With performers Arca, Los Thuthanaka and YHWH Nailgun, New York’s C2C proved the thrills – and limits – of staying independent amid a festival boom
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rowling, flailing, kicking, screaming, the experimental British musician Aya clutched a microphone and ranted about her hormones. “If anything, the progesterone is doing wonders right now,” she cackled in her Yorkshire accent as she triggered an unpredictable minefield of bone-rattling bass and clattering breakbeats. The crowd in New York City’s Knockdown Center on Friday whooped as their bodies moved without thought. “The British party just elected a bunch of fascists today,” she added, before lamenting about the state of the NHS. It was part of the performance: Aya’s chaotic music rebels against formal structure, becoming a sonic vehicle for exploding the limitations of gender.
Equal parts artistic subversion and cathartic release, Aya’s set epitomized the best of C2C NYC, a sold-out, one-day edition of an independent music festival originally held in Torino, Italy, which will celebrate its 25th anniversary this fall. With its affinity for innovative pop-auteurs and critical darlings, the Torino edition has become a global destination for experimental music fans; 53% of its audience now comes from outside Italy. “New York became an obvious choice” to expand into, says the festival’s artistic director, Guido Savini, over email. It’s “a chance to place the festival’s curatorial language within what is probably the most complex and definitely the most competitive cultural ecosystem in the world”.
