An eclectic collection of electronic music and musicians from the Roulette Archives. Computer-assisted, custom gadgetry, sampling, processing, synthesizers, theremin, turntables, and alligator clip wizardry through the “ages”.

Three Ring Circuits

A collection of Roulette concert excerpts by Black artists whose work has helped redefine conceptions of the avant-garde and highlight the contributions of avant-jazz composition and improvisation to the evolution of experimental music.

Excerpts from the Black Avant-Garde

Roulette's 28-minute* podcasts contain concert excerpts from the Roulette Archive and artist interviews. Produced by David Weinstein and Susan James. The series is a Webby Award Honoree! Please subscribe, share, like, and listen! (*and some longer specials.)

The Roulette Tapes (Podcast)

ROULETTE at The Lot

Excerpts and highlights from the Roulette Concert Archives of 3,000 adventurous and avant garde performances collected since 1980. Based in Brooklyn, NY visit roulette.org for the current schedule. The complete, unedited concert recordings can be found at www.roulette.org/archive. The Roulette podcast collection is now posted as a playlist, The Roulette Tapes.

Staff Picks & Archive Highlights

The composer/guitarist and MacArthur “genius” awardee discusses everything from guitar tech to string quartets, illustrated with musical excerpts from Roulette Archive concerts including the projects Code Girl, Thumbscrew, a duo with Deerhhoof’s John Dietrich, and collaborators Ches Smith, Jonathan Finlayson, Amirtha Kidambi, John Hébert, Michael Formanek, Tomas Fujiwara, Adam O’Farrill, and Jon Irabagon. Halvorson’s latest projects debut at Roulette Sept. 8-9, 2021.

roulette.org

Mary Halvorson: Untangled Strings

Composer Lea Bertucci's collaborative works and solos for saxophone and bass clarinet are often layered and processed through unusual methods, including archaic tape recorders and multichannel configurations. Fascinated by acoustic phenomenon, Bertucci is as likely to perform in a club as in a cave or handball court. Solo and ensemble works are explored in this program, with comments from the artist on technique, technology, and adventurism. Bertucci’s 2022 album, Murmurations, is on Bandcamp.

Lea Bertucci: Trespassing

Distinguished composer, multi-instrumentalist, and bandleader Henry Threadgill discusses the making of a new orchestral multimedia work and all the history that played into it. With musical examples from his bands Zooid and Double Up including excerpts from a premiere at Roulette that earned him a 2016 Pulitzer Prize. The new piece unfolds at Roulette May 20-21, 2022.

Roulette Intermedium // roulette.org

Henry Threadgill: On One

Roulette Intermedium, in Downtown Brooklyn (509 Atlantic Ave) has been presenting live  experimental music, movement, and media since 1978. Here, they pull from their extensive recording archives as well as present work from some of their most exciting emerging and established artists for a set that spans genres and decades.

https://www.instagram.com/roulette_intermedium/

ROULETTE @ The Lot Radio 11 - 13 - 2022

Roulette Intermedium, in Downtown Brooklyn (509 Atlantic Ave) has been presenting live experimental music, movement, and media since 1978. Here, they pull from their extensive recording archives as well as present work from some of their most exciting emerging and established artists for a set that spans genres and decades.

https://www.instagram.com/roulette_intermedium

ROULETTE at The Lot @ The Lot Radio 12 - 11 - 2022

Excerpts from Roulette concerts by improvising activist guitarist Derek Bailey, with commentary by musician/professor/author David Grubbs (Records Ruin The Landscape). Emerging from the London free improv scene, between 1986-99 Bailey tapped New York musicians to engage in his wildly diverse Company Weeks, in groupings and pairings with John Zorn (sax), Carlos Zingaro (violin), Ikue Mori (electronic percussion), Jim Staley (trombone), Ciro Baptiste (percussion), Jamaladeen Tacuma (bass), Calvin Weston (drums), Susie Ibarra (percussion), Richard Teitelbaum (electronics), and Greg Bendian (percussion). John Zorn is honoring Derek Bailey with three Nights of Improvisation at Roulette, Jan. 19-21, 2023.

David Grubbs: On Derek Bailey

Roulette, Brooklyn's home for experimental music, movement, and media, features special guest Wendy Eisenberg, an improviser, songwriter and 2023 resident artist.

http://www.instagram.com/roulette_intermedium

ROULETTE with Wendy Eisenberg @ The Lot Radio 01 - 08 - 2023

A set that will feature projects produced by the incomparable Hal Willner, in advance of next month’s long-awaited NY premiere performance of Amarcord Nino Rota. The late producer’s first “concept” album brought together an eclectic group of musicians to take a variety of approaches to the composer Nino Rota’s music for the films of Federico Fellini. Plus a look ahead at this season's featured artists.

http://www.instagram.com/roulette_intermedium

Roulette Intermedium @ The Lot Radio 03-05-2023

Violinist/violist, vocalist, composer, improviser, and interdisciplinary Brooklyn-based performing artist yuniya edi kwon in excerpts from three appearances at Roulette: the solo UMMA-YA; JUNI ONE SET: Boy mother/faceless bloom (with Senga Nengudi, Crow Nishimura, Joshua Kohl); and tombstar (with Isabel Crespo Pardo, Zekkereya El-magharbel, Lesley Mok). The artist provides commentary on the influence and embrace of ritual, ceremony, Butoh, queer and trans Korean shamans, and cultural traditions and challenges. kwon returns to Roulette with a new project on 19 May 2023.

Roulette.org/radio

yuniya edi kwon: Functional Magic

Composer/trombonist Peter Zummo in remembrances of longtime collaborator composer/cellist Arthur Russell (1951-92) illustrated with excerpts from a musically ethereal and emotionally charged 1985 concert at Roulette. Produced by Beck Zegans, this special edition is a major contribution to the legacy of the unpredictable, calculated, and disciplined work of a treasured artist and the complex, emergent scene that both misunderstood and nurtured the work. Listen to the full, unedited performance at roulette.org/event/arthur-russell. Photo: Tom Lee.

Arthur Russell: The Peter Zummo Reflections

The cross-genre and multidisciplinary Czech composer/performer (accordion, hichiriki, synthesizer, harmonica, voice, dance) walks us through three performances commissioned through Roulette: Opera, a multimedia piece; a solo performance, Spectacle; and the installation/performance, Pieces from Darkness. Vítková returns to Roulette 16 Nov 2023 to revisit their Opera concept.

Lucie Vítková: Embodied

Composer and multi-instrumentalist John King (viola, guitar, electronics) in excerpts and commentary from six appearances at Roulette where his solo, small and large ensemble, and "politically tinged" works have appeared since the mid-1980s. This program features performances with collaborators including vocalist Gelsey Bell, bassist William Parker, violist Joanna Mattrey, Crucible String Quartet, TILT Brass, Cornelius Dufallo’s Secret Quartet, The String Orchestra of Brooklyn, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and one of his scores for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

Roulette Concert Archive // roulette.org

John King: Free Radicals

Vocalist, composer, and electronic musician Charmaine Lee with commentary on and excerpts from four performances at the Roulette concert hall in Brooklyn from 2017-2021 with bits of the works Ceremony and Papillae, an appearance at the Resonant Bodies Festival, plus solos and collaborations with violist Joanna Mattrey, cellist Lester St. Louis, trumpeter Nate Wooley, and electronics with Conrad Tao. Raised by Hong Kong émigrés in Australia, educated at Princeton and New England Conservatory, Charmaine Lee is now a major contributor to the New York experimental music scene. A recipient of Roulette’s Van Lier Fellowship, Lee returns to Roulette as part of the Mixology Festival on 10 Feb. 2024.

Charmaine Lee: The Edge of Nowhere

The composer Ches Smith in a collection of excerpts from performances at Roulette featuring Smith on drums, percussion, vibraphone, drum machine, and electronics. The artist provides background on his wide-ranging band projects including a Haitian ceremonial concert with drummer Daniel Brevil plus ensembles with Bill Frisell, guitar; Craig Taborn, piano; Matt Maneri, viola; Mary Halvorson, guitar; Devin Hoff, bass, and many more stellar players. Smith’s 2024 album, Laugh Ash, will be celebrated in a release concert at Roulette on March 20, 2024.

Ches Smith: Another Language

Bassist, composer, and improviser Brandon Lopez in solo, duo, and ensemble works recorded at Roulette alongside the artist's commentary on technique, process, influences, and the unexpected. With appearances by collaborators Steve Baczkowski (sax), gabby fluke-mogul and Marina Kifferstein (violins), Nate Wooley (trumpet), Michael Foster (sax), Ben Bennett, (percussion), Gerald Cleaver (drums), and Cecilia Lopez (electronics). The title Lopez refers to looks like this: vilevilevilevilevile...

Brandon Lopez: Digging Deep

The cellist/composer/improviser in commentary with excerpts from several performances at Roulette: his own Transfer 01 and Metahaven projects; collaborative works with guitarist Wendy Eisenberg, drummer Ryan Sawyer, vocalist Charmaine Lee, violist Joanna Mattrey; and yuniya edi kwon's Sun Han Guild. St. Louis has also worked with jaimie branch, Isabel Crespo Pardo, Ka Baird, the Vision Festival, and for Spectrum, the Brooklyn experimental arts venue.

Lester St. Louis: The Naked Cello

Admired as a bold saxophonist (and also sometimes guitarist, vocalist, pianist), composer Zoh Amba traces a journey from a difficult Tennessee childhood to musical and spiritual revelation. The remarks are coupled with excerpts from two performances at Roulette: the Bhakti project (2022, with Micah Thomas, piano; Thomas Morgan, bass; Marc Edwards, drums; and Matt Hollenberg, guitar) and Sun Quartet (2024, with Lex Korten, piano; Caroline Morton, bass; and Miguel Marcel Russell, drums). The Quartet emerged from a Roulette commission and is built using graphic scores and variations of devotional hymns.

Zoh Amba: Musical Souls

Improvisers John Zorn (alto sax, game calls) and Michihiro Sato (shamisen, three-stringed banjo-like instrument) in a 1985 performance at Roulette. Rescued from a reel-to-reel tape and documenting an early chapter in the downtown improv scene, the concert came shortly after the release of the duo's album Ganru Island, since re-released on Tzadik Records.

John Zorn & Michihiro Sato: Samurai Memory

Bassist, composer, and activist Luke Stewart is best known as an accomplished  jazz musician, but he is also an innovator of techniques incorporating feedback as an extension of his sound. This edition features Stewart’s commentary on his musical trajectory as well as the role of liberation politics in music. With excerpts from the Feedback Ensemble with cellist Leila Bordreuil, and the composition “Assassinations” with ensemble Irreversible Entanglements. Stewart also discusses his Silt Trio with Brian Settles, sax, and drummers Trae Crudup and Chad Taylor. Stewart presents that trio at Roulette as part of an album release concert for "Unknown Rivers" on 12 Sept. 2024.

Luke Stewart: Liberation

Composer, harpist, and multi-instrumentalist Zeena Parkins introduces the projects Phantom Orchard with electronic percussion artist Ikue Mori and a duo with electronic sound artist Laetitia Sonami. Alongside excerpts from performances at Roulette, Parkins discuses process, technique, and history. Parkins returns to Roulette on Oct. 24, 2024 with Ikue Mori and their Phantom Orchard project.

Roulette. org

Zeena Parkins: Visible Sound

A project launched by Tim Spelios and David Weinstein in the 80s, Impossible Music features cutup, montaged, recycled material, lopsided grooves, appropriated, restored, or reconstituted audio, new and legacy technologies, loops of contrasting and colliding musics, sound effects, disembodied vocal tracks, and noise merged into panoramic constructions. Illustrated with a 2004 performance at Roulette and artist commentary. Photo by Beatriz Cardoso Guimarães.

Impossible Music: On & Off

Excerpts from two performances at Roulette by drummer, composer, improviser, activist organizer Lesley Mok with commentary by the artist. "she smashed the enclosure" from 2020 features composer Mok with Charmaine Lee, voice; Maya Keren, piano, voice; Aliya Ultan, cello, voice. "a bird in its chest" from 2022 features Ultan, Joanna Mattrey, viola; Cleek Schrey, violin; David Leon, sax; Yuma Uesaka, reeds. The aerialists! mentioned in the piece are Gabrielle “Teddy” Ment, Eleanor Getz, Georgie Johnson, and Copper Santiago.  Mok returns to Roulette on 20 Dec 2024 with “The Living Collection”, a 10-piece band that crosses musical communities.

Lesley Mok: Singing Drums

Composer/performer and instrument maker Ellen Fullman describes the origins and development of her Long Strong Instrument; dozens of strings running 40 feet or more, excited by longitudinal vibration in just intonation. The artist’s commentary is illustrated with samples from rare recordings and releases with cellist Theresa Wong, the JACK String Quartet, and others. Fullman and Wong return to Roulette with the full installation on 30-31 Jan. 2025 with a workshop on 29 Jan.

Ellen Fullman: The Miracle Bubbles

The music of composer Shamar Watt (aka BongoWattZ), whose work incorporates everything from techno to gospel, ecstatic movement, and manipulated light, with excerpts from the artist's archive alongside commentary on his Jamaican heritage, spirituality, technology, and noise. Watt performs at Roulette on March 1, 2025 as part of the annual Mixology Festival and again on March 13 with Lester St. Louis.

Shamar Watt: Superposition

The Palestinian-born US resident singer Nibal Malshi in excerpts and commentary on selections from the 20th-century classical Arab repertoire of the Levantine – Egyptian region, highlighting songs performed by female singers from Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon. In 2021 Malshi performed at Roulette with an ensemble led by master qanun (zither) player Firas Zreik with Zafer Tawil on oud (lute), John Murchison on bass, Johnny Farraj on riqq (small frame drum), and Gilbert Mansour on tabla. In 2023 the ensemble was again Mansour and Murchison led by master violinist Gabriel Dahrieh with Maurice Chedid (oud) and Eddy Fadel (percussion). Portions of these recordings were co-presented by Roulette, Brooklyn Maqam, and Robert Browning Associates, who have been bringing music of the world to New York venues for decades. Malshi returns to Roulette on March 15, 2025.

Nibal Malshi: Arabic Blessings

The music of Bobby Previte and ensembles recorded between 1987 and 2018 at the Roulette performance spaces in New York. Admired as both a drummer and composer, Previte is also one the great raconteurs of the downtown experimental music scene. We'll hear the 1987 band with Marty Ehrlich (reeds),Tom Varner (horn), Wayne Horvitz (keys), Dave Hofstra (bass); a trio from 1994 with Horvitz (piano & electronic keyboards), and Skerik (tenor sax & electronics); and the Rhapsody Band from 2018 with Nels Cline (acoustic guitars), John Medeski, (piano), Zeena Parkins (harp), Jen Shyu (voice and erhu fiddle), Fabian Rucker (alto sax), and the composer on drums, autoharp, electronics, and percussion.

Bobby Previte: The Circular Machine

Swiss-born pianist/composer in commentary and excerpts from four performances at Roulette: A trio with percussionist Kenny Wollesen and bassist Drew Gress (2016, 2020), Amalthea (aka Poppy Seeds)  (2024) with Patricia Brennan, vibes; Thomas Morgan, bass, Dan Weiss, drums, and 
Chimaera (2022) with Christian Fennesz, electronics; Nate Wooley, trumpet; plus Wollesen (vibes) and Gress.

Sylvie Courvoisier: The Curious Pianist

The music of Shahzad Ismaily, a multi-instrumentalist widely admired for his mastery of the bass guitar and drum set in solos, collaborations, and groups across genres. The program features the artist’s remarks on personal history, spiritual growth, and musical projects alongside excerpts from several performances at Roulette: a duo with guitarist Indigo Street, a vocal duo with Arooj Aftab, and in an ensemble led by composer/percussionist Ches Smith. Shahzad returns to Roulette with Marc Ribot on June 11, 2025.

Shahzad Ismaily

Shahzad Ismaily: The Space of Not Knowing

Composer and trumpet player Wadada Leo Smith in commentary and concert excerpts recorded at Roulette including a duo with keyboardist Amina Claudine Myers (Central Park Mosaics, 2024), passages from his Pulitzer-nominated Ten Freedom Summers (Golden Quartet and the Pacifica Coral Reef Ensemble, 2013), and a Rastafarian ceremonial ritual with vocalist Jeanne Lee (1989) An early member and proponent of the AACM and the Chicago “creative music” paradigm, Wadada taught for years at  Cal Arts and has an enduring connection with Wesleyan University. Over the years his bands and collaborators have included Leroy Jenkins, Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill, Anthony Davis, Oliver Lake,  Derek Bailey, and many more.

Wadada Leo Smith: Tradition & Transition

The musical works of drummer, percussionist, and instrument builder Kenny Wollesen and his Wollesonic project. We'll hear excerpts from two multimedia, theatrical, large ensemble pieces recorded at Roulette in 2006 and 2008 plus his contribution to a trio led by pianist/composer Sylvie Courvoisier with bassist Drew Gress. Wollesonic is a band, a laboratory, a record label, an archive, and a collection of hundreds of hand-made "noise" instruments. Featuring the artist's commentary and an amazing story about his grandmother's music which Wollesen debuts at The Stone in Manhattan on August 20-23, 2025

Kenny Wollesen: The Wollesonic Affair

Dutch artist performs on his instrument constructed from cannibalized organ pipes, toilet plungers, and bicycle pumps.

Mercurius Wagen & Horst Rickels 1988 at Roulette

Fly or Die, composer/trumpeter Branch’s quartet featuring Lester St. Louis on cello, Jason Ajemian on bass, and Chad Taylor on drums/mbira, excerpt from their 2019 Roulette concert.

Jaimie Branch at Roulette 2019

The cellist's Quartet with bassist Jason Roebke, drummer Tomas Fujiwara, and guitarist Mary Halvorson.

Tomeka Reid 6 Jan 16 (excerpt)

“April Fools (The Ed Norton Lecture)” by the world-renowned composer/performer and thought provoker. He is the co-founder, with Frederic Rzewski and Richard Teitelbaum, of Musica Elettronica Viva, and a former student of Elliott Carter. Curran’s music often makes use of electronics and environmental found sounds.

Alvin Curran 22 April 1990 (excerpt)

Grooves and fantasias using hot-wired game consoles, lo-fi, and 8-bit tech by Haeyoung Kim.

Bubblyfish 17 Oct 2003 (excerpt)

The dark ambient master in electro/acoustic compositions using keyboards, trombone, voice, percussion, found sounds, and processors.

Jeff Greinke 22 April 1994 (excerpt)

Flanigan's singing and DuBois processing, from an evening entitled Bioluminescence, create a dense palette of sound and imagery derived entirely from voice.

Lesley Flanigan & R Luke DuBois 12 May 2010 (excerpt)

A solo for samples, found sounds, and processing by a master and original innovator in the field, who emerged with Musica Elettronica Viva alongside Alvin Curran and Fredric Rzewski in 1966.

Richard Teitelbaum 17 April 1999 (excerpt)

The doublebass master with John Purcell on reeds, Miya Masoaka on koto, and Gerry Hemingway on drums and electronics.

Roulette Concert Archive / roulette.org

Reggie Workman 15 Nov 02 (excerpt)

Digital Buddha, Jin Hi Kim,  Komungo and Electric Komungo with Lukas Ligeti, percussion.

JIn Hi Kim 16 Nov 07 (excerpt)

(Pulitzer Prize for Music 2016) Threadgill’s quintet Zooid performs parts of the award-winning “In for a Penny, In for a Pound” from a series of remarkable miniatures in which the ensemble is continuously reconfigured.

Henry Threadgill 4 Dec 2014 (excerpt)

(Pulitzer Prize in Music 2020) Early bits from his award-winning opera, The Central Park Five, with Davis on piano, Earl Howard synth, bassist Mark Dresser, reeds J.D. Parran.

Anthony Davis 13 Dec 2018 (excerpt)

Two of the most distinctive voices in electronic music, Tim Hecker and Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never) perform at Roulette.

Tim Hecker & Daniel Lopatin 12 May 2013

TRANSFORMATION: new poetry/new music featuring legendary poet/activist Amiri Baraka (1934-2014) with two generations of masters who emerged from Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), Steve McCall (1933-89) on percussion and Fred Houn (1957-2014) on baritone sax.

Amiri Baraka/Steve McCall/Fred Houn 1984

First's Western Enisphere and Spadine's Ashcan Orchestra ensembles collaborate on a drone and percussion piece at Roulette on 3 March 2014.

David First/Pat Spadine 2014

Bruce Eisenbeil, Tom Hamilton, William Hooker
Tom Hamilton, Nord modular synthesizer; Bruce Eisenbeil, guitar; William Hooker, percussion 3 Oct 2009 at Roulette. Excerpt.

Tom Hamilton/William Hooker/Bruce Eisenbeil 2009

Saxophone, flute, and wind instrument master, composer and visual artist (1940-2020), a founding member of the Philip Glass Ensemble and a key player on seminal minimalist compositions including work by Steve Reich and Terry Riley, and works with La Monte Young, Christian Wolff, David Behrman, Harold Budd, Alvin Curran, Arthur Russell, Annea Lockwood, and Frederic Rzewski. Selections from a 13 Oct 1994 Roulette concert.

Jon Gibson 1994

Percussionist, herbalist, martial artist, programmer, professor, and pioneer of free jazz, with William Parker, Patricia Nicholson from a multimedia event demonstrating his Heart Sound Music project.

Milford Graves 2013

New & Adventurous Music! Founded in 1978 and operating out of lofts and galleries for years, Roulette continues its mission to support new and established innovators in music and cross-media performing arts in a glorious 400 seat theater in Brooklyn. Podcasts and excerpts here; you can hear these full concerts, and hundreds more, at roulette.org/archive. Enjoy!

Roulette_Intermedium

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks