Ben McAllister shares his explorations in notation and improvising, trying to break out of the repetition we so often fall into playing with loops and computers.  He’ll be playing both solo, and with his frequent collaborator, the drummer Neil Wilson. 

When I create, I like constraints – I like limitations. What are some things in 4s? Vertical and Horizontal: 4 beats to a bar, 4 on the floor, 4 tracks to record with. The first time I got a 4-track recorder, in the same breath I heard “The Beatles recorded Sgt Pepper on a 4-track”, which was tantamount to being told “you can do anything on this machine.” But: even if you bounce things from track-to-track, you still have to plan ahead.

This planning ahead has been on my mind with every group I’ve played with. How to shape and steer the group toward the piece I’m hearing, without burying them in a page of something they always must read? This night is about exploring a line between planning and spontaneous. The first half will be solo work on various instruments using the notation frames you may have seen at my last show in October. In the second set, drummer Neil Wilson and I will play with the elasticity these frames afford.

You’ll see some visuals that may help you see where my heads is at while I play. In the second half, we’ll switch gears as I guide you through a little bit of my thinking in notating and organizing sound, then we will use a few of these guides to make some music as a group. 

Since 2013, Neal Kosaly-Meyer has been learning and performing from memory, with acute attention to musical detail, the chapters of James Joyce’s final novel, Finnegans Wake. The project has received notice and acclaim from NPR’s Morning Edition, CBC’s As It Happens, The Stranger and the New York Times. Performances have been presented in Seattle, Portland, Antwerp, Mexico City and Dublin.

Part I, Chapter 7 will be performed here for the first time in person (it was previously delivered online in December 2020). Chapter 7, also known as “Shem the Penman” is a surreal self-portrait of the artist, and also of the process of the making of Finnegans Wake itself.

Content advisory:  Finnegans Wake, Part I, Chapter 7 includes multiple racial slurs.

Wearing masks is encouraged.

Wielding between them electric twang machine, select dynamically modulated crossblows, Italian battle zither, and the fearsome 3-button gargle tube, the four wizards of Subvector Colloquy return to the stage with an evening of freshly unimagined thaumaturgical delights: spells, incantations, enchantments – perhaps even a cryptid or two.

Tom Baker spends most of his time inventing modes of flight, and trying to get lift. He practices and practices, working on the length of the running start, size and texture of the wings, the speed and rate of acceleration of the flapping. He has enjoyed momentary freedom from gravity, and vows to keep trying for sustained orbit. Meanwhile, he also makes music. Leanna Keith uses a variety of tubes and air (otherwise known as flutes) to create melodies, textures, and conjurations. Local speculationist Keith Eisenbrey ponders and putters with the inner workings of music far more hours of the day than the majority of surveyed dentists recommend, and may still be wandering around in an oblique pitch-class dimension. Jim Knodle continues to outrun the wrecking ball in pursuit of the golden moments of music. He currently gathers select groups of like-minded players for algo-rhythmic performances.

An evening of avant-garde folk, free improv, and ambient music. 

Silica Gel adapts medieval texts into lush noise ballads & composes original art songs for two voices, custom electronics, percussion & various strings. Their sound is a unique synthesis of Early music with improvisation and folk elements that create a spacious & highly textured sound world. Coming out of the Birmingham, Alabama experimental music scene, they have toured nationally. 

Formed in 2018 while studying at Mills College, Jr. Mint Prince draws from freak folk, free improvisation, spoken word poetry, computer music, deep listening, and performance art. 

Since 2021 August has worked voraciously in various shapes and sizes and a myriad of lineups that have encompassed the shapeshifting discography that inundates hypnotic folk, ambient, drone, noise, free improv, and colorful doom. Residing in Anacortes, Washington; August’s music is representative of the ocean, mountains, clouds, and trees at their core duality.

Ornament & Crime is percussion noise.

Seattle Guitar Circle, an eight-piece acoustic guitar orchestra, performs collaborative repertoire for layered guitars and voices including structured improvisation that sounds composed and composed collaboration that sounds improvised. This 2023 ‘Simple Songs’ performance brings to life new arrangements of pieces by Charles Ives, Chick Corea, Erik Satie, Hanai Rani, John Coltrane, Jon Brion, Jonny Greenwood, Leo Brouwer, Meredith Monk, Robert Fripp, Ryuichi Sakamoto – as well as new work from composers within the core SGC team.

Seattle Guitar Circle was founded in 1993 by Steve Ball, Bill Rieflin and Bill Van Buren. For 30 years, they have been playing eclectic, polyrhythmic prog chamber music arranged for large acoustic guitar ensemble all over the Seattle area. Seattle Guitar Circle has many related sub-groups such as Tuning the Air (seven years of weekly shows at Freemont Abbey), Tiny Orchestral Moments (seven-plus years of workshops and live shows) and Argentina’s Electric Gauchos, recording and performing in Seattle since 1997. This international community was initially born via Robert Fripp’s Guitar Craft workshops that began in 1985. Each SGC performance is a combination of tightly-arranged chaos, layered guitars “circulations” – where each guitarist plays one note at a time in evolving melodies.

Drawing inspirations from jazz, folk song, improvised music, visual score, martial arts/dance, spoken word, plant life, the beauty of the Pacific Northwest, and the powerful gift of friendship and community amidst the post-pandemic era, ‘FORAGER’ – depicts original music that is foraged, (biodynamic & without pesticides), expressing the musical subtlety, flexibility, vitality, and synchronicity of all four of its members as composers, artists, and friends. Alaska native Martin Budde, Seattle native Jackson Cotungo, Julian Weisman and Rocky Martin perform original compositions that stretch the boundaries of the four instruments within their traditional settings, and do their part to create a sonic and energetic environment of carefully crafted landscapes of rhythm, harmony, melody, texture – metal and wood music – for all to share resonance and feed the ear – from soil to skin; no fear.

Forager will record their debut live concert album, celebrating all found, foraged, harvested, and curated things; audiences are encouraged to bring their own foraged items. 

Rocky Martin will be presenting paintings and visual art on display and for sale.

Doors open at 7:30.

Please note that our building’s elevator is now back in service!

Three sets of electronic music exploring voice, audience-phones-as-instrument, controlled feedback, and ambient space jams.

Lainie Fefferman will use a combination of vocal processing and networked sample triggering to create jaunty grooves and ambient soundscapes that leave the listener woozy like the end of a five-course rooftop meal.

Jascha Narveson will play a set of controlled feedback using the sound of the room as a starting point to launch into an atmospheric slow burn that sounds like a mini weather system.

Raica will have her modular synth called Bebe play a generative set of ambience and sound efx to drip in and mellow to.

Please note that our building’s elevator is now back in service!

Intervales is the electronic/ambient music project of composer, electronic musician, and drummer Alex Vittum. Performing with acoustic percussion, synthesizers, and live video processing, he is obsessed with hypnotic and melodic themes, and has an enveloping, contemplative sound that is playful, sentimental, and at times ominous.

Alex’s formative percussion studies were with noted jazz drummer Milford Graves, which brought a unique and expansive approach to his music. Alex’s love of electronics, percussion, and instrument building eventually drew him to Mills College, where he obtained an MFA from the Center for Contemporary Music. Modular synth pioneer Don Buchla then asked Alex to join his team, beginning a long commitment to exploring sound and music technology. Today Alex makes ambient music under the moniker Intervales, a term that originates from his New England roots.

Noel Brass Jr. is a composer/keyboardist/educator in Seattle by way of the Chicagoland area, inspired by ambient, blues & cosmic soul. Influences can be traced to sci-fi soundtracks, film noir, ND the legacy of improvisation and afro-futuristic jazz. Founding member of Afrocop, Noel will be joined by current drummer & multi instrumentalist Andy Sells, a long time Seattle veteran (FCS North, Cascadia 10, Select Level). Noel and Andy have worked together for years in various projects and different offsets, and plan on bringing a certain rarefied beauty, balance and soulfulness to the evening.

Curated for Nonsequitur‘s NonSeq series by Paul Kikuchi.

SFI Recordings presents an Evening of Inner Reflections featuring performances by the troubadour of modern new age music, Future Museums, along with duo Elrond, who will be performing a set of tranquil synth soundscapes augmented by crystal singing bowls, as well as the live debut of Seattle’s New Frontiers (who released their debut album (of) Inner Dimensions on SFI recordings in 2021), and energetic work and a guided meditation led by accredited yoga teacher and hypnotherapist Karen Gamble. Doors at 7 PM, music at 7:30.

Future Museums (Austin, TX) is the moniker of producer/multi-instrumentalist Neil Lord. Using a broad spectrum of influences ranging from ambient & new age, to long form free improv and kosmiche excursions, Future Museums aims to investigate psychedelic music from a kaleidoscopic angle. Since 2009, the project has absorbed dozens of collaborators and amassed a catalog of almost as many releases. When performing live, solo or with an ensemble, the aim of Future Museums’ spirit is to guide the listener gently by the hand into a phantasmagoric fugue state, in an attempt for a collective synesthesia.

Powerhouse electronic duo Elrond (Portland) is Ian Gorman Weiland (Antecessor, Hot Victory) and Vern Avola (Avola, EMS, Prizehog, Bear Spray). They provide a wide range of genre spanning soundtracks to usher in the bleak dystopian future now seemingly assigned to the human race. From hard hitting beats with relentless melodic sequences, to ambient slow burn, swamp slogging drones, Elrond bestows lush analog tones and digital arpeggios to the masses. The two-piece, most often accompanied by multiple tables of wire strewn analog and digital gear, combine their musical backgrounds of noise, metal, classical, and techno to conjure unique compositions. Be it melodic dance, deep listening, or somber reverb wall drone, Elrond can be considered a project that refuses to allow scenes, labels or genres to define it. Elrond is love.

Seeking an awakened consciousness through a sonic journey to our inner dimensions. All New Frontiers material has been manifested through the vessels of APC and JTK. This is Post Energetic Music for the Positive Nihilism Movement.

Opening and closing energetic work and a guided meditation led by Karen Gamble, a Yoga Instructor, Energy Worker and Hypnotherapist. In this evening’s program she will set the mood with a guided meditation into self-awareness and love. Karen thrives on connection and participation so if you are inclined, follow her lead and let yourself tap into your own energy centers. To finish off the evening there will be a group experience to move into our hearts and connect with our individual and collective soul’s journey. 

Led by pianist/composer Wayne Horvitz, Gravitas Quartet explores the intersection of chamber music and improvisation, with a broad palette of texture, sonority, rhythm, and ensemble fluidity, and a unique instrumentation. Horvitz’s wide-ranging compositions provide a compelling platform for untethered improvisations, woven together by the dynamic ensemble interplay of four master practitioners: Wayne Horvitz (piano), Peggy Lee (cello), Sarah Schoenbeck (bassoon), and Riley Mulherkar (trumpet).

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 Willem de Koch 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.