The Goo 1
Can you tell me a little about how you’ll be pres
enting the work? I write on the piano, but I don’t really play. I’ve always been lucky enough to work with really great pianists, but myself, I don’t have the confidence to play in public. I’d be stopping and starting, but I can do it in the comfort of my own home with nobody listening. So as I say, I can write on the piano. I’ve written short passages, and some longer pieces that I’ve recorded that I’ll be playing off, and improvising with delay pedals, reverb, and loops, those sort of things. I’ve also got a couple of pieces of hand percussion,so I’m throwing myself into unknown territory. Joanna Mattrey Celebrated violist/composer/ multimedia artist Joanna Mattrey has worked with some of the most remarkable composers and musicians her former home, New York, has ever seen, including John Zorn, Elliot Sharp and Henry Threadgill. Her new work, ‘Battle Ready II’ “asks that the performers play for those who have no voice. What can you tell me about ‘Battle Ready II’? In a lot of ways, it’s a protest piece, or an anti war piece. It’s definitely a response to the times. As well as a lament as well as it is angry. I’m half Arabic, half American. I’ve had my first cousins have had to flee, you know, Lebanon in the past year. It’s just been a time of rage and confusion. At the same time,as an American, the shocking censorship that even us as artists are feeling. I never thought I’d see the kind of censorship and repression that I see in New York. New York always felt like kind of a safe haven for a lot of the policies of the rest of the country. That’s really changed this year. There’s a lot of mourning. Mourning the things I believed about where we were as humans, and a period of great learning about the horrors of reality for so many people. When you’re within the imperial core, you can be shielded from it in a place 6 of privilege. I think a lot of folks are reckoning with that. So it’s a matter of “how can I add to the world at this terrible time”? That’s an important question. I think that’s a question a lot of artists are asking themselves. I also feel an immense privilege being here in Ireland, where there’s such a consensus around Palestine and anti war conviction, and feeling safe doing work with this theme. Even within Europe, you might not find that kind of freedom. I was very honored for the IMC and taking the chance on my work having a political theme. You see censorship all across festivals, and it is terrifying to see. Who are you playing with for the performance? I’m playing as part of a quartet with Larissa O’Grady, Nick Ross, and Simon German. I’m having a ball writing parts for these people, because I can literally write anything, and these folks are gonna just throw down so hard on this music. It’s really, really cool to find people who are very excited both as improvisers and as readers, because that’s not a super common thing. I’ve kind of been spending the better part of the last fifteen years in those in between spaces. So it feels really exciting to me, I moved here a little more than a year ago and to have this opportunity and get to really work with such outrageous musicians, you know, it’s very inspiring. I’m very honored. Very honored, I’m going to be working as hard as I can till that show, to do the best piece I can. New Music Dublin takes place between the National Concert Hall, The Complex and The Cooler over April 2nd to April 6th. BAN BAM takes place in The Complex at 9.30pm on April 3rd. Tickets and programme information can be found at https://www.newmusicdublin.ie/ Don’t miss out.