Lisa Alvarado

Lisa Alvarado (b. 1982) is an American visual artist and performer known for her free-hanging abstract paintings. Her works operate as stage sets and artworks simultaneously and engage with abstraction beyond the parameters of Western art history. Alvarado’s paintings accompany musical performances as a mobile setting for the band Natural Information Society, for which she plays harmonium. Alvarado’s work is included in the Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Previous solo exhibitions include Scab Diagram, The Modern Institute, Glasgow, Scotland (2021); Thalweg, Bridget Donahue, New York, New York (2020); Polyphonic Shadow Cloth, LC Queisser, Tbilisi, Georgia (2018); Sound Talisman, Bridget Donahue, New York, New York (2017); Traditional Object, Soccer Club Club, Chicago, Illinois (2013); and Limpia, Soccer Club Club, Chicago, Illinois (2012). She has also exhibited her work at the Bergen Kunsthall (Norway); Institute of Contemporary Art( Philadelphia); Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Bridget Donahue (New York); The Modern Institute (Glasgow); and KMAC Museum (Louisville). Selected performances include Palais de Tokyo (Paris); Pitchfork Music Festival (Chicago); Big Ears Music Festival (Knoxville); Rewire Festival (Netherlands); Institute of Contemporary Art (Philadelphia); Japan Society (New York); The Common Guild (Glasgow); and Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art (Portugal). Alvarado is represented by Bridget Donahue in New York.

Website

Joshua Abrams

Joshua Abrams is a composer, bassist & improvisor. Throughout his career he has recorded & toured with a remarkable range of artists that include extended engagements with Fred Anderson, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Hamid Drake, Theaster Gates, Neil Michael Haggerty, Nicole Mitchell, Jeff Parker, Mike Reed, Matana Roberts & The Roots. Abrams appears on over one hundred recordings & scored the music for numerous feature length films including four documentaries by Steve James: The Interrupters, Life Itself, Abacus: Small Enough To Jail, & America To Me. He co-founded the ‘back-porch minimalist’ band Town & Country, & with Matana Roberts & Chad Taylor, the jazz trio Sticks & Stones.

Since 2010 Abrams has toured North America & Europe with a shifting-line up of musicians as ‘Natural Information Society’. Natural Information Society (NIS) uses traditional & conventional instrumentation to create long-form psychedelic environments that join a wide range of contemporary musics & methodologies including jazz, minimalism & kosmiche. The project has released five albums for eremite records, including Magnetoception (2015), Simultonality (2017) & Mandatory Reality (2019). Automaginary, a collaborative album between NIS & Bitchin Bajas, was released by Drag City in 2015. Current & former band members include Lisa Alvarado, Jason Adasiewicz, Mikel Avery, Ben Boye, Hamid Drake, Emmett Kelly, Jeff Parker, Frank Rosaly, Jason Stein & Chad Taylor. For this concert, Natural Information Society is Abrams, guimbri; Lisa Alvarado, harmonium; Mikel Avery, drums & cymbals; Jason Stein, bass clarinet.

Jeff Parker

Jeff Parker is recognized as one of contemporary music’s most versatile and innovative electric guitarists and composers. With a prolific output characterized by musical ideas of angularity and logic, he works in a wide variety of mediums - from pop, rock and jazz to new music - using ideas informed by innovations and trends in both popular and experimental forms. He creates works that explore and exploit the contrary relationships between tradition and technology, improvisation and composition, and the familiar and the abstract.

Parker has released several albums as a leader, all to critical acclaim, including: Like-Coping (2003), The Relatives (2005) Bright Light In Winter (2012), The New Breed (2016), Slight Freedom (2016), Suite For Max Brown (2020), Forfolks (2021) and Mondays At The Enfield Tennis Academy (2022). The New Breed and Slight Freedom were named two of the Top 10 Jazz releases of 2016 by The New York Times, and The New Breed was named the Top Jazz Album of 2016 in The London Observer. Suite For Max Brown (2020), debuted at Number 1 on the Billboard Jazz Chart, and was included on numerous year-end Best Of lists, including WIRE Magazine, MAGNET Magazine, and The Guardian. Renowned contemporary music ensemble Dal Niente premiered Parker’s composition “Water On Glass” at 2017’s Ear Taxi Festival.