BRANCA HAS ARRIVED IN EUROPE

09/12/2011 Bad Bonn Kilbi Festival Zurich CH
10/12/2011 State X Nex Forms Festival Den Hague NL
11/12/2011 Muziekclub 4AD Diksmuide BE
12/12/2011 Le Lieu Unique Nantes FR

The Glenn Branca Ensemble will be performing the music from his most recent release “The Ascension: The Sequel”.
This performance of Branca’s instrumental guitar music is in his signature octave tuning for four guitars bass and drums. This is the same instrumentation as the original “Ascension” that was released in 1981.
The pieces are: “The Tone Row That Ruled The World”, “Carbon Monoxide”, “Quadratonic”, “Lesson No. 3 (Tribute to Steve Reich)”, “The Blood” and “Lost Chords”.
Interestingly the recording of these pieces was made by the same engineer, in the same studio and the same room as the original “Ascension”, a record that is now considered by many to be the first example of Post-Rock and one of the best and most influential indie albums of it’s time.
Since then Branca has written and performed 15 symphonies for large guitar ensembles as well as symphony orchestras, but for a bit of old school ass-kicking he has returned to the small guitar ensemble to write a sequel to his most famous recording. His live performances are known for the occasional appearance of acoustic phenomena and aural hallucinations. One Dutch reviewer suggested that the sound was like Angel Choirs At The Gates Of Hell.

Branca has assembled a group of brilliant New York musicians for the ensemble. They are, on guitars: Reg Bloor, Ben Miller, Eric Hubel and Greg McMullen, on bass: Ryan Walsh, on drums: Libby Fab and conducting: Glenn Branca.