SHOLEH ASGARY

The Fugue of the Cicada Songs, February 2, 2024

An evening of sound performances organized in collaboration with Cone Shape Top, on the occasion of the launch of de montañas submarinas el fuego hace islas: Reader Volume Two 

Performances by:

Sholeh Asgary (Oakland)

Amma Ateria (Oakland)

IDHAZ (San Francisco)

Joel St. Julien (San Francisco)

Jerod S. Rivera (Oakland)

transcriptions01 (Oakland)

Gabby Wen (Oakland)

Join us for an evening of sound performances by 7 experimental musicians and sound artists in collaboration with Cone Shape Top Center for Arts & Music in Oakland, in celebration of the launch of de montañas submarinas el fuego hace islas: Reader Volume Two (bilingual English and Spanish), edited by guest curator Yina Jiménez Suriel, and co-published by KADIST and Sming Sming Books.

Cone Shape Top invites performers from their Cicada Series, a series of music and sound works by contemporary composers, musicians, and sound artists distributed online. These contributors will perform in dialogue with the works on view from exhibition de montañas submarinas el fuego hace islas, curated by Yina Jiménez Suriel. The evening also marks the launch of the new music label, Cone Shape Top Imprint, with the latest contributions to its Cicada Series, by Catalina Africa (The Philippines) and transcriptions01 (Oakland). Admission is free.

Serving as ‘field notes’ to the themes explored in the exhibition: Repetition / Repetición, To fugue / Fuga, and Transmutation / Transmutación, the reader is a constellation of voices that address the interconnections between the geological, perceptual, temporal, sonic, poetic, social and political forces. It includes first-time translations of essays by Dénètem Touam Bona, Félix Servio Ducoudray, Ailton Krenak, Marilia Loureiro, Suely Rolnik, commissioned writing by Ariana Nuala, a musical score by José Maceda, an essay by Yina Jiménez Suriel, and an introduction by Jo-ey Tang.

Copies of de montañas submarinas el fuego hace islas: Reader Volume Two are available for purchase through Sming Sming Books.

de montañas submarinas el fuego hace islas: Reader Volume Two receives support from the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, University of California, Berkeley.

Reader Contributor Biographies

Dénètem Touam Bona is a writer, curator, and philosopher, who lives between Réunion and France.

Yina Jiménez Suriel is a curator and researcher based in Santiago, Dominican Republic.

Félix Servio Ducoudray (1924-1989) was a Dominican writer, journalist, and politician.

Ailton Krenak is a Brazilian writer, journalist, philosopher, and Indigenous Peoples Movement leader.

Marilia Loureiro is a Brazilian curator and researcher.

José Maceda (1917-2004) was a Filipino ethnomusicologist and composer.

Ariana Nuala is a Brazilian curator and scholar.

Suely Rolnik is a Brazilian psychoanalyst, art and cultural critic, professor and curator.

Jo-ey Tang is Director of KADIST San Francisco.

Cone Shape Top was founded in 2017 by Matt Brownell and Cat Lauigan, as an online platform and music series, and since 2019 it operates as a space and shop for experimental music and underground culture in Oakland. At the height of the global pandemic in 2020, they conceived the Cicada Series, a series of experimental new music distributed online, catalyzed from social justice movements such as Black Lives Matter, Stop AAPI Hate, and Trans Equality. The series aims to highlight and celebrate the sonic works from marginalized contemporary composers, musicians, producers, and sound artists. With the cicada, a symbol of renewal and rebirth, it seeks to shift the narrative of diversity within local music communities and beyond.

Performer biographies here.

documentation courtesy of Kadist and Cone Shape Top