The Party (2016): I DO WHAT I WANT

On April 30th, Ensemble Dal Niente is throwing a huge party. They throw it every two years. Their first was in 2012, a collaboration with sassy scoundrel Marino Formenti. This time around, Parlour Tapes is a co-conspirator in the planning and execution and performing and VIP hour game-show hosting.

What we, PT+, do might not exist without the experience that was The Party (2012). For many of us, the way we listened to music really opened up that night. I remember lying on a mattress in the middle of the floor, eating Nik Jirasek’s gourmet popcorn and listening to Feldman next to someone I didn’t know, feeling kind of like I was in an opium den (a very fancy, less toxic opium den). I’ll be honest, I DID fall asleep for a minute during the Feldman, AND I FEEL NO SHAME ABOUT THAT. It was great. I woke up eventually, kept listening, and focused more on my own listening desires than on what I thought the composer was trying to tell me. Good, bad, I dunno, but that encounter spoiled me. From then on, I embraced that, for a lot of music and for a lot of art in general, I can effectively curate my own mental experience regardless of a piece or event’s framework. I just have to remember the feeling of the fancy opium den.

And it is that mentality (the fancy opium den mentality) that fuels our work as PT+. As an organization, we wanted the freedom to do basically whatever we want, and to curate our own experiences on a larger scale. In pursuit of that goal, we help produce the projects we're excited about, we get to work with big weirdos on a regular basis, and we’ve all found that PT+ is a place where we can access and indulge those creative crannies in the far corners of our brains that would otherwise atrophy from lack of use in our day jobs.

All of that to say that when Dal Niente approached us to play a role in this year’s Party, we were all “OMAGAAAA DUH YESSSS" and peed our pants a little. This is a primo opportunity for us to dig around in the aforementioned brain crannies.

AND SO, in grand metaphorical-opium-den fashion, this month, we bring you The Party (2016). We’re feeling very lucky that we get to be a part of it. Come out and do what you want while we do what we want (but, you know, maybe go downstairs if you feel like chatting during a really quiet piece of music—BUT OTHERWISE WOO DO YOUR OWN ADVENTURE).

* a word from co-founder J. Lyle*