This Friday: “All Sound is Queer” at the Rotunda

Curated by filmmaker and sound artist Catherine Pancake, the All Sound is Queer event takes its name from a 2011 article penned by Matmos’ Drew Daniel in The Wire. In that piece, Daniel rebuffed the idea that LGBTQ identity should be tethered to explicitly “queer” music, whether that means Lady Gaga, house music, or pride-sneering punk. Instead, the creation of any sound art, he argues, represents a “queer” sense of creative exploration away from the norm. Make music, he suggests, and you’re automatically disrupting the status quo.

Daniel will be one of the artists on the bill at this free Bowerbird-presented show at the Rotunda in West Philadelphia on Friday June 20th, which was designed as “both a response and continuation” of that essay. The evening will also feature music, readings, and sound works by a host of artists who place experimental music in service of identity politics, including musician and artist Keir Neuringer, Alex Smith, Ex. By. V. (featuring Leah B.), writer and poet Megan McShea, John Eaton, and artist and composer Jules Gimbrone (pictured above).

Go here for more information about the event.

Below, watch a short film by Catherine Pancake, “Effortless Battle.”