David Tudor

In 1966 ten New York artists and thirty engineers and scientists from Bell Telephone Laboratories collaborated on a series of innovative dance, music and theater performances, 9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering, held in October at the 69th Regiment Armory, New York City. The artists included were John Cage, Lucinda Childs, Öyvind Fahlström, Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer, Robert Rauschenberg, David Tudor and Robert Whitman. Archival material has been assembled into ten films, each of which reconstructs the artist's original work and uses interviews with the artists, engineers and performers in documentaries that illuminate the artistic, technical and historical aspects of the work.

Bandoneon! (a combine) is David Tudor’s first full concert work as a composer. Tudor played the bandoneon as the input into a complex sound and visual modification system that moved sound from speaker to speaker and controlled lights and video images, creating a work that animated the entire Armory space. This DVD documents the performance with film and vintage photographs as well as interviews with the performers, engineers and Tudor's fellow composers.

Bandoneon! is the third film in the 9 Evenings series from E.A.T. and ARTPIX. This rare and historical film was produced by Billy Klüver and Julie Martin of E.A.T. and directed by Julie Martin.