van Horen Zeggen with Alan Licht [full]

A RYM review of Alan Licht’s latest album, Havens (2024) reads: “an impressive waste of 2 huge slabs of thick vinyl: nothing happens in an American Primitive mode for over an hour”. The organisers at van Horen Zeggen couldn’t disagree more.

van Horen Zeggen describes Havens as more of a radiating 70 minute voyage “forged from the myriad possibilities arising when strings collide with electricity & space”. When Licht performed his album Currents live, he was taken by the overtones surging atop his song-like pieces. He was granted a newfound sense of possibility, infused with a rock-born urgency. By way of lightning-fast, urgent strumming gradually unfurling layers of phantom harmonics. “Celestial punk, if you will”.

Alan Licht has worked with Jim O’ Rourke, Fennesz, John Zorn & Loren Connors and has a background in curating (Tonic New York) and journalism (The WIRE, Modern Painters, Blank Forms). His musical work is marked by contrast & contradiction: maximalism versus minimalism; shredding versus abstraction; improvisation versus calculation. Peer a bit deeper and you’ll find that within that friction lies an incredibly fertile soil.

The people at van Horen Zeggen have kindly offered a limited amount of free tickets for Subbacultcha members. Please make a reservation by sending an email to mailinglist@subbacultcha.nl with ‘Alan Licht’ in the subject line + your name in the email.