Stan Brakhage was one of the most important and influential avant-garde filmmakers of the 20th Century. His searing, flickering and pulsing output [nearly 400 films] recast vision by freeing imagery from effect, context, or verity: achieving impact through composition, rhythms in images and in editing, paint on film, light moving in time.

Drafted from the shadows of the NYC Avant-Underground and featuring a dual electric attach of Sonic Youth’s guitar dilettante Lee Ranaldo and Alan Licht along with Ulrich Krieger of Zeitkratzer on sax and electronics and the percussive interventions of Tim Barnes, and as opposed to suggesting soundtrack’s to Brakhage’s works [which are almost entirely silent] Text of Light use his works to stimulate improvisation, enveloping them into the structure of the group much like an additional musician. Equally capable of creaking and droning passages that snake through dark and brooding sonic textures, pitted with sharp blasts of music concrete, or bursting into rock-brut and free jazz blurts, the results show Text of Light to be one of the tightest improv units currently operating. Specially conceived for KYTN, this performance sees ToL using 4 projectors and 5 separate films in an immersive and spectacular, one-off performance.

The films that were screened as part of Text of Light were chosen with the help of Marilyn Brakhage and were: … (Ellipses) Reel, … (Ellipses) Reel 4, Star Garden , Scenes From Under Childhood Section #2 and Scenes From Under Childhood Section #4.