Eli Keszler

For this very special evening we happily welcome Eli Keszler, as he performs solo percussion and creates a gallery installation that becomes part of the performance. Come early and stay late to view Reading Lampo, an exhibition of Lampo design, posters past, and other selections from our 15-year archive of printed matter, organized with friends at the Post Family.

In Keszler’s installation, multiple tuned and extended piano wires of varying length are extended around the space, overlapping in geometric formations and tuned in a tightly knit harmonic pattern. The wires are struck, scraped and vibrated by microprocessor-controlled mechanical arms, making harmonically complex tones that are percussive yet resonant. Keszler plays drums and percussion with the sounds from the installation.

Eli Keszler (b.1983, Brookline, Mass.) is a composer, artist and multi-instrumentalist. He began playing drums at eight, and composing at twelve. Before finding an interest in experimental music and improvisation, he played in rock and hardcore bands; his work retains an intense physicality and churning, often ferocious energy. He is a graduate of the New England Conservatory, where he studied composition with Anthony Coleman and Ran Blake. He has collaborated with Phill Niblock, Roscoe Mitchell, Tony Conrad, Joe McPhee, Christian Wolff, Loren Connors, Jandek and many others, and has recorded more than a dozen CDs and LPs for ESP-DISK, REL and PAN. His installations have appeared at Eyebeam (N.Y.C.), Boston Center for the Arts, Nuit Blanche N.Y.C. and the Shreveport MSPC New Music Festival. Additional recent projects include work at the Tectonic festival in Reykjavik with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, an installation for the Gaudeamus Festival at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, and a performance at the Barbican in London. His visual work often features dense, fine detailed drawing and painting. In 2013 he released NEUM, a book of drawings, prints and diagrams made in conjunction with his installation at the South London Gallery. Keszler lives in New York City.

Reading Lampo opens November 16, 2013 from 7-10pm at the Post Family Gallery, with the opportunity to view the show by appointment through January 17, 2014.