Thursday, May 8th Bernard Herman presents a very special evening of experimental music and film at an unexpected location: a Moroccan restaurant and bar called Tagine in midtown Manhattan. Guests are invited to join in for olives, red wine and the last performance of Lazy Magnet in New York City after an incredible and varied twenty-year career in the avant-underground. At the stroke of ten, one can find themselves “in a setting untouched by stylists, lit like a casino, and frequented by fire breathing belly dancers.” In addition to a live performances by Lazy Magnet; Noor, Gluuuu and Weyes Blood are also set to play and there will be a screening from filmmaker Miles Pflanz.
Fellow artist and performer Barkev Gulesserian has been curating nights of music and art at Tangine as ‘Bernard Herman presents’ for a few months now with the intention of presenting art and music in a non-sterile, non-pretentious setting outside of the world of white walled galleries and snobbish venues. At Tagine, life may meddle with art, performers do not have a stage and spill into the audience and people from all over the city can come together and share something truly special.
“The exotic nature of the venue, dancers, hookahs, colorful lighting and plush seating helps people take their masks off and have a good time, the unfamiliar nature of the place makes it so there isn’t a preformedaesthetic idea that people need to step in line with,” Barkev Gulesserian tells ANIMAL. “There are ideas and there are aesthetics, but its all very much forming and not prefabricated. I think people are eager to see things that are familiar to them in a different setting and see what the performers they came out to see reveal about themselves as they adapt to a new context.”
It should be particularly interesting to see how Jeremy Harris, who hasplayed under the moniker Lazy Magnet for twenty year responds to this. Harris has a reputation of being a pleasantly unpredictable artist and performer. Whether he is releasing an album where every single song is a different genre or stripping naked or looping the misfits after ripping some hard techno, you just never know what you are going to get but you know it is going to be good.
Lazy Magnet has been an inspiring staple in the American noise underground and while it is sad to the project go after so many incarnations, it will be interesting to see what he comes up with next. If you would like to have something to look back on Lazy Magnet, a new five disc retrospective box set will be made available for purchase and it is rumored that there will be cake to celebrate his career.
