Afghanistan

Antiwar songs by Afghanistan

Genres: experimental farfisa organ improv noise punk

Location: Ithaca, New York (NY)

Keir Neuringer, Ithaca, NY sax & electronics guru, layers spastic sax improv. over glitchy electronic beats & blasts of harsh wall noise. Electronics screeches merge into sax squeals. Keir has visited us a few times in the past - solo, under the moniker "The Love Story" with prog-invasion unit "Afghanistan", with his long running duo with Amsterdam's Dj Sniff and with his composition/installation piece "Dodging Bullets"
Keir Neuringer composes & improvises acoustic & electronic music, writes socio-political performance texts & essays, & creates interdisciplinary artworks, all with the aim of bringing audiences into a state of emotional & intellectual curiosity that meets the conditions for meaningful dialogue with, & transformation of, the culture at large. Over the last 25 years he has cultivated a personal & intensely physical approach to solo saxophone improvisation that honors & builds upon diverse music-making traditions. He also plays analogue electronics & farfisa organ, & sings & narrates text. He has been an active participant in the experimental music scenes in Krakow, The Hague, and Amsterdam, and currently lives in Central New York.

Keir Neuringer has been called a "drum-pounding prophet of doom, keyboard playing last poet and sax marathonist" whose "percussive riffs and musical spitfire sermons disrupt neurons and reorient thinking - and hit the gut." His solo performances weave together experimental rock, political folk, free improvisation, psych/drone, and spoken word. He performs on saxophone, in intensely physical circular breathing improvisations that honor and build upon diverse music-making traditions, or on a vintage Farfisa organ, while simultaneously drumming and singing.

Raised in New York and trained as a classical composer and multidisciplinary artist in Poland and the Netherlands, he’s created politically explicit music and art for the last decade that confronts basic contemporary dilemmas without advancing specific ideologies beyond the dictum to think critically and compassionately. He travels widely to present his work and collaborates closely in Europe with Rafal Mazur, Ensemble Klang and DJ Sniff. Among the acts he has shared bills with are Deerhoof, Faust, Peter Brotzman, Philip Jeck, CCMC (John Oswald, Michael Snow and Paul Dutton), Nat Baldwin, Arrington de Dionyso, Pamela Z, Jason Ajemian & the HighLife, powerdove, Tatsuya Nakatani, Not the Wind, Not the Flag, Nick Millevoi, and Johnny Dowd. He has improvised with Evan Parker, Misha Mengelberg, Paul Dutton, Raed Yassin, Colin Stetson, Matt Bauder, Audrey Chen, Matt Wright and others, and worked with electronic music pioneers (and former mentors) Joel Ryan, Marek Choloniewski, and Michel Waisvisz. He moved to Philadelphia in the summer of 2012.

Official Website: http://keirneuringer.com/

MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/kneuringer