PALTO FLATS
CELEBRATES
DOROTHY CARTER
WITH LIVE MUSIC BY
LARAAJI
AND ARCHIVAL VIDEO BY
BEN LEVINE / PEOPLE'S VIDEO THEATER
SOLD OUT
CELEBRATES
DOROTHY CARTER
WITH LIVE MUSIC BY
LARAAJI
AND ARCHIVAL VIDEO BY
BEN LEVINE / PEOPLE'S VIDEO THEATER
SOLD OUT
Thursday,
June 20, 2024
7pm
Doors open
7:30pm
Event begins
June 20, 2024
7pm
Doors open
7:30pm
Event begins
Dorothy Carter's preferred family of instruments—"the trapezoids," as she called them—include the dulcimer, zither, and psaltery. Each is hundreds of years old, forerunners to what we now know as the piano.
A student of Celtic and Appalachian folk music and an avant-garde vagabond, Dorothy was a core member of the Central Maine Power Music Company, a large, communal group of musicians (and non-musicians) that included Bob Rutman and Constance Demby bowing sculptures made from sheet metal.
One evening in the early 1970s, Ben Levine, a member of the activist video collective People’s Video Theater / Survival Arts Media, invited the Central Maine Power Music Company troupe back to the collective's SoHo loft. An explosion of creativity ensued as Dorothy’s pre-modern music merged with cutting-edge video technology. Thus expanded, Central Maine Power Music Company went on to stage many performances at the Boston Hayden Planetarium and elsewhere, where Dorothy’s plucked and hammered strings were accompanied by video feedback, voltage-controlled oscillators, newly-developed video synthesizers, and other planetarium lighting effects.
A student of Celtic and Appalachian folk music and an avant-garde vagabond, Dorothy was a core member of the Central Maine Power Music Company, a large, communal group of musicians (and non-musicians) that included Bob Rutman and Constance Demby bowing sculptures made from sheet metal.
One evening in the early 1970s, Ben Levine, a member of the activist video collective People’s Video Theater / Survival Arts Media, invited the Central Maine Power Music Company troupe back to the collective's SoHo loft. An explosion of creativity ensued as Dorothy’s pre-modern music merged with cutting-edge video technology. Thus expanded, Central Maine Power Music Company went on to stage many performances at the Boston Hayden Planetarium and elsewhere, where Dorothy’s plucked and hammered strings were accompanied by video feedback, voltage-controlled oscillators, newly-developed video synthesizers, and other planetarium lighting effects.
Ben screens never-before-seen footage from these performances as well as archival footage of "Creep City," a communal plot of land in Maine where Dorothy and her collaborators experimented with collective forms of living and farming. He may show a home birth.
Laraaji first met Dorothy in the late '70s while busking with his electric autoharp in the West Village. Counting her as an important influence, he began using hammers on his open tuned zither. After Ben's screening, Laraaji performs a special tribute, including his interpretation of some of Dorothy's music.
Our host is Jacob Gorchov, who runs Palto Flats, a record label that recently released the first reissue of Dorothy's seminal album Waillee Waillee. Some of Dorothy's family and friends join us as well.
Organized with Eli Coplan
Laraaji first met Dorothy in the late '70s while busking with his electric autoharp in the West Village. Counting her as an important influence, he began using hammers on his open tuned zither. After Ben's screening, Laraaji performs a special tribute, including his interpretation of some of Dorothy's music.
Our host is Jacob Gorchov, who runs Palto Flats, a record label that recently released the first reissue of Dorothy's seminal album Waillee Waillee. Some of Dorothy's family and friends join us as well.
Organized with Eli Coplan
Dorothy Carter amidst her instruments, Cambridge, MA, c. 1970s.
A performance by Central Maine Power Music Company. Photo by R. Lee Post.
Laraaji. Photo by Jacob Ferguson.
Dorothy Carter (1935 - 2003) was an American musician who performed contemporary, folk, traditional, medieval, and experimental music with a large collection of stringed instruments. She pursued a quiet, spiritual life.
Ben Levine (b. 1943) is a member of People's Video Theater / Survival Arts Media, an activist video collective that operated out of a SoHo loft in the 1970s. PVT used the emergent popular medium of analog video to engage in street theater and community activism. Their social justice work included video feedback therapy with heroin-addicted Vietnam veterans in the South Bronx, resulted in the retraining of the entire police force of South Orange, New Jersey and the removal of their corrupt police chief, and the adoption of handicapped parking in New York City.
Ben Levine (b. 1943) is a member of People's Video Theater / Survival Arts Media, an activist video collective that operated out of a SoHo loft in the 1970s. PVT used the emergent popular medium of analog video to engage in street theater and community activism. Their social justice work included video feedback therapy with heroin-addicted Vietnam veterans in the South Bronx, resulted in the retraining of the entire police force of South Orange, New Jersey and the removal of their corrupt police chief, and the adoption of handicapped parking in New York City.
Laraaji (b. 1943) is an American multi-instrumentalist specializing in piano, zither and mbira, and who merges music with Eastern Mysticism as a spiritual practice. He is best known for his 1980 album Ambient 3: Day of Radiance, produced by Brian Eno.
Palto Flats is a New York-based record label specializing in idiomatic forms of pop, electronic and experimental music.
Palto Flats is a New York-based record label specializing in idiomatic forms of pop, electronic and experimental music.
Due to the age and character of the building, the space is not optimized for ADA accessibility and is located up a single flight of 20 stairs with handrails. If you have questions about access, please contact us in advance of the event, and we will make every effort to accommodate you.
