Sonic Dreams: Chicago

"Sonic Dreams: Chicago" invites the audience to step onto the Big Stage for an immediate immersion into the spherical music of one of the most prolific sub-communities within the Chicago scene: Joshua Abrams presents his long-standing project Natural Information Society with Ari Brown as special guest as well as several Berlin musicians*. Also appearing live in Berlin for the first time is Mike Reed's The Separatist Party, with Ben LaMar Gay on cornet, Marvin Tate on microphone and the three musicians of Bitchin Bajas, who will also perform their own sound, dominated by synthetic keyboard sounds, in another set.

Natural Information Society

(US, DE)

Joshua Abrams has made a name for himself as a reserved bandleader who lets his fellow musicians shine. It's impossible to imagine the Chicago scene without the bassist, who has been tirelessly active in various contexts for three decades - whether in the form of his collaboration with Matana Roberts in the collective Sticks & Stones or the relaxed, minimalist approach with the group Town & Country. In 2022, Abrams was involved in Hamid Drake's Turiya project at Jazzfest Berlin. If there's a unifying element common to all of his musical outputs, it's his affinity for hypnotic grooves, which has also always been the linchpin of Natural Information Society. The group was launched by Abrams in 2010 as a musical outlet for his gimbri playing - the distinctive bass-like instrument of the Moroccan gwana - but has expanded its profile over time. Abrams' compositions blend influences from musical traditions from around the world, but always originally interwoven under the imperatives of jazz and contemporary music. The band's core quartet includes bass clarinetist Jason Stein, drummer Mikel Patrick Avery and harmonium player Lisa Alvarado. The latter is also active as a visual artist, designing, among other things, the tapestries that adorn the stage backdrop at the band's performances. The quartet itself has evolved into a remarkable live band, but has been augmented by different guest musicians* for nearly every record - an essential aspect of the concept with which the group pays tribute to Don Cherry's approach to organic music, which sought to bring people together while combining skill with innocence unencumbered by genre burdens. The current album "Since Time is Gravity" also features numerous Chicago musicians*, of whom Ari Brown stands out in particular: the experienced saxophonist is co-founder of The Awakening and has collaborated several times with Evlin Jones and Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio. For Jazzfest Berlin 2023, the band has invited Berlin musicians* Anna Kaluza, Mia Dyberg and Axel Dörner.

Line-up

Joshua Abrams - Gimbri

Lisa Alvarado - harmonium

Jason Stein - bass clarinet

Mikel Avery - percussion

Ari Brown - special guest on tenor saxophone

Local musicians*:

Anna Kaluza - saxophone

Mia Dyberg - saxophone

Axel Dörner - trumpet

__________

German premiere

The Separatist Party

(US)

Drummer and bandleader Mike Reed is a driving force on the Chicago scene. He leads bands like People, Places & Things and Loose Assembly, works with greats like Roscoe Mitchell or Wadada Leo Smith and plays alongside Nicole Mitchell and Tomeka Reid in the group Artifacts. In addition, he also acts backstage as the operator of clubs such as Constellation or The Hungry Brain. As soon as the pandemic allowed it again, Reed bundled his artistic energy and gathered musician* friends into a sextet in January 2022 to work on new material. In addition to the three multi-instrumentalists of Bitchin Bajas (Cooper Crain, Rob Frye and Dan Quinlivan), the group is joined by cornetist Ben LaMar Gay and spoken word artist Marvin Tate. The band's latest debut album is marked in equal measure by expressivity and somber intimacy. Featuring Tate - a powerful musical personality - the tracks explore the contradictions and difficulties of everyday life, addressing subtle racism, violence and solidarity. Musically, they move candidly between ecstatic free jazz and danceable grooves, dissolving any tension between body and mind into thin air.



Line-up

Mike Reed - drums

Rob Frye - tenor saxophone, flute, drums

Cooper Crain - guitar, synthesizer

Dan Quinlivan - synthesizer

Marvin Tate - Spoken Word

Ben LaMar Gay - cornet, flugelhorn, percussion

__________

Bitchin Bajas

(US]

Since forming in Chicago in 2010, Bitchin Bajas have been pursuing all manner of sonic hypnotism, striving for a psychedelic listening experience that is equally reminiscent of Terry Riley's minimalism, the spacey krautrock of early Tangerine Dream, and the harmonic drones of La Monte Young, but filtering all of these influences through a rock-like concision. The trio's collaborations are marked by the seemingly inexhaustible musical facets of its members, guitarist and keyboardist Cooper Crain, woodwind player and keyboardist Rob Frye, and bassist and keyboardist Dan Quinlivan. Over the years, they have recorded with vocalist Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Natural Information Society, and Haley Fohr of Circuit des Yeux under their Jackie Lynn alias. Their own sound - dominated by synthetic keyboard sounds and interspersed with Fohr's improvisational excesses on flute and saxophone - has been constantly evolving, and Bitchin Bajas have always reconciled it with their irrepressible curiosity for sounds from around the world. Although the group has suffered some setbacks during the past few years - such as the pandemic or the theft of most of their vintage synthesizers in 2018 - they have returned to their old form. In 2021, they released a series of famous Sun Ra songs as synthesizer arrangements under the title "Switched on Ra" as a tribute to Wendy Carlos' classic "Switched on Bach." And last year, the trio released their most consistent album to date, "Bajascillators," which erases time and space in four hypnotic trips.



Line-up

Cooper Crain - keyboards

Dan Quinlivan - keyboards

Rob Frye - keyboards, woodwinds