The final event in a concert series presented by Trans-Pecos in collaboration with the Queens Museum for Queens International 2016, this event will take place offsite at Trans-Pecos in Ridgewood, Queens.

Performances by:
Chino Amobi (live)
Co La
Diamond Terrifier/M. Beharie/Don Devore/Miho Hatori
Ohal
Chief Boima/Dutty Arts (DJ Set)
Jesus Benavente and Felipe Castelblanco in collaboration with Mariachi Real de Mexico and Mariachi Imperial de Bogotá

As part of the Museum’s biennial celebration of the borough, Queens International 2016, the Queens Museum is partnering with Ridgewood venue Trans-Pecos to present Becoming New Objects, a series of concerts and experimental music events. The program features a broad range of emerging and established performers whose work engages with the notion of “possible futures.” The events will feature surprising pairings that challenge distinctions between genres, media, and communities.

Chino Amobi is the son of Nigerian Immigrants. He was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 1984. He graduated and received his BFA Cum Laude from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2009. He currently resides in Richmond, Virginia. He is a founder of NON, a collective of African artists, and of the diaspora, using sound as their primary media, to articulate the visible and invisible structures that create binaries in society, and in turn distribute power. The exploration of ‘non, prior to the adjective, gives intel into the focus of the label, creating sound opposing contemporary canons.

Co La is the new exotica music of Matt Papich. People are calling it “Fresh” and “Evocative”. It’s New Anything Bass Music, kind of, but also part of the new Its Not Everything sound. Do you like Flow Motion by Can? Have you seen “O.C. and Stiggs”? Imagine skimming for a sweet spot and finding cool confusion – Pop Music For Dream Life. Are you too wise to live straight? Whose tears are superior? Post-Honeypot era New Reggae. Also, do you have flying dreams? Do you feel new solidarity with a global potential? Looney Tunes. Be real with a wall of sound, and slip a finger in your ear delicately. Feel successful at night. Playing conceptual footsy with predictive text and the future says “Co La?”.

Diamond Terrifier is musician, DJ, artist, curator, Sam Hillmer. Diamond Terrifier is Sam’s saxophone and electronics solo incarnation. Diamond Terrifier sits at the intersection of ambient drone, world bass and sound system music, and the many great non western saxophone traditions!

Michal Beharie is a Brooklyn producer/musician/virtuoso guitarist. Michael studied classical guitar at Oberlin, but his musical proficiency is freewheeling and boundary-defiant. He’s also done behind-the-scenes tinkering, such as the electronic score for the Lucky Torres documentary Lucky, writing and production work for Alexis Blair Penney and studio guitar chops for ADR, Mas Ysa and Light Asylum’s Bruno Coviello.

Don Devore is an American artist and curator who has been a member of the bands Ink & Dagger, Frail, The Icarus Line, Lilys, Amazing Baby, Historics, Vague Angels, Souls She Said, among others. He is currently performing as a solo artist and as a member of the bands Collapsing Scenery and Sick Feeling, as well as serving as a curator for Brooklyn arts space Trans Pecos.

Miho Hatori is a Japanese singer, songwriter, and musician. She is primarily known as the vocalist of the New York City group Cibo Matto. She is also known for her work with virtual band Gorillaz, as she is the first person to provide the voice of animated member Noodle.

Ohal is a pianist, a collaborator, an activist, a writer and engineer. Her music is a collage of synthesized sounds, field recordings and voice. Fusing the logic of contemporary composition with the sensibilities of pop songs, Ohal builds narrative and pathos out of soundscape and abstraction.

Chief Boima is a Sierra Leonean-American music producer, DJ, writer, and general advocate for music-fueled digital youth cultures from around the world. Boima began his career as a professional DJ with a self-initiated travel stint to connect with like-minded artists around the world. Inspired by the parties he knew growing in a close knit African immigrant community in Milwaukee, his performances integrate a diverse array of global musical styles ranging from Coupé-Decalé, Cumbia, Kuduro, Champeta, and more. This would see him perform as a DJ at such esteemed locations as New York’s Summer Stage, The Lincoln Center, The Red Bull Music Academy, SXSW, and Midem. He currently is based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Dutty Artz is a crew of multi-disciplinary producers, who are changing their corners of the world through various forms of digital expression. Founded in 2008 by Matt Shadetek and DJ /rupture, over the years Dutty Artz has evolved from a record label to a blog to its current form as a crew of multi-disciplinary producers. Unified through music, we experiment in the creation of cultural value through collaboration in a hyper-connected world. In our work, we aim to fairly present cultural output from eclectic localized communities, to challenge creative industry standards and dominant social norms.

For Las Reinas (2016), Jesus Benavente and Felipe Castelblanco, both multi-disciplinary artists, collaborate with two Mariachi bands, Mariachi Real de Mexico in Queens and Mariachi Imperial in Bogotá, Colombia, to write a new song in real-time, via online video chat. Working across cultural, social, and economic borders, the collaborating bands and artists will reveal the pervasiveness of the Mariachi genre, a Mexican musical tradition that is steeped in poverty, pride, protest, and community, but has been widely adapted to the needs of a globalized tourist economy.