Tomorrow night in Isaac Stern Auditorium, Byrne will host "Welcome to Dreamland," a program featuring a new genre of experimental folk-rock which has developed over the past few years. The performers include Vashti Bunyan, Devendra Banhart, Adem, CocoRosie, Cibelle and Vetiver.
Byrne's current project is a multimedia song cycle based on the life of Imelda Marcos, the deposed First Lady of the Philippines, in collaboration with electronic music artist Fatboy Slim. Byrne and his band perform selections from the work-in-progress on Saturday (Feb. 3) in Stern Auditorium.
The series concludes on Sunday evening in Zankel Hall with "One Note," described by by journalist Anthony DeCurtis as "cross-cultural variations on the mystical notion of the single tone that contains within itself all that music — and, indeed, all that life itself — can express." Performing will be the French "avant-pop" singer Camille; Haale, whose Sufi-inspired songs are infused with psychedelic rock; and the versatile new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound, whose expertise runs from Edgard Varse to Steve Reich to Conlon Nancarrow to techno star Aphex Twin.