Black Archives Sweden x Inkonst: Joy Guidry (US)

A bassoon isn’t supposed to sound like this—and that’s exactly the point. Joy Guidry bends tradition into vapor, forging sonic spaces where vulnerability becomes ritual and noise becomes balm.

RIYL: Matana Roberts, Moor Mother, Julius Eastman, Alice Coltrane, Raven Chacon, Pamela Z, Angel Bat Dawid, Nyokabi Kariũki, Carl Stone, Du Yun.

Rooted in Black sonic traditions but never bound by genre, Guidry’s practice cuts across ambient, free improvisation, experimental electronics, and sacred sound. Their latest work, Five Prayers, is a suite of intuitive invocations—an unflinching communion with grief, healing, and queer spirituality. The result is less performance, more exorcism. Bassoon, voice, electronics, and breath blur into a single, pulsing organism—lyrical and haunting, hair-raising and deeply human. Born in Houston and now reverberating across stages from The Whitney and REDCAT to Venice Biennale and Big Ears, Guidry operates as both composer and channel. Whether working with JACK Quartet or Long Beach Opera, they craft visceral sonic rituals where ancestral memory collides with avant-garde precision. In Five Prayers, they lean into spaciousness, moving away from jazz-club chaos toward a more ambient, prayer-like intimacy. It’s music for those craving rawness—shaped by the body, unafraid of silence, and grounded in radical care.

Joy Guidry will be in conversation with Camila Borges, historian and archivist affiliated with Black Archives Sweden. Together, they will discuss aspects of Guidry’s work such as blackness, community, and storytelling through music. The conversation will last for 30 minutes.

This concert is presented in collaboration with Black Archives Sweden, amplifying stories and sounds from Black diasporic futures. https://www.guidrybassoon.com https://www.blackarchivessweden.com https://guidrybassoon.bandcamp.com