Tuesday, June 23
Setting
Doors 7:30 pm
[$18 at entry]
The North Carolina Piedmont-based trio of Setting bring together their substantial collective skills as musicians and their collaborative, explorative mindsets from groups such as Mind Over Mirrors, Califone, Black Twig Pickers, Pelt, Peeesseye, Sylvan Esso, and Jake Xerxes Fussell to bear in their inventive and rich improvisations. Multi-instrumentalists Jaime Fennelly, Nathan Bowles and Joe Westerlund subvert expectations while creating a sense of ease and wonderment. Their intricate interplay of synthesizers, cassette loops, banjo, keyboards, electronics, zithers, and a litany of percussive instruments form a tactile amalgam of celestial transcendence and terrestrial rhythm, a loamy pulse fluidly guiding every minute fluctuation in feel. Dedicated improvisers with years working together, the band has developed their own idiosyncratic vernacular and sense of flow. Setting’s self-titled album (Thrill Jockey) is a definitive statement of their improvisational acumen meeting compositional rigor, a robust wellspring of hypnagogic grooves and mosaiced textures. Setting harnesses the euphoria of communal creation.
Wednesday, June 24
Sensorium Chamber Orchestra presents Terry Riley’s “In C”
An annual performance on the ocassion of Terry Riley’s birthday
$10-$20 suggested
Sensorium Chamber Orchestra presents Terry Riley’s “In C”
An annual performance on the ocassion of Terry Riley’s birthday
$10-$20 suggested
California composer Terry Riley launched what is now known as the Minimalist movement with his revolutionary classic “In C” in 1964. This seminal work provided a new concept in musical form based on interlocking repetitive patterns. It's impact was to change the course of 20th Century music and it's influence has been heard in the works of prominent composers such as Steve Reich, Philip Glass and John Adams and in the music of Rock Groups such as The Who, The Soft Machine, Tangerine Dream, Curved Air and many others. Terry's hypnotic, multi-layered, polymetric, brightly orchestrated eastern flavored improvisations and compositions set the stage for the prevailing interest in a new tonality.
“In C” is ‘an open, guided improvisation where any number of musicians repeat a series of 53 short melodic fragments in sequence over a constant pulsing piano octave.’” This performance by Sensorium Chamber Orchestra, led by Benjamin Miller, ereatures the following performers:
Benjamin Miller: alto saxophone, guitar
Tim Holmes: alto Flute, F mezzo
Ralph Katz: soprano & alto clarinet
Joel Peterson: alto clarinet
Piotr Michalowski: bass clarinet, soprano saxophone
Mike Khoury: violin
Rich Griffith: upright bass
Ken Kozora: cornet
Eric Bernreuter: trombone
Josh Cook: vibraphone
Scott Lockard: guitar
Martin Schiller: 5-str. bass guitar
Jon Jackson : drums, marimba
TICKETS NOW ON SALE
Wednesday, September 30
Horse Lords
Doors 7:30 pm
or $20 at entry
Horse Lords were founded in Baltimore, Maryland in 2010. They evolved from the experimental collective Teeth Mountain and began as a trio with drummer Sam Haberman, guitarist Owen Gardner, and bassist Max Eilbacher, soon adding alto saxophonist Andrew Bernstein to the core ensemble. Though Horse Lords grew out of the fertile Baltimore noise and leftfield rock scene, a storied environment for artists and weirdos that has nurtured many an influential outsider band (Lungfish, Matmos), their approach is more omnivorous than the stippled rhythms of instrumental electric rock would indicate.
Across sixteen years of frequent touring, Horse Lords have released ten studio, live, and collaboration albums in addition to a split EP with fellow Baltimoreans Lower Dens, a handful of singles and compilation tracks. For RVNG’s FRKWYS series, the band collaborated with Berlin-based composer Arnold Dreyblatt, a one-time student of La Monte Young and Pauline Oliveros whose just intonation chamber music was a crucial part of the post-Fluxus Downtown New York City environment.
With the relocation of three of the four members to Germany beginning in 2021, the potential for more further creative exploration, and performance opportunities including the Moers Festival (with an 11-piece lineup, interpreting Julius Eastman’s music as well as their own), the interdisciplinary phases of the band’s music was poised for fascinating new directions. The band observes “We are always trying to balance working within the limitations of the quartet and pushing beyond them.
For their second studio album on RVNG Intl., Demand To Be Taken To Heaven Alive!, Horse Lords have followed this notion and augmented the instrumentation, expanding the format slightly to include bass clarinetist Madison Greenstone (TAK Ensemble), trombonist Weston Olencki (Nate Wooley, RAGE Thormbones) and vocalists Nina Guo (Departure Duo) and Evelyn Saylor (Holly Herndon, Caterina Barbieri) across a program of twelve original compositions.
Thursday, October 8
Hayden Pedigo
Doors TBA
Hayden Pedigo: man, myth, master of disguise; un-picker, finger-picker, absurdist, perfectionist. The unorthodox contender for Amarillo City Council, subject of the film Kid Candidate, and creator of the acclaimed Letting Go (2021) and The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored (2023) now embarks upon the release of his new album I’ll Be Waving as You Drive Away. An innovator of the instrumental genre, challenger of the stereotypical, son of a truck-stop preacher, he backs up a cherry red Silverado under his own smiling, Brylcreemed and Nudie-Suited billboard. His foot hesitates above the gas pedal as a cloud of dust rises. Where between beaming advert and disillusioned entertainer might his truest self lie? On this intentionally maximalist, genre-resistant work of warped instrumental Americana — an exclamation point at the end of an accidental trilogy of records — we, and Hayden, might just be about to find out.
Unlike its predecessors in ‘The Motor Trilogy’ (tied together by their vehicular Jonathan Phillips artwork) — which offset the clarity of sparse acoustic compositions with a carousel of personas and outfits — I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away sees Hayden turn his practice inside out, set fire to the dressing up box, throw all other modern acoustic guitar records to the flames, and trip on the fumes. Solidly honing in on his technical craft after two years of non-stop touring with the likes of Jenny Lewis, Devendra Banhart and Hiss Golden Messenger, Hayden Pedigo is ready to peel back the curtain and let the world in. His most emotionally candid record, “there’s something really human” about this final installment, Hayden professes. “No face paint, no blue skin, the character on the front is no longer a character — it’s actually just me. I’m trying to tell the audience, I actually want you to meet me, I want you to know who I am.”
Taking cues from John Fahey’s weed-and-whiskey infused, tape-loop-heavy 1966 record The Great San Bernardino Birthday Party, I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away is, Hayden reflects, not a straightforward solo guitar record, but in a sense “a micro-dose psychedelic album. I wanted it to be this tangible feeling, as if somebody had cut up a tab of LSD and put on a Fahey record.” Unafraid to push the parameters of American primitive, the walls of the album’s world are fuzzed-up and glimmering. Pedigo’s trademark, highly skilled guitar compositions, more intricate than ever, are augmented by influences he’s never been able to achieve on previous records. There are whispers of the prog-rock mellotrons of King Crimson and the heavy phasers and bass of Led Zeppelin; all helped along nicely by the psychedelic sensibilities of producer Scott Hirsch [Hiss Golden Messenger, The Court & Spark, William Tyler]. However it is vital and natural, says Hayden, to also be influenced by contemporary modern music in order not to make an esoteric, rambling solo guitar record. For example, Bladee’s Cold Visions — “a masterclass of experimental rap music” — inspired some similarities in approach, despite the artists’ distinctly different genre backgrounds. “There are so many records buried within this record…there’s a lot of micro-sampling going on, like a rap album,” he concludes (though this manifests in echoes and phrases, rather than direct lifts).
Trinosophes Projects is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization in the state of Michigan that supports, documents, facilitates, presesrves and furthers the arts and culture of Detroit. We are an independent, artist-operated entity located in the city’s Eastern Market district. Contributed and earned income goes directly into the hands of the artists we work with, so if you appreciate our efforts, consider making a donation to support our ongoing mission. Click here for a Paypal link.
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