Violinist and composer Marielle Jakobsons (Thrill Jockey) performs selections from her new album The Patterns Lost to Air, pianist and composer David Wesley Golightly (Midday Veil, Hair and Space Museum) returns to Seattle with original compositions for solo piano, and synthesist and composer Chloe Harris as Raica, performs original ambient dreams.

Marielle V. Jakobsons is an award-winning composer and interdisciplinary artist known for creating immersive, transportive sound worlds. Blending lush synthesizers and expressive strings, her music interweaves minimalistic patterns with moving melodies. Her latest album, The Patterns Lost to Air (2026), unfolds as a resonant world of pulse, shimmer, and melodic bloom. The work asks: What happens when we release our grip on familiar patterns—in sound, in self, in memory—and allow them to transform in the air around us? Jakobsons has released albums on Thrill Jockey, Students of Decay, Mexican Summer, Root Strata, and Important Records, and has performed at venues and festivals across the U.S. and internationally. She has received awards and residencies from organizations including the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, American Composers Forum, Brush Creek Foundation, and NEXMAP. Her work has been praised for its “astral elegance” (The Stranger) and “exquisite balance of melancholy and hope” (Pitchfork).

David Wesley Golightly is a composer, synthesist, and pianist known for his synth work in bands such as Midday Veil and Hair and Space Museum. For his new album, Seven Songs for Solo Piano, David returned to the instrument he learned as a child, transmuting the sound world of analog synthesis to the manual domain of acoustic piano. In so doing, David reconnected with the simple, immediate joy of making sound and following where it leads.

Chloe Harris (aka Raica) has been an integral and influential figure in the Pacific Northwest music community for over two decades. Her contributions as a musical artist, producer, DJ, mentor, record label owner (Further), and record shop owner have helped lay the groundwork and build the foundation upon which rests the current success of Seattle’s underground electronic music scene. 

Lauren Rodriguez has been playing and touring North America and Europe in independent rock bands for over 15 years, most recently as one of the lead vocalists and bass players in the post-punk outfit Terminator. In between tours and photography projects, Rodriguez has been composing cello works that play with the instrument’s polarities through repetition, delving into the push and pull of emotions that swell in tide-like repetitions. These passages embody the feeling of observing the quiet secrets revealed as one explores the low tides along the Pacific Northwest beaches in the middle of the night.

Sandesh Nagaraj is a composer and performer born and raised in Bangalore, India. His works have been featured in Rolling Stone, Metal Injection, Score Follower, and various blogs across the United States and Europe. Since 2006, he has toured with various groups, performing at venues and festivals throughout India and the US. He is half of the experimental duo Till the Teeth, with Jonathan Rodriguez. Sandesh will present solo works for electric ukulele inspired by lullabies from India and Iran. Accompanying Sandesh on a couple of pieces is Kian Farahani, an Iranian kamancheh player based in Seattle who has devoted over two decades to the study and performance of Persian traditional music.

Meadowgoat is warm dungeon synth, buzzing noise, and overgrown drone descend from the blistering sun down verdant meadow and into creeping soil.

Polt is a Seattle-based instrumental group of rotating members (currently Ben Miller, Hannah Groenke, Ezra Williamson, Dan Coles). The band is a reflection of each member’s vast pool of inspirations, including music, film, literature, poetry, and visual art. They create slow moving soundscapes that could loosely be defined as post-rock, using a wide array of instruments: electric and acoustic guitar, banjo, accordion, drums, hurdy-gurdy, piano, and synthesizers. Polt is in the process of making a new album, set to be released later this year.

Finnegans Wake by James Joyce Part II, Chapter 3
Performed with acute attention to musical detail, by Neal Kosaly-Meyer

The gargantuan eleventh chapter of James Joyce’s final novel, performed in its entire 4 1/2 to 5 hour length (including multiple intermissions), in an adventurously wild and musical performance, taking full advantage of the dramatic and liturgically suggestive qualities of the Chapel space.

Since 2014, Neal Kosaly-Meyer has been performing the successive chapters of James Joyce’s final novel Finnegans Wake, with careful attention to the book’s special musicality. Performances have been presented annually at the Chapel, and around the world, including Portland, Antwerp, Mexico City, Dublin, Glasgow and Basel. This year he presents the extraordinary and central Part II, Chapter 3, one of the two very longest chapters in the book. Any Joyce chapter is masterfully composed, and performed live communicates a cumulative and symphonic flow, hence the decision to present this enormous chapter in its entirety on a single evening. Three intermissions will be observed to insure everyone’s survival.

This eleventh chapter of the Wake delivers the experience of a long noisy evening at the Mullingar Pub, complete with wild yarns told, and radio and T.V. blaring in the background. Like the patrons and proprietor of the pub, we’re all likely to experience delirious exhaustion before it’s all over, but stay to the end if you can manage it: James Joyce has a magical way of winding up an episode, and this chapter is no exception to that rule.

Small Alien is a man and his machines making music. The solo project of local musician and music teacher, Paul Ehlen, Small Alien’s music explores the full range of sonic and emotional timbres offered by synthesizers and their kin. Small Alien employs all hardware electronic instruments to erect improvised soundscapes of both epic and delicate proportions. (You won’t see a laptop on stage)

Joining Small Alien for this special evening are a number of esteemed guests. Most important is visual artist and filmmaker, Greg McBrady, whose original videos have been dancing with Small Alien’s sounds for over 20 years. They are like Peanut Butter and Jelly, baby. Greg will be projecting an original film created to accompany Small Alien’s music as a full partner in the performance. Also joining Small Alien on stage will be local poet, Katy Ellis, reading from her deeply felt works about water and animals and people and plants. Her presence and words will duet with the music and will be a truly special gift to our audience. Two other secret special guest musicians will also be joining Small Alien for sections of the 2-hour set.

Come join us and be filled with a true audio and visual feast. A meal cooked up for the human spirit, sustenance for our tired hearts in these trying times. Doors 7 PM.

Please take care of the air we share: no artificial fragrances. Yoga mats or other personal seating apparatus welcome. Chairs and floor seating available.

Coming together to listen deeply; to move and to sound playfully, and to attend to a performance in tribute to beloved master musician and teacher, Stuart Dempster. (Please note that the celebration takes place over the course of several hours. No food or drink will be offered at the event, so please plan accordingly. Stuart requests that you bring no presents, just your presence!)

LISTENING TOGETHER (4 – 4:30 PM)
Chapel Performance Space at Good Shepherd Center (4th floor)

Deep Listening session with Brian Pertl and Leila Ramagopal Pertl

PLAYING TOGETHER (5 – 6 PM)
Picnic shelter in Meridian Park, directly behind/west of Good Shepherd Center (weather permitting; if not, we’ll meet in the Chapel) Please note, no amplified sound permitted in the Meridian Park area.

MERIDIAN EVENT for Stuart Dempster on his ninetieth birthday
(for best results, join us for Deep Listening in the Chapel before MERIDIAN EVENT!)

To celebrate Stu,
YOU ARE INVITED
To come together
To sing
To play
To dance
To listen
Spontaneously, improvisingly,

Or

Premeditatedly, composedly, choreographedly,
YOU ARE INVITED
In whatever mode you choose, to remember what he taught us:
YOU ARE INVITED
To always listen
To enjoy the silence
To play the silence
To leave space
To let your doing be transparent to what everyone else is doing
To direct your energy
To play with love
To listen deeply
To direct your energy and play with love towards a specific person or specific persons
To listen for the ending

TRANSITION (6:00 – 6:30 PM)
Chapel Performance Space at Good Shepherd Center (4th floor)

Video installation by Robert Campbell and ROOM. Please enter and exit as you wish, move about the space comfortably.

ATTENDING TOGETHER (6:30 – 7 PM)
Chapel Performance Space at Good Shepherd Center (4th floor)

Poem, “Gold and Oak” reading by Brian Komei Dempster

livingROOM, with original ROOM performers Sheri Cohen, Stuart Dempster, Renko Ishida Dempster, John Dixon and Tonya Lockyer, plus guests Loren Dempster, Neal Kosaly-Meyer, David Knott, Margaret Paek, and Steve Peters.

All are invited to linger following the performance to continue the celebration!

(photo: Danette Davis, courtesy of Earshot Jazz)

The Red Pants Collective, an improvised movement and sound project formed by father/daughter duo Giordana and James Falzone, are joined by movement artists Alia Swersky and Jadi Carboni (Graz, Austria), and sound artists Tom Baker, Heather Bentley, and Greg Campbell. 

Alia Swersky: movement
Giordana Falzone: movement
Jadi Carboni: movement
Tom Baker: guitar, theremin, electronics
Heather Bentley: viola and cello
James Falzone: clarinet, piano
Greg Campbell: drums, percussion, horns

Seattle Collaboration Society presents an evening of interdisciplinary free improvisation. The program begins with a 30-minute improvised performance featuring movement artist, choreographer, and educator Natalie Grant alongside jazz pianist, improviser, and Seattle Collaboration Society founder Jack Ramsey. Drawing on their distinct artistic practices, Grant and Ramsey will create a spontaneous dialogue between movement and sound in real time.

Following the performance, the space will open for a multidisciplinary improvisation session inviting musicians, dancers, painters, visual artists, and creatives of all backgrounds to participate. No prior improvisation experience is required—only a willingness to experiment, collaborate, and engage with fellow artists in a supportive, respectful, and open environment. Audience members who wish to remain for the open session are asked to participate actively rather than observe.

Doors open at 6:30.

Julie Slick is one of the most compelling bassists working today. Known for her wide array of unique tones and substantial melodic invention, she tours and records with the Adrian Belew Power Trio and her own bass duo-fronted band EchoTest, and has joined Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew’s Remain in Light project celebrating the music of Talking Heads. Her collaborators read like a “who’s who” of adventurous music: Les Claypool, Robert Fripp, Stewart Copeland, Victor Wooten, Danny Carey, and many more. This intimate Chapel setting is a rare chance to experience her up close.

Seattle’s Kitsune conjures unique progressive rock steeped in mysticism, odd meters, and cinematic texture, with electric violin, electronics, and fox masks in the mix. For this event they will be performing from their softer “Venus” repertoire.  Also opening the evening is Seattle guitarist Dave Webb, “guitar obsessed in the Pacific Northwest”, whose work spans the atmospheric indie rock of Moon Letters to more experimental terrain.

Bassist/vocalist Melanie Radford (Built to Spill, Blood Lemon) celebrates the release of her debut solo album For the Sake of Stillness, an inventive reimagining of lush ambient folk delivered with her singular touch. It was recorded during and in-between tours, coming together over a stretch of two years as a centering practice and statement of self. Constantly in motion from touring with Built to Spill, Melanie felt a deep need to make music that felt quiet, warm, grounded. She began collecting field recordings during her travels, going for long walks alone through cities, natural spaces, and neighborhoods. With these audio recordings as the foundation, Melanie built out melodies and rhythms, always keeping her bass and vocals at the heart of the music. For the Sake of Stillness is part meditation, part love poem, part hymn. The music is quiet, dreamy, steady and self-assured, propelled by melodic bass lines, musical minimalism, poetic lyricism, and Melanie’s powerful, haunting voice, which is the twin and complement to her bass. She will be playing with her band featuring Jim Roth (pedal steel), Lupe Flores (drums), and Lori Goldston (cello), with special projections and visuals tailored to the space.

Opener Sheridan Riley began playing drums at age eleven, inspired by the likes of Karen Carpenter, Led Zeppelin, the Jackson Five, ABBA, the Beatles, Deerhoof, Miles Davis, and Elvin Jones. After high school they played as often as they could, performing in contexts ranging from touring indie rock acts, country bar bands, and the Long Beach community college swing band. Since then, Riley has performed in the bands ALVVAYS, Dante Elephante, and Zen Mother, as well as a duo project with trumpeter Ahamefule Oluo called Insect Revenge, and a solo project called Peg. A frequent participant in the late, great improvisational series Racer Sessions, Riley has also collaborated with many Seattle artists including Lori Goldston, Wayne Horvitz, Haley Freedlund, Neil Welch, Cassandra Jenkins, Hand Habits, and Abbey Blackwell, among others.

Free jazz legend Scott Robinson makes a rare Seattle appearance to present a wide-ranging solo performance on a variety of instruments, including the seldom-heard C melody saxophone, featured on his unaccompanied album Solipsisms (2020). He will also engage with local phenom Neil Welch in a duo format.

Neil Welch opens with two works for solo saxophone, each of which will explore his deeply personal language on the instrument. Sonic areas of focus include the weaving of acoustically created multiphonic chord colors, singing through the instrument, air/wind sound, as well as melodies framed by standard and microtonal pitches. He’ll perform his 20-minute work, Puhpohwee, which has not been performed live since 2021. The word Puhpohwee translates from the Potawatomi Native American language as “the force which causes mushrooms to push up through the Earth overnight.” The work aims to sonically visualize the miracle of the mushroom’s emergence. This will be followed by a shorter, largely improvised work for the rarely-heard bass saxophone, pitched a full octave below the tenor.

Multi-instrumentalist/composer Scott Robinson has been a highly active presence on the New York-based creative music scene for more than 40 years, appearing on some 300 albums. Scott performs on both brass and reed instruments, and is equally at home with the traditional and the adventurous. A U.S. Jazz Ambassador and member of the Mingus Band for 30 years, he’s been heard on tenor sax with Buck Clayton, on alto clarinet with Paquito D’Rivera, on trumpet with Lionel Hampton, and on bass sax with the New York City Opera, as well as performances alongside a diverse roster of luminaries such as Anthony Braxton, Ruby Braff, Ella Fitzgerald, Clark Terry, Elton John, Bob Brookmeyer, Frank Wess, Chet Baker, Maria Schneider, and Roscoe Mitchell. As a composer, Scott has created large-scale multimedia works, solo performance pieces, jazz tunes and songs, and chamber pieces. In 2010, Scott formed ScienSonic Laboratories, a label releasing more than a dozen collaborative efforts with Roscoe Mitchell, Marshall Allen, Henry Grimes, Milford Graves, and many others. He is currently at work on his epic one-man improvised symphonic recording, Reach for Tomorrow. After nearly seven years of daily work, the first movement of fully-mixed music for more than 180 instruments is nearly finished. This project will take an estimated 12-15 years to complete.

Saxophonist Neil Welch is a Seattle-based improviser, acoustic and electronic artist, curator, composer, recording artist and educator. His practice is firmly linked to the natural world, welcoming inspiration from the abundant wildernesses of the Pacific Northwest. These influences are sonically reflected by a measured use of space and activated silence, with such specialized techniques as multiphonic-acoustic chord playing, microtonal pitch content, and air/wind-based sound. He is also a deep practitioner in the sculpting of a compelling melody, played on horn voices ranging from soprano to bass saxophone. He is a member of the acclaimed saxophone + electronics / drum duo Bad Luck, and Wayne Horvitz’s Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble. As a solo artist, Neil also particularly welcomes the emotive vulnerability of unamplified acoustic solo saxophone improvisation.

Curated by Haley Freedlund for Nonsequitur‘s NonSeq series.