Zubin Kanga performs Philip Venables’ extraordinary and moving Answer Machine Tape, 1987, for solo piano and Augmented Instruments Lab’s KeyScanner technology at Transit Festival in Leuven, Belgium.

Read about Venables’ powerful work about the AIDS crisis in 1980s New York here →

For more information and tickets, visit the festival website →

Zubin Kanga performs a programme of pieces exploring technology's ability to augment musical instruments and composition. The programme features Answer Machine Tape, 1987 along with other pieces exploring futuristic new technologies and new pianistic possibilities. Kanga’s own Steel on Bone uses motion sensor gloves and knitting needles to generate great surges of cavernous sound. Vicentino, love you (Oliver Leith) is a set of microtonal pieces for keyboard and synthesiser - and DEVIANCE (Emily Howard), a tribute to Ada Lovelace, uses brain data and machine learning to explore connections between music and mind. All four works were commissioned as part of Kanga’s multi-year music and research project, Cyborg Soloists. Vicentino, love you and DEVIANCE appear on Kanga’s latest album, Cyborg Pianist (NMC Recordings).

More information and bookings on the Oxford Contemporary Music website →

Zubin Kanga performing Philip Venables’ Answer Machine Tape, 1987

Zubin Kanga will be performing Philip Venables’ extraordinary and moving Answer Machine Tape, 1987, for solo piano and Augmented Instruments Lab’s KeyScanner technology at Musica Festival in Strasbourg.

Read about Venables’ powerful work about the AIDS crisis in 1980s New York here →

For more information and tickets, visit the Musica Festival website.

Zubin will also be performing this piece at 7pm on the same day.

Zubin Kanga performing Philip Venables’ Answer Machine Tape, 1987

Zubin Kanga will be performing Philip Venables’ extraordinary and moving Answer Machine Tape, 1987, for solo piano and Augmented Instruments Lab’s KeyScanner technology at Musica Festival in Strasbourg.

Read about Venables’ powerful work about the AIDS crisis in 1980s New York here →

For more information and tickets, visit the Musica Festival website.

Zubin will also be performing this work at 10pm on the same day.

Zubin Kanga performs Philip Venables’ Answer Machine Tape, 1987 at Paris Autumn Festival.

Answer Machine Tape, 1987 is a major new work for piano and multimedia by Philip Venables, created in collaboration with dramatist Ted Huffman and programmer Simon Hendry. It focuses on New York visual artist and AIDS activist David Wojnarowicz and the turbulent period leading up to the death of Peter Hujar – his former lover, close friend and fellow artist – from an AIDS-related illness in 1987. The work’s focal point is Wojnarowicz’s answering machine tape from the days leading up to Hujar’s death, featuring calls from Hujar, other artists, friends and lovers, exploring his life, that period of the New York art scene, queer history and the AIDS crisis.

Answer Machine Tape, 1987 uses new sensor technology – the Keyscanner created by the Augmented Instruments Laboratory – allowing the piano to function not just as an acoustic instrument, but as a typewriter to transcribe, comment on and illuminate the messages. This is a work that is enigmatic and meditative, opening a door for the audience and beckoning them to take a step inside. We eavesdrop into a private world; messages are transliterated into a musical fabric, becoming character studies, becoming reflections on a community, becoming attempts to decipher meaning. Transcription, and its failure in the face of extreme difficulty, becomes a poignant metaphor for the AIDS crisis and its devastating effect on a generation.

For tickets (from 9 September 2022) and links to the full festival programme, visit the Paris Autumn website

Cyborg Soloists’ Director, pianist Zubin Kanga presents the UK premiere of Answer Machine Tape, 1987 at hcmf// 2022. Answer Machine Tape, 1987 is a major new work for piano and multimedia by Philip Venables, created in collaboration with dramatist Ted Huffman and programmer Simon Hendry. It focuses on New York visual artist and AIDS activist David Wojnarowicz and the turbulent period leading up to the death of Peter Hujar – his former lover, close friend and fellow artist – from an AIDS-related illness in 1987. The work’s focal point is Wojnarowicz’s answering machine tape from the days leading up to Hujar’s death, featuring calls from Hujar, other artists, friends and lovers, exploring his life, that period of the New York art scene, queer history and the AIDS crisis.

Answer Machine Tape, 1987 uses new sensor technology – the Keyscanner created by the Augmented Instruments Laboratory – allowing the piano to function not just as an acoustic instrument, but as a typewriter to transcribe, comment on and illuminate the messages. This is a work that is enigmatic and meditative, opening a door for the audience and beckoning them to take a step inside. We eavesdrop into a private world; messages are transliterated into a musical fabric, becoming character studies, becoming reflections on a community, becoming attempts to decipher meaning. Transcription, and its failure in the face of extreme difficulty, becomes a poignant metaphor for the AIDS crisis and its devastating effect on a generation.

For tickets (from 9 September 2022) and links to the full festival programme, visit hcmf//’s website

Zubin Kanga performs Philip Venables’ Answer Machine Tape, 1987 at November Music in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands.

This major new work for piano and multimedia has been created in collaboration with dramatist Ted Huffman, programmer Simon Hendry and Zubin Kanga. It focuses on New York visual artist David Wojnarowicz and the turbulent period leading up to the death of Peter Hujar, Wojnarowicz’s close friend and fellow artist, from AIDS-related illness in 1987. It uses a transcription of Wojnarowicz’s answering machine tape in the days leading up to Hujar’s death, featuring calls from Hujar, other artists, friends and lovers, to explore not just his life, but that period of the New York art scene, queer history and the AIDS crisis.

Using the KeyScanner, new sensor technology from the Augmented Instruments Lab, the piano will function both as an acoustic instrument and as a typewriter to transcribe sections of tape onto the screen, as well as acting as a controller to add electronic sound and light, combining in an integrated solo multimedia performance.

The result is a powerful and poignant work that reflects on queer history and what it is to be a queer person today.

Visit the November Music website for full details of the performance and ticket sales

Zubin Kanga premieres Philip Venables’ Answer Machine Tape, 1987, commissioned for Cyborg Soloists, at Time of Music Festival in Finland. This major new work for piano and multimedia has been created in collaboration with dramatist Ted Huffman, programmer Simon Hendry and Zubin Kanga. It focuses on New York visual artist David Wojnarowicz and the turbulent period leading up to the death of Peter Hujar, Wojnarowicz’s close friend and fellow artist, from AIDS-related illness in 1987. It uses a transcription of Wojnarowicz’s answering machine tape in the days leading up to Hujar’s death, featuring calls from Hujar, other artists, friends and lovers, to explore not just his life, but that period of the New York art scene, queer history and the AIDS crisis.

Using the KeyScanner, new sensor technology from the Augmented Instruments Lab, the piano will function both as an acoustic instrument and as a typewriter to transcribe sections of tape onto the screen, as well as acting as a controller to add electronic sound and light, combining in an integrated solo multimedia performance.

The result is a powerful and poignant work that reflects on queer history and what it is to be a queer person today.

Visit the Time of Music Festival website for more information and to book tickets to this premiere performance.