About this Event
COSMISM is a monthly performance event series of live music organized by China Institute Next Gen x Serica (CINGS). Curated by Chamberlain Zhang, this event creates a transformative sonic experience featuring emerging artists and performers living and visiting New York rooted in Asian heritage. COSMISM aims to be an ongoing social experiment, developing a communal intention of listening and transforming, giving shape to our community in which everyone contributes in their own way.
The performance will be introduced by curators or intellectuals who specialize in theories or practices of performance and contemporary art, followed by an interview with the artist. A reception with light food and drinks will follow each event.
We invited Brooklyn-based duo NOMON for our second performance in the COSMISM series.
Artists
NOMON
Shayna and Nava Dunkelman are musicians and percussionists currently based in Brooklyn, NY. After spending years apart working on their own unique voices, they came together in 2018 to form NOMON.
Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan to an Indonesian mother and an American father, the sisters became multi-instrumentalists performing alongside their mother, a musician and composer active in Asia and the Middle East.
They are strongly drawn to the dance-like movements and flow of playing percussion. It is as visual as it is aural. The trajectory of the hands and sticks, the shift of body weight, the eyes aiming to strike - The physicality of the performance has a choreographic quality as it is. The body follows a sequence of movements when immersed in playing the array of percussive instruments surrounding it.
The music lives in the intersection of electronic soundscapes and intricately composed percussion parts. They combine drum machines, vocal samples, synth melodies, and modular synthesizers triggered by analog sensors with carefully chosen percussion sounds to create a cohesive interweaving of the electronic and acoustic elements. The seamless blend of the two worlds is essential to their music.
When composing, they are inspired by industrial music, avant-garde percussion improvisation, rhythms, and sounds from their cultural background (Japan and Indonesia) and contemporary electronic music that incorporates voices instrumentally.
In addition to solo performances, Shayna toured with Pulitzer Award-Winning and Grammy-nominated composer Du Yun, Balún, Ali Sethi, and Grammy Award-winning ensemble Attacca Quartet among others. Nava is a member of the electro-percussion experimental noise duo IMA, and has performed or collaborated with Fred Frith, John Zorn, William Winant, Ikue Mori, Brandon Seabrook, Angélica Negrón, Pauchi Sasaki, and Gabby Fluke-mogul and many others.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
China Institute in America, 100 Washington Street, New York, United States
USD 0.00 to USD 20.00
