Introducing Sun Dogs: Talent You’ll Want to Bask In

A multifaceted composer, Daniel Wohl curates a blend of electroacoustic music for soloists, chamber ensembles, orchestras, and music for television and film. Tapping into the AI zeitgeist, his Uncanny Valley “takes its title from the eerie feeling that arises when artificial beings become extremely lifelike and intelligent, yet still remain discernibly unhuman.” He has been commissioned by orchestras such as the Cincinnati Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and worked on multiple scores including the Grammy-nominated documentary Shangri-La. His Northrop-commissioned Prelude for an Old Friend for organ, electronics, and vocals will usher in the Sun Dogs experience on the historic Northrop pipe organ. Pianist, composer, and organist Dr. John Orfe, a founding member of Alarm Will Sound, will play the new work. Currently serving as organist at First United Methodist Church in Peoria, IL, Orfe has performed all over the world, earning critical acclaim for his interpretations of five centuries of keyboard repertoire ranging from the canonic to the arcane.

Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s penchant for otherworldliness combines with the innovative, genre-defying musical style of Rafiq Bhatia for the short film On Blue. A companion piece to Weerasethakul's 2018 film Blue, On Blue, is inspired by “moments of awakening, of sunrise,” and accompanied by moody, orchestral harmonies. Heralded by The New York Times as "one of the most intriguing figures in music today," Bhatia notably composed the soundtrack with his band, Son Lux, for the 2022 blockbuster Everything Everywhere All At Once. A trailblazer in experimental films, Weerasethakul co-founded Kick the Machine Films, an independent art and film studio based in Thailand. His film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, captured the grand prize at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. Learn more about him in this interview for Tate.

For Naked Blue, “polymath musician” Devonté Hynes collaborates with French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop and publisher and filmmaker Manon Lutanie. Hynes, popularly known for his work as Blood Orange, has released five critically acclaimed studio albums. As a pianist, he was invited to play alongside Phillip Glass at the Kennedy Center and has been nominated for a Grammy for his work with Third Coast Percussion. He has collaborated with the Brooklyn Academy of Music, as well as the LA Philharmonic, for sold-out performances of his Selected Classical Works. Diop’s ground-breaking feature film debut, Atlantics, is a supernatural story of young love and separation in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. The Grand Prix winner at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, the "haunting" film is a “seamless blend of the supernatural with this pressing global crisis” (NPR). Her latest film Dahomey, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, continues to garner rave reviews wherever it goes, including at the 2024 NY Film Fest. Lutanie is a filmmaker based in Paris, whose short films have screened internationally at MoMA, e-flux, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, Documenta Madrid, Indie Lisboa, ICA London, FIDMarseille, Mucem, and elsewhere. She is the founder of the independent publisher Editions Lutanie. In Naked Blue, the trio’s collaboration follows a teen’s “choreographed movements through a studio set painted an underwater blue, as she dances in front of mirrors and salutes an imaginary audience” (Sophie Cavoulacos, MoMA).

For the final Sun Dogs pairing of the evening at Northrop, Rise, Again features co-composers Wohl and Arooj Aftab with filmmaker Josephine Decker. Aftab is the first Pakistani musician to win a Grammy. Her hit Mohabbat, received six million streams on Spotify and earned a Grammy for best global music performance. Pitchfork says her latest album Night Reign is “wondrous” and “its gestures are bold, romantic, and often unforgettable.” Wohl, was called one of his generation’s most "imaginative, skillful creators" (The New York Times), and Aftab collaborate on the expressive, surreal score. With films that often bend the space between reality and the imagination, Decker is acclaimed by The New Yorker for her role in shaping a “new grammar of narrative.” Her feature Shirley, about the writer Shirley Jackson played by Elisabeth Moss, won Sundance Institute's Special Jury Prize for Auteur Filmmaking. Her feature Madeline’s Madeline — called "a mind-scrambling masterpiece" — was nominated for Best Cinematography and Best Female Lead at the Independent Spirit Awards and for Best Picture at the Gotham Awards. Rise, Again, an inspirational story of motherly love and devotion, was created through improvisation with mothers in transitional housing at Upward Bound House and an eye to reflecting how individual and community experiences are intertwined.

Brooklyn-based Alarm Will Sound performs the eclectic, newly arranged scores for each short film on the Sun Dogs program. With a style that blends classical, electronic, and avant-garde influences, the 20-member ensemble is celebrated for their unique approach and for pushing the boundaries of traditional music. Known for its captivating live performances, The New York Times called Alarm Will Sound an “unusually versatile, reliably exhilarating new-music ensemble."