Warren Realrider is a Pawnee/Crow multidisciplinary sound artist based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is currently a part of the 2024-2026 cohort at the Tulsa Artist Fellowship. While studying painting at the University of Oklahoma he began an exploration of sound, materials, and site as elements of his art practice. Warren created the Tick-Suck noise performance project in 2016 and has since presented his solo works and sound performance collaborations in varied Oklahoma locations as well as distant locales such as S. Windham, Vermont and Los Angeles. His works, such as IIII Kitapâtu and Unassigned Data, work within the unclaimed spaces between contemporary n. american plains existence, universe engagement, and untethered sound to create sonic focused structures of human/item interface. Realrider works to play the tensions and time locations between objects, functions, and movements to create sound pieces assembled on the frameworks of noise art, improvisation, and experimental composition. Realrider will present a performance constructed from the lashing together of disparate sources of foraged audio reflecting his journey from Tulsa via Vermont to NonSeq in Seattle. Realrider will build a sound framework from his current, gathered field recordings and sample sets which will provide structure for electro-improv channeling of eco-input from selected Seattle locations/relations. 

Nathan Young is an experimental musician, improvisor and artist whose expanded practice includes drone, noise music and sound art. Young is the founder and curator of Tulsa Noise, Tulsa Noisefest and the Peyote Tapes record label. His music performances often explore the idioms of drone music and harsh noise and are characterized by heavy atmospherics and ecstatic intensity. Performing with a constantly evolving array of electronic and electro-acoustic instruments, Young uses extended and experimental techniques to create heavy and meditative drone compositions. He has released over 60 + recordings on independent labels as Alms, Narco Alms, Ajilvsga, Postcommodity, Flora Morte and Spirit Plate. Nathan co-founded the artist collective Postcommodity (2006-2015) and holds an MFA in Music / Sound from Bard College’s Milton-Avery School of the Arts. Young is a PhD candidate in the University of Oklahoma’s innovative Native American Art History Doctoral program where his scholarship is focused on Indigenous Sonic Agency. Nathan is the 2024-2025 recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts John Cage Award.

Curated by Kole Galbraith for Nonsequitur‘s NonSeq series.

Pianist Michelle Huang presents Classical Connection through the Ages: a lens through centuries of musical soundscape, connecting composers from the past and the present, featuring works by Debussy, Natalie Williams, Brahms, Missy Mazzoli, William Bolcom, and Carter Pann. This solo piano concert will feature three pairs of piano works, connecting living composers with pieces that were influenced and inspired by the established masters. 

Program:

Debussy Feux d’artifice (Fireworks) from Prelude Book II
Debussy Poisson d’or (Gold Fish) from Images Book II
Natalie Williams Five Bagatelles
Missy Mazzoli Bolts of Loving Thunder
Brahms Fantasie, Op. 116 
Carter Pann The Bills: 1. “William Albright” A Concert Rag
William Bolcom Graceful Ghost Rag

A native of Taiwan, pianist Michelle Huang enjoys a rewarding career as a dynamic soloist and chamber musician. She is happiest when playing concerts that allow her to storytell, to make connections, and to create an expansive and imaginative listening experience for the audience. She resides in Seattle with her husband and their beloved Golden Retriever, Tomo.

Seattle-bred, New York-based brass quartet The Westerlies return home to present their annual initiative Westerlies Fest, including NYC improvisers tilt – Isabel Crespo Pardo, Kalia Vandever, and Carmen Quill.

tilt exists in the space between improvisation and song, elastic and flowing, their music emerges from a shared love of words and experimentation. This Brooklyn-based collective brings together the voices of Isabel Crespo Pardo, Kalia Vandever, Carmen Q Rothwell. The intimacy found in the ensemble is apparent through their evolving chemistry on stage and their symbiotic improvisational approach.

The Westerlies: “an arty quartet…mixing ideas from jazz, new classical, and Appalachian folk” (New York Times) are a New York-based brass quartet comprised of childhood friends from Seattle: Riley Mulherkar and Chloe Rowlands on trumpet, and Andy Clausen and Addison Maye-Saxon on trombone. From Carnegie Hall to Coachella, The Westerlies navigate a wide array of venues and projects with the precision of a string quartet, the audacity of a rock band, and the charm of a family sing-along.

Naeim Rahmani will present a selection of solo guitar pieces composed by living composers, featuring Sergio Assad, Carlos Rafael Rivera, Michael Finnisy, Atanas Ourkouzonov, Arthur Kampela and others.

Naeim Rahmani is a classical guitarist based in Seattle. Born in Iran, he immigrated to the United States as a refugee and has since made a name for himself as an accomplished performer, both nationally and internationally. His talent and dedication to his craft have earned him numerous accolades, including a 2022 Goethe-Institut Residency Award, and a 2023 CityArtist Award from the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, recognizing his contributions to the city’s cultural landscape.

Naeim is also the artistic director of the Seattle-Isfahan Project (SIP). This collaborative venture brings together musicians from Seattle and Iran to create a shared workspace where performers and composers can come together to create new works for the guitar repertoire. Recently Naeim presented his project SIP 33 as part of the UW Guest Artist Series at Meany Hall for the Performing Arts. The forthcoming installment, “Displaced Voices,” sponsored by the Seattle Symphony, is scheduled to premiere in the fall of 2024. Outside of his performance career, Naeim teaches at Bellevue College and directs the guitar program.

Radio Noise Collective transforms the airwaves into a framework of sonic exploration, where participant-performers decode the universe through a symphony of radio hacking, unraveling the hidden dance of electromagnetic waves and the raw essence of noise-clouds in a captivating live performance.

Based in Nantes, France, Radio Noise Collective is a project proposed by Apo33 to perform with radio receivers and everyday cracked electronics. This project is based on an open and accumulative performance. That is to say, we use public radio transmissions, extremely local pirate radio transmissions and the transmission of the art medium itself, its relation to the public or performance space. Radio Noise Collective was conceived as an evolutive open collective, which implies that anyone can bring along a radio device or just themselves and participate in the interpretation of the space through radio noise, interferences and relationship to others.

The performances often entail an introduction / instruction of a score and the transmission of ideas and techniques related to those specific contexts. But this transmission, rather than being understood as a technical or pedagogical device, we believe is akin to that of John Dewey’s concept of transmission, where transmission is not the repetition of learnt subjects but instead transmission of the Radio Noise collective is a negotiated transmission of ideas and re-interpretation or direct experimentation with the radios, electromagnetic interferences, and the space in which the performance takes place. This approach allows for the performance to integrate musicians, amateurs, public participants, and often children within the movement. And children, like adults, here embark on a discovery of the space, the noise, the technology and the waves that interact with their bodies and the audio transmission.

Maria Thrän lives and works in Berlin and Seattle. They are an interdisciplinary artist and documentary filmmaker who explores the intersection of art, research, and technology. Working with sound, including voice modulation, live piano, field recordings, and video, Maria creates immersive installations that delve into the intricate connections between sound, language, politics, and nature.

Hi, You’ve Reached The Mailbox of Maria. Thanks for Calling, Please Leave a Message and I Will Call You Back will feature a live grand piano improvisation accompanied by E-bows and a live synthesis granulation using Supercollider. This performance delves into my personal exploration of embodied memory and fragments through the dialogue between the piano, my body as an instrument, and the live digital instrument within the resonances of space and the audience. It explores the question of how we archive our unconscious experiences and access them through the embodiment of a performative act. This delves into how the “repertoire of embodied memory” is expressed through gestures, narrating and potentially speculating my story in the present moment.

Supported by DXARTS, the City of Nantes, and the French Institute.

05elantra is a Los Angeles-based interdisciplinary visual artist, musician, designer, technologist, and curator interrogating liminal spaces in modern life. Through intricate fusions of experimental electronic music, dance, and animation they construct mirage-like glimpses of a world just beneath the surface of perception. Through their curation and development of Sound P.U.S.H they create an intentional community for emerging artists at the intersection of electronics and performance art. They also lead S.Y.N.C, a free improv electronics ensemble. In an era where digital data has eclipsed the ritual and tactile, S.Y.N.C. plays with these often juxtaposing ideas to embrace playful sonic overload and collective expression. For this performance, they’ll utilize an expansive, genre-bending sound palette to construct a contemporary drama that delves into our relationship with one another, the digital worlds we consume and construct, and the natural environments to which we are inseparably connected.

augustina vail moore aka august V.M. is a trans songwriter, DJ, music producer, composer & sound designer living and working in Seattle. for this performance, august will present a collection of musical sketches composed in preparation for the writing and recording of her first album. this music is inspired by: the deep sea and ocean floor; the echoes, pulse, and sub-bass pressure of dub, techno, and other soundsystem musics; the discovery and sculpting of new textures, atmospheres, and sound worlds; american songwriting lineage; and a handful of childhood images in whose presence her heart first opened. the performance will consist of voice, processed electric guitar, and electronics (synthesizer, sampler, mixer, and reverb + delay units)

Arabella is an installation and video artist exploring themes and dreams of their Filipino culture and collective liberation. They have too many CRT tvs and are constantly rearranging their Eurorack case. In collaboration with august VM, they will be exploring the curiosities and openness of the deep sea, by creating an installation utilizing video synthesis and light as a material. 

Curated for Nonsequitur’s NonSeq series by Connie Fu.

To have, or last, for some duration: 

Clove features a close group of players and improvisers attending to the interplay of emptiness and form. Clove draws on their flowers and roots in the punk, metal, noise and diy scenes, for syzygies of song, sound, and silence. 

From Upstate New York via Vermont, Meredith Davey (cello, voice, electronics) crafted songs and played bass in the indie-rock group Supernowhere. Their solo work features hypnotic grooves, liquid cello harmonies and poetic lyrics.

Hanna Broback (guitar, voice synth) leads the baroque and dark folk group Masha. An enduring presence in Northwest music, they have played numerous roles in groups such as Hanna and the Goose, 129,600 and Ancient Forest. 

Ian Gwin plays synth with Hanna in the experimental drone duo current (formerly Glum Reaper). He leads the group Ensemble Unnamable and has performed with Joey Largent, Stephen Fandrich, and others.

Interdimensional Immersion for Torben Ulrich

Cellist Lori Goldston and drummer Jaison Scott improvise together, moving freely between ideas that spring from jazz, metal, chamber music and a long list of folk and popular idioms. They first met in 2005, playing in a band with their remarkable late friend Torben Ulrich. This concert is dedicated to his memory.

Jaison Scott has played with several rock and metal bands including SINDIOS, and Severhead, and in experimental improvised music groups including Instead Of.

Lori Goldston plays written and spontaneous work on cello, and works as a composer, producer, teacher, curator, and prolific, widely varied collaborator. Classically trained and rigorously de-trained, her voice as a cellist is deeply textured and original, investigating connections between far-flung modes of thought. Her long, varied history as a prolific collaborator and connector includes work with bands, orchestras, composers, film makers and choreographers: Earth, Nirvana, the BBC Scottish Symphony, Black Belt Eagle Scout, Trimpin, somesurprises, Helms Alee, Mirah, David Byrne, and many, many more.

Quarteto Nuevo merges Western classical, Eastern European folk, Latin and jazz with an organic feel that packs a wallop! The ensemble’s razor-sharp precision is enhanced by jazzy interludes, lightly rumbling percussion motifs and mesmerizing rhythms. They effectively meld the music of ancient worlds and faraway places with a contemporary groove that enchants audiences of all ages.

Winners of two South Arts Jazz Roads Touring Grants and a South Arts Jazz Roads Creative Residency Grant, Quarteto’s master musicians create emotionally charged soundscapes with instruments and sensibilities that represent very different world cultures. Their unique instrumentation – soprano saxophone (Damon Zick), cello (Jacob Szekely), guitar (Kenton Youngstrom) and percussion (Felipe Fraga) – richly colors their wide-ranging repertoire, from Chick Corea’s “Children’s Song No. 6” to Mark O’Connor’s “Appalachia Waltz” to Traditional Macedonian “Gadjarsko” and original works “Hector, Desmond and Titus”, “Rain Song” and “Dizer O Que”. This performance will feature works from their newest large-scale composition Jazz Road Suite: Western States.

Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, guitarist/composer Alex Anthony Faide has a decades-long international reputation for being the secret weapon in rock recordings, arrangements, and stage productions in Europe and Latin America. Now based in Seattle, Faide released his long-awaited solo record, Particles of the Infinite, a display of guitar pyrotechnics in nine parts, on Trey Gunn’s label 7d Media in 2022.

Faide is the co-founder of cherished 3rd wave surf rock band, Los Twang! Marvels, in addition to Los Gauchos Alemanes/Electric Gauchos. He has also worked with artists including Sylvia Massy, Money Mark, Marian Gold, Erik Macholl, Gary Lucas, Milo Froideval, Daniel Szlotnik, Bill Rieflin, Trey Gunn, Crystal Beth (Fleenor), Markus Reuter, Namgar, Willie Campins, TROOT, Kathy Moore, Tiny Orchestral Moments, Wayne Horvitz, Amy Denio, Geoff Harper, Los Primitivos, and Lutz Petersen, among countless others. Faide spent 2017-19 touring, songwriting, and arranging, with Mexican hard rock heroes Molotov on their MTV Unplugged Show El Desconecte and as a sideman for Molotov front man Tito Fuentes’ acclaimed solo record El Ocaso. Since 2021 he has been working on a new multimedia project with legendary German producer/songwriter Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen, founder and main composer for the band Nena.

About tonight’s concert, he says: “It is a privilege to have a time and a space, imbued with the sacred opportunity to connect with a sacred force we can only summon together, in the here and now. In today’s world, it is bold to approach Music outside of the ravenous cravings of the “music industry”, to invest yourself wholly in the power of the ephemeral. But I wish to do so tonight. This will present itself as an evening of continuous sound, of and through solo electric guitar, but it is a container for something else entirely. There won’t be any acrobatics nor stage theatrics, or any visual enhancement. Probably a good idea to just sit back and enjoy the ride. Still, if you feel compelled to dance, do! if you feel compelled to nap, please do! Snoring is entirely optional and at your own risk. Welcome and thanks for taking the leap!”

Curated by Beth Fleenor for Nonsequitur’s NonSeq series.

(photo: Karen Moskowitz)