance practice of improvisers with that of a new music ensemble. Self-sufficient enterprise drove the radical experimentalism of last quarter of the 20th century, from the radical performance practices of the 70s to the post-No Wave energy of the 1980s. It is this tradition that influences the direction of the Anagram Ensemble. Rather than to simply incorporate improvisation into a concert setting, or to incorporate musical forms of concert music into an improvisational setting, Anagram designs each new project to incorporate musical and conceptual elements of multiple musical traditions, all while incorporating esoteric texts and concepts from the literary and philosophical worlds, as well as unorthodox traditions in the visual and performance art world.

World Premiere at James Ilgenfritz Stone Residency at the New School. Featuring the New Thread Saxophone Quartet: Geoffrey Landman, Kristen McKeon, Erin Roge...