The bassoon takes center stage in Joy Guidry’s experimental compositions. Here, she merges the classical instrument with rumbling synths, electronic manipulation, and spoken-word poetry. Experience the genre-defying American musician at ALICE this November – in concert and in an introductory conversation with Passive/Aggressive’s editor-in-chief, Alexander Julin Mortensen.

Most people know the bassoon from the concert hall. But now you can experience it quite a different context. The American bassoonist, performance artist, and composer Joy Guidry explores the instrument’s wide range of sounds: through electronic manipulation and by breaking with conventional genre boundaries, she expands the bassoon’s musical domain into free-jazz and ambient soundscapes. In doing so, she fuses the bassoon with rumbling synths, warm electronic textures, and spoken-word poetry. The result is “unsettling,” “hair-raising,” and “haunting,” wrote The San Diego Tribune. Look forward to an artist as raw and vulnerable as few.

Joy Guidry has performed at The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, The Kitchen, and Redcat, among other places, and she now presents new material. In May, she released her third album, Five Prayers. And what does a prayer actually sound like? Step into new sonic terrain together with us and Joy Guidry and find possible answers to that question.

Introductory conversation with Alexander Julin Mortensen
… and are you curious to get to know Joy Guidry even better? Then come early and experience her in conversation with Alexander Julin Mortensen, editor-in-chief of the Danish music magazine Passive/Aggressive. Together, they will discuss various aspects of Joy Guidry’s practice: community, queerness, and the transformative potential of music. The conversation will last 20–30 minutes.