In The Open

Ura is the primary alias of a Canadian electronic music producer based in Montréal since 2011. Immersed in the city’s underground music scene, he played in indie bands, attended illegal afterhours parties, and eventually created his solo project Ura. He released a tape titled Dog Park in 2016, followed by the double LP Entertainment in 2019. In 2020, he released Blue on Naff Recordings. Most recently, he moved to the Los Angeles-based label Motion Ward to produce Baby With a Halo. Ura’s idiosyncratic sound moves fluidly between curated influences, creating unique yet familiar compositions. He will be performing a new electronic composition specifically made to be heard late at night in the forest on Saturday night ✨🌱

@laminfofana_ is a producer, DJ, label owner and artist whose various projects straddle multiple contexts, geographical and otherwise. Fofana grew up in Sierra Leone and Guinea before leaving for the U.S. as a teenager due to the civil war of the 1990s; since then he has split his time primarily between New York and Berlin. He’s played live sets and DJed at clubs throughout Europe and the U.S. and his work has been featured at the Venice Biennale and the Hamburger Bahnhof. With a recent string of excellent releases on Honest Jon’s, Avian, The Trilogy Tapes, Peak Oil and his own Black Studies and Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fofana shows a remarkable ability to distill the varied stylistic currents his particular musical trajectory exposed him to, switching between and at times fusing crackling ambient, mbalax drumming, kosmische loops and leftfield techno among many other subterranean influences. As Fofana writes, “My approach or way of thinking and producing electronic music is not too concerned with the rigid distinctions of category or genre or with the brutal delimitations imposed on techno music. Some of these things I learned from listening and studying older artists and poets working experimentally and not too concerned with categories. Simple lessons: to be categorized is to be restricted. So I choose to remain open, experimental, listening and searching for what’s possible beyond the categories as we know them.” Fofana will close out the creek stage tonight by playing a hybrid live set of his own material. We couldn’t think of a better way to bring the first day of ITO to a close, come join us ✌️

Michael Magnan is a multi-disciplinary artist, DJ and producer who has helped shapeshift New York City scenes since moving to town at the turn of the new century. Known for hi-octane, genre spanning DJ sets (mostly bitchy house and techno), Michael has held residencies here at some of the most ridiculous happenings over the last two decades. In 2024 he celebrates 30 years of living and learning dance music as a party patron and 20 solid years of actively DJing. So trust, we’ll be in good hands when he closes out Saturday night! Aside from working solo you can find him collaborating on music with Allergy Season label boss Physical Therapy under the moniker Fatherhood, together they have releases on Nervous Records, Batty Bass (UK) and Study Records (Stockholm). Check out the latest Fatherhood ep and his recent mix for Gabriela and then come see him in IRL!

Brooklyn-based @color_plus aka Lars Probert wears many hats as a producer. In addition to his genre-agnostic, club-oriented releases on his own Towhead Recordings - the label behind the New York Dance Music compilation series - he’s collaborated with Eartheater in 2019 with ‘Preservation’ on her debut mixtape Trinity, worked on sound design for Telfar in recent years, and produced most of the tracks on RXK Nephew’s ‘Slitherman Activated’ from 2021. Over the past five years especially, Color Plus has demonstrated an impressive ability to repeatedly shift stylistic registers without losing at any point the unique marks of his own playfully twisted sensibility. The record that made us want to invite him to play ITO this year was 2022’s ‘True’ (for a taste see slide 2), which was one of the best ambient records of that year in our opinion. Instead of sanding down its rough edges into a palatable blandness, ‘True’ infuses even its most soothing moments with a restless anxiety: throughout the album bugged-out sounds refuse to sit still and insist on romping around in your head. On Saturday night, after a live set by URA, Color Plus will play a 45-minute set of his own material overlooking the creek: we have no idea which of his hats he’ll be wearing, you’ll have to be there to find out.

@toribious_monk , a DJ, producer, and multi-instrumentalist affectionately known as “Papi,” blends house music with his Dominican roots, jazz, and percussion. His soulful, musical style can be heard at his BDA parties in NYC, known for the motto “Bring Dat Ass, and your feet will follow” and has shared decks with the likes of Francois K, Danny Krivit, DJ Seinfeld, and Todd Terry. He also leads the rotating collective Conclave, whose Afro-Latin self-titled LP on @loveinjection.records was critically acclaimed. Toribio regularly plays in various clubs across New York, including Nowadays, Elsewhere, Good Room, Knockdown Center, and Bossa Nova Civic Club. He holds a monthly show at the Lot Radio and performs internationally. He’ll be gracing us on Saturday for an evening set in the field. For now check out his Boiler Room!

@other__joe is a producer and DJ from Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. The dubbed out, sentimental tunes of his recent releases are heavily steeped in the accidental - noisy drums built out of artefacts from stem generators, melodies hidden in eternal feedback, basslines stitched together from the hum of a preamp. The result is distinct - always resembling a tune but never quite, something is missing, something else is there. In new group dummy tree (with Yunzero and Body Clock), joe plays the saxophone, and if he can find one before 2am friday 12th july, he’ll play a little here, too. Check out his latest release ’one billion kisses’ or his venture on the newly minted @ost.music.life ‘a cat can look at a king’ and drift away.

We’re excited to announce that @kfeelzzz will be kicking off the party on Friday! Influenced by her eclectic upbringing in NY, Kfeelz is a member of the women and non-binary person of color DJ collective Miss/chief and a Level Party resident. She plays all over the city, carrying a steady energy of optimism in all her sets. As a solo artist, she displays an ear for soothing sounds on her Lot Radio show, “Swimming.” Her DJ sets veer from lush downtempo to hands-in-the-air house, post-punk, funk, and surprise Italo bangers. Now for the love of music go check out her recent Lot Radio mixes or Level Party mix! Also try and find “Swimming,” a risograph zine she collaborated on with friends, available IRL at your local record store. We can’t wait to see you there!

Chicago’s Purelink @pureliiink , an electronic band formed in 2020, consists of Millia, kindtree, and Concave Reflection. Their music blends ambient dub, downtempo, early 2000s glitch music, and ‘90s dub techno, characterized by deep rhythmic textures, detailed sound design, and enveloping sub-bass. Their 2023 album, Signs, on Peak Oil, has received widespread praise for its rhythmic ambient qualities and dynamic listening experience, blending modern and nostalgic elements seamlessly. We are excited to host them this Friday, where they will perform their trademark “heads-down introspective electronic journeying” hybrid sets, combining live performance and DJ elements. Get familiar with their catalog of music to fully appreciate the unique and captivating experience.

Born in Mexico City, Yibing @yowaitup cut her teeth working at Beats in Space with Tim Sweeney. After years behind the scene working on releases for the label and seeing some of the world’s best DJs artistry up close, Yibing kicked off her own monthly show on The Lot Radio, Tranquilamente Radio. Her approach to DJing is very much informed by her love & close relationship with free-form radio, a bond she’s cultivated as both an avid listener and a selector for over a decade. Her sets traverse across many genres, spanning downtempo, house, rave, post-punk, dub, ambient and shoegaze. She is also a member of beloved DIY party series and crew The Level Party, and has played parties across NYC, SF, Shanghai, Miami and Mexico City. Yibing will be throwing down on Saturday at In The Open’s musical zone known as “the field.” For now check out her live sets at Honcho Campout, Weird Science, or her Lot Radio residency for whats to come!

On Friday @ In the Open absolute studio wizard and legend JTC aka Tadd Mullinix @bopside will make a rare NY appearance to play a two-hour set featuring plenty of his own material. For the past three decades Tadd has been incredibly prolific, recording under various aliases spanning genres from hip-hop and drum n’ bass to acid house/techno — check out Dabrye, X-Altera, and James T. Cotton — while also collaborating with Traxx @kodenation_ in Saturn V and D’Marc Cantu in 2 AM/FM. Last year we had Traxx close out the first night of ITO with a special 6-hour presentation — at certain points featuring Tadd’s music — and we wanted to keep the jakbeat pulse going into this year with JTC. (For those interested, Traxx will be playing at Locust Grove again in early August). Dope Jams’s Paul Nickerson @dopejams580 , who runs Locust Grove, is a supporter of JTC too, reissuing his ‘Bizarre Carnival’ (originally released on @ghostly ‘s Spectral Sound in 2004) in 2016. Consider it an attempt to connect some dots, we’ll see you on Friday ✌️

PLO Man has developed an international cult like following for playing “freaked out sounds” on 1000% wax. A Co-operator and representative of ACTING PRESS – known for exploring both solo (PLO’) and collaborative sounds (C3D-E, INTe*ra, Globex, and CC Not) – takes a scenic detour at In The Open. Usually found soundtracking the city’s nocturnal energy, this is a chance to see him transition from day to dusk in an ethereal outdoor setting. To prepare for next week, kindly refer to his DJ sessions archived and distributed on tape [Cav Empt, CESAR35, CESAR08], CD [ACTING PRESS, Terraforma], and Web [Youtube] and peep game.

Catch Ian Kim Judd @ikjfomo at In The Open Friday. Known for his ambient focused NTS show Fifth World, Judd will takes us from zero bpm upwards and sideways. Take a dip in Ian’s liquid audio or swim in the creek he will be playing over. Either way we got you covered for this heatwave.