An evening of expansive and alchemical performances by Beam Splitter + Rage Thormbones, Alex Zhang Hungtai, and Jessika Kenney and Eyvind Kang.
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Alex Zhang Hungtai
After retiring his project Dirty Beaches, Zhang has been focusing on explorations of improvised music, Free Jazz, and his new role as a composer. His newer compositions predominantly works with saxophone, synthesizers, percussion and piano, furthering his research on ritualistic music of liminality. Besides his solo work, he is also a member of a Free Jazz/experimental trio with Portugese minimalist/architect David Maranha, and Free Jazz Drummer Gabriel Ferrandini in Lisbon. Zhang currently works as a composer for film soundtracks, along with acting in independent films.
https://alexzhanghungtai.bandcamp.com

RAGE THORMBONES is an ongoing collaboration between trombonist/composers Matt Barbier and Weston Olencki. They explore the outer reaches of instrumental performance and brass technique, often combining hand-built instruments, extreme preparations, and geometric approaches toward harmony with analog/digital synthesis to create immersive environments of dense sonic forces. Recent collaborators include Kevin Drumm, Michelle Lou, Liza Lim, Timothy McCormack, Laura Steenberge, Wolfgang von Schweinitz, Lester St. Louis, Katherine Young, and British pop maverick Scott Walker. They have fulfilled residencies in the composition departments at Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Princeton (in progress), and New York Universities, recorded for HatHut and Populist Records, and are best friends. Weston lives in New York City and Matt lives in Los Angeles.
https://soundcloud.com/rage-thormbones

Jessika Kenney and Eyvind Kang -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nKgX5LyIp8&list=PL8OLNhDAXlGsExvmZrQfhvsoI-F_-wkfG

BEAM SPLITTER - Audrey Chen and Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø - is a duo for amplified voice, trombone and occasional analog electronics.
Utilizing the pure sounds of acoustic and closely amplified sound sources, the duo joins together two individual voices into a distinct dialog that delves
beyond the borders of the corporeal elements of extended technique and sound. There is an intimacy and conflict that becomes evident as the two personas intertwine, in moments joining together seamlessly and in the next, being left with the feeling of irrevocable fracture. The two manage between these extremes with a kind of improvised grace that reveals an effort towards a common goal. It is an honest metaphor for a human relationship in process that even in the most serene moments can leave one raw and entirely exposed.
www.beamsplitter.org

"Slow in motion, yet quick in phrasing, Beam Splitter swings precariously from trapeze bars, spinning wingless above the ground, taunting Mother Earth to claim gravity’s fugitives." — Todd Gruel, A closer listen (USA)