Combining elements of folk traditions with the spirit of chamber music and the energy of a composer’s collective, Cincinnati's The Happy Maladies create colorful and deeply personal music. Their exploration of song form, harmonic play, technical agility, and nuanced improvisations make their music raw, unique, and potent. A wildly creative voice in the world of acoustic new music. THM comprises Eddy Kwon (violin, voice), Peter Gemus (contrabass), Benjamin Thomas (banjo, guitar, voice), and Stephen Patota (mandolin, guitar, voice).
“Like some sort of dream supergroup featuring members of Grizzly Bear, The Flecktones, Kronos Quartet and The Books, the Maladies manage a sound that winds through psychedelic passages, classical interludes and intimate folk melodics — all through the course of one track… a progressive mix of Appalachian Roots, Neo-Classical Chamber music and modern Indie Folk.” - CityBeat Cincinnati
The acoustic performance will combine original music with arrangements of classical and contemporary chamber music, including a movement from Bela Bartok's Fourth String Quartet.
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For the last decade, percussionist Mike Weis' main gig has been with the Chicago band Zelienople. The band has released music on various international record labels including 267 Lattaajja (Finland), Under The Spire (Wales), PseudoArcana (New Zealand), Cook An Egg (France), Digitalis (USA), Root Strata (USA) Loose Thread (USA), and their current home is Type from the United Kingdom. Other projects include a duo with Scott Tuma (Digitalis), a trio with Tuma and Matt Christensen called Good Stuff House (Root Strata, Time-Lag and Indian Queen Records), and an improvisation trio with Neil Jendon and Andre Foisy (Locrian) called Kwaidan that recently released an album on Bathetic Records. He has also contributed percussion recordings for albums by Xela from the U.K., Black To Comm from Germany, Sweden's Jasper TX and America's The North Sea, Morning Recordings and Mind Over Mirrors. In addition to these experimental endeavors, Weis has studied West African rhythms with Ghanaian master drummer Gideon Foli Alorwoyie, and has also studied traditional Korean Pungmul drumming from the Korean-American group Ilkwanori. Weis has of late turned to the solo format to experiment with ideas that haven't found a place in his group projects. New York's Barge Recordings released his debut solo album, Loop Current/Raft in 2011. He will perform Death Meditation, a piece that promises to reflect and develop the ideas he has been pursuing in his solo explorations.