Doors open 6:30.
Guitar Worship Service is playful in name but the intention praises the importance of the creative possibilities of a guitar. Since 2013, GWS presentations select musicians/sound sculptors/artists to examine what a guitar physically or conceptually is. While there are different types of guitars (electric, acoustic, steel, bass, homemade, video game, etc.), past performances have given audiences diverse solo sets and unique one-off collaborations. With encouragement to push creative boundaries, the GWS series has but one requisite for every live performance: At least one guitar, in whatever capacity, is applied with unrestricted interpretation.
For this evening, the 10th Guitar Worship Service proudly presents five highly anticipated sets washed in improvised visual projections:
Golden Counting resulted from a 1 + 1 + 1 = 3 happenstance to form an incomparable trio. 12-string prepared guitar (Sue Ann Harkey) + cello (Lori Goldston) + electronics (Tondiue) seems an unlikely equation, however this project has performed once and only at The Chapel in 2023. Each of these musicians stand as pillars when performing solo sets. But 2023’s performance interlaced these three unique artists who effortlessly loped toward aural achievement. To hear 2023’s performance and to read the backstory on Golden Counting’s formation, review the link and you’ll understand how the math adds up.
Daniel Menche is an iconic experimental musician from Portland, Oregon. His extensive history of recording and performance continues to span over three decades. Menche’s sonic abstractions manifest through intense noise, immersive drones, dense ambiance, acoustic instruments, and many other sources creating an absolute, abstract sonic world. For this evening’s performance, Daniel will apply proven acumen toward interpretations of what a guitar is or rather can be.
Dave Webb has been obsessed with every aspect of a guitar since 1993. While most known as a technically mind-blowing rock and metal player with regional and international groups, Dave has ventured into jazz, free improvisation, and outsider territories. This will be his first performance at the Chapel but he is no stranger to musicians who have been regular performers here. In fact, he’s been a collaborator with several of them, so this venue will be an acquainted forum. But given his dexterity, it’s a mystery what genre or blended styles Dave will display for us.
The Colour Out of Space was a prolific duo with plenty of performances left in the vapour trails of their eventual disappearance. It has been eight years since the last witness. Patrick Neill Gundran (electric guitar) and Blake DeGraw (various brass wind instruments) re-emerge from the darkness to shine upon us their motley destinations to auditory chaos. Past sets have arrayed dense clashes of instrumentation not unlike planets colliding to orbiting silent voids not unlike the vastness of outer space itself. TCOoS’s trip could lead us anywhere including uncharted expanses. Welcome back, audionauts.
Moned produces as a guitar conduit that, by sculpting seismic walls of warm feedback, manipulating frequencies, and layering volume-swelling tones, further explores this instrument’s endless possibilities to sound nothing like its traditional intention. However, this set will present a piece titled “Mating/Demating” which will involve the amplified dismantling of an electric guitar built on the foundation of a tempered Larsen Effect. Create to destroy. Destroy to create. A unique one-off experience to witness.
Color Bard Visual projected eye-melting optics on the huge white wall behind the Chapel’s stage for the 8th Guitar Worship Service. Matthew Terry uses that wall as a canvas to improvise sound-triggered interactions with the performing musicians to create an audio/visual occurrence while transforming the Chapel into an ocular wonderland soundtracked by the strangest of guitar recitals.
Please join us for this exclusive experience.