Transmetropolitan

Inspired by Duke Ellington’s 1971 release Afro-Eurasian Eclipse, which explored rhythmic links between African and Asian cultures, Paul Miller (DJ Spooky) organizes a live, multimedia experience to further survey what has become known as the “Fourth World”- sound environments created from different elements and hybrids of DJ culture. DJ Spooky speaks of this DJ culture as a “new jazz” and TransMetropolitan as celebrating “a different America: a place that we realize has always been hybrid, has always been mixed, and that, through music, has become a global reflection site of hope, change, and transformation.”

For this one-time only event, DJ Spooky will serve as host and performer, and lead-off the evening with a new collaborate work. Colson Whitehead, the award-winning New York-based author of The Intuitionist, will read excerpts of his work to a new video “backdrop” created by DJ Spooky and live, solo violin performance by Daniel Bernard Roumain. The program also features the music and video work of Japanese techno pioneer Ryuichi Sakamoto; live “mash up” video mixes by London’s Eclectic Method; Sri Lankan artist and activist Tanya Selvaratnam, who created the award-winning multimedia project Alladeen, accompanied by New York South Asian dance music pioneer DJ Rekha; award-winning British-Asian musician and producer Nitin Sawhney, whose work is influenced by the British pop and traditional Indian music he grew up with, as well as Latin rhythms; New York writer and new media artist Beth Coleman who will read from “Theory of Messages,” commissioned by painter Chris Ofili for his 2003 Venice Biennale exhibition catalogue, as part of a new collaboration with Pakistani playwright and conceptualist Ibrahim Quraishi and Indian-American jazz pianist and composer Vijay Iyer.