![]() But I had just looked at the space in Gowanus, and what I loved was it was two floors and we could live upstairs. It was a ground-floor space for five-hundred dollars a month. "I looked at a place in Williamsburg, which I didn't take - it's an Urban Outfitters now or something. Soho was like parts of Bushwick now: It was already getting a little bit priced-out. But that was already getting more expensive there were already art galleries there then. ![]() "So the only spaces were Tribeca and Soho. ![]() "It couldn't be in the East Village, because that was small apartments, even though it was affordable," says Bisi. This path was a route from Bisi's native Upper East Side, through the downtown Manhattan arts scene, and on to Brooklyn, which even in 1979 was fast becoming the only place to get affordable industrial space. Without Eno giving us the money, I might not have gone down this path." Especially being nineteen, I wasn't thinking of anything other than doing what I was happy doing in that moment. "I wonder if he appreciates what he jumpstarted, because I'm not sure I would have gone all the way without him. His contribution is really remarkable," says Bisi. Because without former Roxy Music member and avant-garde notable Brian Eno, who was living in Manhattan in the mid-'70s and met Laswell and Bisi there, BC Studio might never have happened. But there's one artist who is a pivotal figure in BC's tale, which extends this story of a studio and the man behind it to one about New York City and the slow but steady decline of its artistic community. The documentary, directed by Sara Leavitt and Ryan Douglass, will see a digital release in August, too.Īrtists from Sonic Youth to Swans, Foetus to Afrika Bambaataa, Dresden Dolls to Violent Femmes, and also Bill Laswell, Bisi's original co-partner - or co-conspirator, as BC was never meant to be a business, but an artists collective - all recorded and created in this cavelike space, which has an eerie well open to whatever murky water flows underneath the building. ![]() His amusing and amazing story is told in the documentary Sound And Chaos: The Story of BC Studio, which will premiere in Brooklyn July 12, and Bisi will accompany a screening of the doc at Lincoln Center on June 25 with his own live soundscapes. This "underground" recording studio, located on 3rd Street in the old American Can Company factory in Gowanus, is musician (and one-time graffiti artist) Martin Bisi's life's work, begun in the late Seventies when he was nineteen years old. The story of BC Studio spans decades and genres, but without one particular musician it might never have happened. GOWANUS'S BC STUDIO CONNECTS WHITNEY HOUSTON, SONIC YOUTH & MORE IN NEW DOC The Drunken Unicorn, 736 Ponce De Leon Ave.Turn on javascript to use the drop-down menus. A long list of seminal underground musicians - Brian Eno, Sonic Youth, Bill Laswell, Herbie Hancock, Fab Five Freddy, John Zorn, Foetus, Unsane, Swans, Cop Shoot Cop, Helmet, and more - have soaked up Bisi’s sonically caustic touch during the most cutting-edge stages of their careers.Īs a recording artist, Bisi embraces a more ornate sound and vision that blends layers upon layers of rhythms and textures into his recordings and performances.īisi is currently on the road, joined by drummer Dave Miller and keyboard and bass player Dylan Sparrow, giving a nod to two new albums this year, the second volume of the BC35 sessions (released in April), and a new solo album titled Solstice, built around conceptual themes of the "Summer Solstice" and the "Winter Solstice."įor this show, expect a real-time exploration of Bisi’s sound, vision, and legacy. For nearly 40 years, Martin Bisi has carved out a singularly avant-garde path behind the recording console, working as a producer, engineer, songwriter, and improviser from his BC Studio in Gowanus, Brooklyn.
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