Eli Keszler & So Percussion, "Archway": NPR Field Music Recordings

There is magic in pure sound. And few know that truth as well as the quartet called So Percussion and the installation artist and drummer Eli Keszler - artists who, before this spring, had never met. We thought that they might find kindred spirits in each other.
So as a matter of artistic matchmaking, we at NPR Music decided to invite them to meet and collaborate on a new work that would have its world premiere at Make Music New York, the annual summer-greeting festival of free outdoor concerts across the city. And along the way to creating a world premiere, they brought a New York landmark in as a sixth instrumental partner: the Manhattan Bridge. They named their piece Archway.
Twelve hours before the performance, the 6:30 AM installation of Keszler's piano wires, motors and processors was witnessed by only a few hardy souls. Using a scissor lift, Keszler and an assistant began the long process of fastening wires attached to two large weighted boxes to the tops of lampposts near the DUMBO Archway beneath the bridge. More wires stretched from one of the lampposts up to the Manhattan Bridge itself.
By mid-afternoon, however, the archway area began filling up not just with curious passerby who stopped for a closer look at the atypical goings-on, but audience members who arrived hours early to observe the work of So Percussion as well as Keszler and his assistants carefully calibrating and tuning the installation.
By the time that their performance rolled around at 6:30 PM, Keszler and So Percussion created fascinating layers of sound. The shimmering, nearly melodic lines produced by bowing small cymbals called crotales offset sharply articulated snare drums and the grunting roars, squonks and groans of the piano wire installation. It was urbane and thoroughly urban music for a signature city setting. --ANASTASIA TSIOULCAS
PERSONNEL:
Eli Keszler, installation & percussion
So Percussion: Eric Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski and Jason Treuting
Credits
Producers: Mito Habe-Evans and Anastasia Tsioulcas
Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait
Event Coordinator: Saidah Blount
Videographers: Parker Miles Blohm, Hannis Brown, Mito Habe-Evans, Kim Nowacki and AJ Wilhelm
Editor: Mito Habe-Evans
Special Thanks: Make Music New York, DUMBO Improvement District, New York City DOT, PAN_ACT Festival and Q2 Music
Executive Producer: Anya Grundmann.

[@jamesonboone]

Not noise, Music. It is very organized and intentional, the work of a masterpiece.

[@jbelch1987]

Thank you NPR for going in this direction! Installations and collaborations like this need to be seen, even if mainstream listeners hate on them for the next 30 years...

[@robertlewis644]

Hipster BS.

[@cjmandrake]

The piano wire sounds are very organic. They sound like some huge lumbering creature. The drums and other percussion have moments of cohesion but often sound like they are struggling to wrangle the large lumbering creature, who goes on without even noticing their existence.

[@thespungolator3421]

i love the noise that the instrument makes, reminds me of something out of a miyazaki film for some reason people can hate it, but to me there is something strangely beautiful about the randomness of sound it's a kind of otherworldly soundscape, to me it's like the sounds that you hear walking through a city on some distant planet

[@carolynschofield111]

I love how everyone commenting here is doing so under the assumption that they know what the definition of good music is, as if it can be defined

[@linski656]

Well I mean at a point there has to be some pinnacle of music that all human brains think sounds better than anything else and there isn't much that you can do about that, regardless of taste your brain will decide if something sounds good or not in the end.

[@SpaceSloth707]

I think good music doesn't really exist. What I mean with that is that what one person considers good music, someone else considers it bad music.

[@sheisstar1]

I enjoyed this... reminded me of a call to meditation.

[@pymgore]

I really like it. If it doesn't suit your understanding of what music should sound like that's fine, you could approach it more like background noise, like when you go to a forest, you might feel soothed or like the sound of the ambient background noise. It doesn't have rhythm, it's essentially random, loads of animals doing their thing, with some wind, some leaves, but it creates a kind of immersive atmosphere of sound that still affects you. i feel like some of the effect is lost in the video, but being at this performance surrounded by these twitching wires and seeing these guys just exploring the sounds they can make with these instruments/objects looks like it created a kind of urban, industrial version of that forest feeling. i think that's part of what he meant when he was talking about the line between an instrument and an object, or what you interpret as music and what you interpret as just the background noise of something 'architectural'. idk that was what i felt

[@chervon9517]

This is beautiful.

[@drinner]

oh boy was feelin it at 11:15

[@WGBHMusic]

Gotta applaud the effort.

[@pacificbudz]

I was really waiting for something to happen.

[@robertlewis4794]

Who still listening in 2024 ???

[@hrlarson]

Love it!

[@dmbassa]

Less theory. More doing.

[@drinner]

I love this comment.

[@user-ob9zo9cr4c]

your life is only good in theory.

[@mauchette]

très original comme expérience ….(°:°) wahoooo tous ces sons nouveaux surprenants magiques fascinants et si doux à écouter !!! le public aussi est tombé sous le charme… bravo pour cette très belle initiative .. thankS NPR pour la qualité de ce film et du partage !! (sourire clin d’œil)

[@CraigThePoet]

close your eyes and just listen.

[@shirvy]

Wow!!!!! I. Cannot believe I sat through that, what da fuck!!!

[@MegaCheezy123]

There's a fine line between abstract and bullshitting.

[@toluo9468]

"Dude is trying so hard" - too true - ohmy - tears

[@billyharja3923]

I Hear Darth Vader Snoring in Chamber. That's should be the name of the Band....

[@arakiaramaki]

awesome

[@masso123456]

let freedom to express themselves enjoy the openness listen the world in his complexity or go elsewhere, you can tnx npr, i listen all of your music "offer", from france :)

[@MattThompsons]

cool cool

[@2m7b5]

"Gather 'round kids, and witness the hipster in it's natural habitat."

[@paulcartographer]

future.

[@flemingfamily]

I wanted to like this... Love to artists who try something totally new, different. And I love the vision here. But wow, painfully boring...

[@perkuskamui]

I kept waiting for something to happen. and then at 14:38 it happened

[@FesterWerks]

Interesting

[@aikighost]

Name your favourite genre, Id like to write to NPR and say they spend too much money on promoting you favourite music style too....

[@dregan1061]

"...take impotency away from something?" What the hell are you talking about?

[@folkelk]

To me, this is not music. There is no feeling, it's just sound.

[@eddiemoore6216]

Sounds makes music that contributed to making you the sound of silence

[@iendi1910]

Hipster 2.0

[@09amlenz]

the hell did I just watch.

[@Youcantleavethisempty01]

SAY NO TO DRUGS

[@TheMrlilcreepz]

this isnt rly something to entertain, its like lil sounds that you listen to meditate. if youve seen monks meditate they hit little objects that makes sounds similar to this

[@jaythan4534]

sry, it similar but no way the same or comparable. the things that they use for monks have a constant rhythm and beat to it, more slow, and peacefull. ill say this would be good if you use it for a horror movie/game and not for display or concert. though there are those ART. concerts where the pianist plays then hit the strings individually with his fingers than playing it on the white keys....OR the famous..dont play shit for 4 mins. cause thats a song apparently.

[@rollerblaker]

dude is trying so hard

[@zaratustra0001]

l gave it a try but l didnt like it

[@JoeBrautigam]

its a cool idea but the instrument he made just didn't sound good...sry

[@shahrass]

give back my 15minutes!

[@mgreen19]

Its been 2 years and I still hate it

[@shammaboy]

all the time, effort, and planning that went into this and it sucked. Just a few hipsters making noise.

[@kscottbradley]

Anticlimactic.

[@TheCandidemusic]

hahahahahahahaha XD i mean importance..... sorry

[@No1ANTAGON1ST]

Yeah this is just a poor execution all together.

[@isaacturnercreativeideas]

ehh....

[@bauerm85]

xD thats really studip... i like music but this :DDDD

[@paskoxbox]

not impressed

[@CamBaldeon]

this is great! but sucks just as much.

[@mgreen19]

Sounds like utter shit. I wonder if the crowd "gets it" or if they are as pissed as I would be to sit through that.

[@dregan1061]

Self indulgent hipster nonsense.

[@Jay-fq8uz]

I understand music is evolving everyday but wtf is this shit

[@rodrigomadrid69]

cero gracia... fomeeeeeee......

[@snailz]

wtf ?

[@toluo9468]

@cameronmandrake dude.... What? That's garbage - you're just trying to project whatever the heck it is you're day dreaming onto this - what if I said this made me feel like a unicorn locked me on the nostril, I bet you'd agree that's what this video is all abt. Dude - c'mon - that's crap - these are just some guys trying so hard (trying SO hard) - I like "hipster" music - but this is just garbage - Cameron, c'mon.

[@justinarends6374]

Hipsters making noise.

[@rebelrevolution22]

theres absolutely no rhythm or beat or even any pattern like i absolutly love experimental music especially that which involves objects and structures but this was a joke one guy just decided to use his keys for texture at one point yeah i want to unwatch this

[@polytekton]

you're not listening...

[@jaythan4534]

this just means you are not high enough bro. here...take another hit ^^ . as a violin player, it hurts to see them hold the bow like that .

[@pilotof787]

+Gerardo Sim They're not playing a violin, they're using an extended percussion technique.

[@jaythan4534]

Devin FitzGerald lol, funny joke troll :P.

[@randamlife28]

Can we keep this to the tiny desk with real artists please.

[@Destroy1640]

I hope you realize NPR has mainly shifted to "hipster" music standpoint, based off the artists they show.