Sunday, May 23
7pm CT
Streaming on Twitch
FREE, $5+ suggested donation (100% goes to the artists)
ARTIST LINE-UP & SET TIMES
7pm CT - DC Current
7:20pm - Model Home
7:40pm - Bushmeat+Nik Francis
8:00pm - Travis Johns
8:20pm - Marlo de Lara
ARTIST BIOS
DC Current is Jim Ryan (keyboards, sax, poetry), Sarah Hughes (sax), Kirsten Warfield (trombone), Steve Arnold (bass), Alan Kirschenbaum (drums). This Washington D.C. area band plays free-style jazz and cosmic sounds in various configurations of local and visiting musicians with focus on acute attention to listening and intense but articulate expression of original ideas. Jim Ryan is a bandleader and multi-instrumentalist, presently concentrating on keyboards, saxophone and the promotion of DC Current his most recent musical project. Sarah Hughes plays alto saxophone and other winds. She has studied classical music and jazz extensively in academic and performance settings (She has a Master of Music from The New England Conservatory and workshop engagements with the late alto saxophonist Lee Konitz.) However, she considers herself primarily a free improviser. The first woman to play Trombone in the U.S. Army Band, Kirsten Warfield, has moved on after 20 years of service, to live as a full-time artist, seeking & exploring all the creative avenues she can discover. Steve Arnold, bass, graduated from George Washington University a few years ago in music and English. He has become a go-to jazz bassist in the DC area. For several years Alan Kirschenbaum occupied the drum throne of the house band for the Sunday jam sessions at the Brixton Pub on U Street in D.C.
If you’ve been sleeping on Model Home, Nappa and Pat have become a prolific and potent unit of “liberated sound, vision and performance” emblematic of DC’s thriving musical underground community. Self-releasing nearly 20 albums in two years, Pat Cain and Nappa have perfected a sound; a raw expression that is wholly their own. A perfect musical balance attained through intense experimentations in sonic and lyrical imperfection. Nappa’s blurry-eyed spoken word raps should be recognised alongside the powerful polemics of Moor Mother or the explosive experimentation of Pink Siifu, or fellow DC legend Sir E.U. Nappa is an artist deeply entrenched in the expression of rap but one that recognises there are so many sonic ways in which to frame his state of mind. Which is why the frazzled sound design of Pat Cain has made Model Home such a perfect backdrop for Nappa to express himself. Rap existing in unison with raw electronixxx, dancehall, noise, industrial and whatever else they throw in the mix. Special guest Dolo Percussion. https://modelhomedc.bandcamp.com/
Bushmeat is Dr. Thomas Stanley’s electroBush, improvised electronic sound art and words designed to emancipate the listener from archaic and destructive tendencies and beliefs. https://eatbushmeat.bandcamp.com/ Nik Francis (b. 1981, Milwaukee, WI) is a percussionist, electronic musician, and auditory neuroscientist. Francis began taking lessons in classical piano as a child, while also teaching himself computer music and analog audio electronics. Having found an interest in the neuroscience of listening, Francis earned both a B.A. (UIowa) and Ph.D. (MIT) in Speech and Hearing Sciences. Today, Francis is a neuroscientist at the University of Maryland and a performing artist living in Washington, D.C.. Francis’s electronic music has explored the use of granular synthesis and electro-acoustic instrumentation. For nearly two decades, Francis has focused on improvised music—initially with computers, and more recently concentrating on percussion. Francis has worked with artists such as Tyler Higgins, Jim Ryan, Layne Garrett, Dave Sewelson, William Parker, and Jamal Moore. Francis uses the study of sound and the practice of music to facilitate interpersonal exchanges of higher consciousness and well-being. https://topology.bandcamp.com/
Travis Johns is a sound artist residing in Ithaca, NY, whose work includes performance, installation and printmaking, often incorporating eco/bio-based themes and electronic instruments of his own design. As an improviser, he performs primarily on electric bass and electronics; with studies in the field conducted under the tutelage of Fred Frith, Joelle Leandre and Butch Morris, among others. Active in the San Francisco Bay Area experimental music scene for several years, Johns moved to Costa Rica in 2011 where he collaborated extensively with visual artist Paulina Velazquez-Solis on Raro, an immersive sound and sculpture installation that represented Costa Rica in the 2013 Biennial of the Central American Isthmus (BAVIC). Since returning to the states, first to Baltimore and later to Ithaca, he’s continued to apply his trade as a composer, educator and sound artist under the nom de plume of VauxFlores. https://vauxflores.com/
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, artist Marlo De Lara received a PhD in Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds. Previously under the moniker of “Marlo Eggplant”, her practice works within the realms of sound performance, visual distraction, and film. As curator of the Ladyz in Noyz international feminist arts collective, she promotes emerging artists/musicians who are women. Her research relates to feminism, representation of marginalized populations particularly within sound and music, and creative work as political action and she provides workshops relating to sound practices and hardware, DIY collectives, and narratives as creatively productive political possibility. https://marlodelara.squarespace.com/