Chapel Hill
Sublime Frequencies screening
NightlightFor the better part of this decade, Hisham Mayet and Alan BishopPacific Northwest curiosity-seekers who travel the world with audio-visual equipment, listening and watching to record and releasehave used their label, Sublime Frequencies, to document sounds and ceremonies they’re worried might otherwise be lost in countries rarely considered part of the world’s culture industry. Consider a handful of the label’s audio titles: Guitar Music from the Western Sahara; Highway To Hassake: Folk and Pop Sounds of Syria; Ethnic Minority Music of North Vietnam. Mayet, Bishop and a team of collaborators head into areas generally considered unforgiving, hoping to capture art that’s more function than finance. Working less as archivists and more as artists themselves, they edit the information without extraneous context exposition, letting the listeners and watchers immerse themselves in a scene, not a history. Sometimes, the process fails and begs for a bit more meaning. But at the label’s best, its imperfect recording processes capture the ecstasy and intimacy of the subjects and settings in a way a CIA factsheet or World Almanac simply can’t.
Mayet, who’s been living in Raleigh since November, presents Niger: Magic and Ecstasy in the Sahel tonight, an early Sublime Frequencies film that’s long been out of print. Mayet shot the footage in December 2004 before the second Tuareg Rebellion closed the country’s deserts to most tourists, journalists and aid workers. Mayet bills the film as full of “Tuareg electric guitar trance rock, Bori cult dance ceremonies, Fulani folk and Roadhouse gospel rave-ups.” Sounds like a zealous Sunday night, all right. Pay $5 at 6 p.m., but bring extra cash as Mayet and High Point’s Three-Lobed Records both plan to bring loads of merchandise for a mini-psychedelic record fair. Grayson Currin
Raleigh
N.C. Master Chorale plays Berlioz & Mahler
Progress Energy CenterThe N.C. Master Chorale, which has been serving the area since 1942, presents a pair of works by 19th-century composers Hector Berlioz and Gustav Mahler. Joining the Chorale’s own professional 22-voice chamber choir and 170-voice symphonic chorus will be the Raleigh Boychoir, the N.C. Wind Orchestra, a second symphony orchestra and an organist and various featured soloists. The Boychoir will assist with Berlioz’s six-movement Te deum after an opening conversation between organ and orchestra. Mahler’s three-part royal fantasy, Das klagende Lied, won’t be outdone with the addition of an off-stage orchestra of wind instruments. The concert begins at 3 p.m. and costs $22-$30. Visit www.ncmasterchorale.org for tickets and more info. Elizabeth Lilly
