Planetarium is an event for listening deeply. We ask everyone who attends to remain silent in the listening area and to step outside the space for any conversations. We also ask that there is no phone use in the entire space. If that sounds good to you, read on…

Planetarium returns to the private loft in Ridgewood for its first April sessions. On this evening, we’ll present a Planetarium experience in its traditional form: four hours of deep listening, featuring a live set by Carlos Niño & Friends, and DJ sets by Planetarium residents Rena Anakwe and Justin Carter. (Night two will feature two full concerts by Carlos & Friends, still with a meal and space to lie down and spread out.)

Amps and a sub from EM/IA are paired with five Klipschorns in the space. (It sounds amazing.) Bring pillows, blankets, sleeping bags and whatever else you need to go spread out and deep. We do a small amount of reservations so that there’s room to lie down.

CARLOS NIÑO & FRIENDS

A prolific album producer, expansive percussionist, experimental composer, connector and communicator, Carlos Niño is known primarily for his main project, Carlos Niño & Friends, and for his extensive work on André 3000’s New Blue Sun project.

This is Carlos’s second year joining us at Planetarium, but we have been following Carlos’s progression for over twenty years, when he was producing under the aliases Ammoncontact, Build An Ark and The Life Force Trio. We were in touch occasionally through those years but reconnected again more recently as we began to talk about bringing IASOS to New York. IASOS was one of Carlos’s mentors and one of his best friends, and Carlos helped us bring the pioneering new age musician and interdimensional conduit for the last east coast live date he ever played.

It would be a major understatement to say that we are elated to welcome Carlos alongside Aaron Shaw – one of Los Angeles’s brightest young composers, producers, arrangers, band leaders, and music directors – and Quelle Chris – a producer and rapper who’s collaborated with Earl Sweatshirt, Tune-Yards’ Merrill Garbus and Pink Siifu.

RENA ANAKWE

Rena Anakwe is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, poet, and healer working primarily with sound, visuals, and scent. Exploring intersections between traditional healing practices, spirituality and performance, she creates works focused on sensory-based, experiential interactions using creative technology. She is based in Brooklyn, New York by way of Nigeria and Canada.

Rena will DJ tonight, using spiritual jazz, expansive ambient music, new classical compositions and other emotionally charged sounds.

JUSTIN CARTER

Justin Carter is the other co-creator of Planetarium as well as the architect of the series and its ever present resident. Justin’s practices of space making and music are intertwined, aligning to create moments for community and catharsis. With Planetarium, he builds a world for letting go, together. His tools are a shared meal, scented smoke wafting through the room, tuning forks, shoes placed by the door, candles flickering in the dark, a song sung a capella, records that create vast, detailed scenes in the mind and even the words you are reading now.