Gallery: A Conversation with Glenn Branca
Impressions from our talk with the iconoclastic NYC guitarist and composer
Over a career spanning more than four decades, the pioneering composer and guitarist Glenn Branca has found musical transcendence in multiple modes of expression, ranging from guitar symphonies and opera to noise music and ballet. One of the founding fathers of the No Wave movement as well as a technical trailblazer, inventing his own Harmonics guitar and experimenting with alternate tuning systems, Branca’s mastery of counterpoint, dissonance, abrasion and sheer volume on classic albums like The Ascension inspired a generation of groups including Sonic Youth, Swans, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and more. In this public conversation at Red Bull Studios New York, Branca discussed the disparate and unique chapters of his influential life in music.
As part of Red Bull Music Academy Festival New York 2016, three of Branca’s roaring symphonies will come to life at Manhattan’s Masonic Hall, where a cast of indie luminaries gets together to perform Symphony Nos. 8 & 10 (The Mysteries) and Symphony No. 12 (Tonal Sexus). Buy tickets here.
