Saturday 4/29/06 - 9:00PM

HERMIT ARTS VARIETY NIGHT

Hosted by Idris Goodwin featuring live musical performances by
Malcolm Palmer (urban folk) www.malcolmpalmer.com
Serengeti (hip hop) http://www.myspace.com/serengetiemo
Lupe Martinez (Rock) www.almostrosario.com
Army of Juan (Hip Hop Soul)
Mike Coy (Acusto-rock)
and many, many more
Raffles! Prizes!

A Benefit for the Hermit Arts collective, a chicago based creative company committed to new work. By intergrating different forms of live performance and media, they explore fresh approaches to storytelling. In May 2006 Hermit Art's show BRAISING was accepted into The Columbus Fringe Fetsival - this benefit will help fund their trip to Ohio.

HAPTIC: the facts
Haptic is a Chicago-based trio consisting of Steven Hess (pan American, dropp ensemble, On, Fessenden), Joseph Mills (Jonathan Chen, dropp ensemble), and Adam Sonderberg (civil war, dropp ensemble), that creates dense, drone-based improvisations that at various times can evoke the meditative, persistent qualities of a late-period Morton Feldman composition or the violence and intensity of the Norwegian experimental quartet Supersilent. Initially conceived as a vehicle for live collaboration, Haptic has incorporated a different, rotating fourth member for each performance. The unique contributions of that fourth member create a new and challenging situation for the rest of the group to operate within and send the music in unpredictable directions--from subtly shifting, delicate textures and timbres to bursts of aggressive, rhythmic noise. Formed in the spring of 2005, Haptic has since performed throughout Chicago, and collaborators to date have included such luminaries as Tim Daisy (Vandermark 5, Dragons 1976), Deanna Varagona (Lambchop), Berlin-based percussionist Tony Buck (The Necks), Alex Barnett (The William Young), Jon Mueller (Collections of Colonies of Bees), and Nick Butcher (Programmable Press). Individual members of the group have recorded for a multitude of labels, including Kranky, Crouton, Longbox Recordings, Tonschacht, Carpark, Absurd, and BOXmedia, among others.

One of the key bands of the 'new wave' of Scandinavian jazz currently attracting much press attention, Atomic brings together five important young musicians from the adventurous jazz underground of Sweden and Norway. Formed in spring 1999, they quickly forged a strong group identity without sacrificing individual freedom of expression. Combining the powerful, cutting edge Oslo rhythm section of Håvard Wiik on piano, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten on bass and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums - a combination that received rave notices as the rhythm team of the Coltrane-influenced 'cult' group Element - with the Stockholm front-line of trumpeter Magnus Broo and saxophonist Fredrik Ljungkvist, this group are one of the freshest acoustic ensembles to have emerged in the new millennium.

Atomic grew out of the reaction against the so-called 'mountain jazz' (or ECM school) begun 15 years ago by the vigorous, high energy Coltrane inspired group Element. 'Our tone is much more back to basics, in a way, the music is right to the point,' explains Haker Flaten.
Playing their own compositions that mix a distinctive approach to 'free' playing with grooves and modes, their interplay and ability to take their music in new and interesting directions has resulted in musical collaborations with a variety of leading contemporary jazz musicians including Chris Potter from the USA, Iain Ballamy from the UK, the Fin Jukka Perko and the Swede Per "Texas" Johansson.

While they make no secret of their love for several leading American jazz musicians such as Archie Shepp, Charles Mingus, George Russell and Keith Jarrett, the music of these masters is mixed with an equal love of European free jazz from the Sixties. Unlike many young American jazz musicians who appear stifled by the so-called 'jazz tradition', Atomic regard the American and European jazz traditions as an inspiration rather than a restriction, a jumping off point to realise their own direction and place in the music.
These diverse elements have inspired a musical style that is new, fresh and original, winning audiences over wherever they play. 'We learn from the American and European scene, then we go our own way,' says Haker Flaten. Following their performance at the Oslo Jazz Festival in August 2000, Roald Helgheim of "Dagsavisen" said, 'At the end of a long jazz festival, listening became a duty rather than a pleasure. Then to everyone's surprise the Swedish-Norwegian group Atomic came on and made the last evening the best of the festival.'
No strangers to the touring circuit, Atomic were on the road almost as soon as they were formed back in 1999 shaping and refining their music. They have toured Europe and Scandinavia several times, including club and festival concerts at Blå in Oslo, the Nattjazz Festival, the Oslo Jazz Festival and the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival.

"The One AM Radio’s Hrishikesh Hirway is a man in awe of the world. His songs have an ache of being both daunted by and in love with what’s around him. That strange intersection between mourning and joy is where Hirway’s writing takes shape. His gorgeous and understated A Name Writ In Water [Level Plane] is his most recent attempt at reconciling these extremes, and once again shows they’re more similar than first glance reveals. In his production, too, Hrishikesh knits together the seemingly disparate warm sounds of violins and acoustic guitars with minimalist electronic clicks and cuts, and from this, he manages to create a texture and a palette all his own."
- David Lewis
"Hirway's prose is peppered with imagistic bits of landscape, all grass and dust and summer sunsets. Coupled with his breathy, organic whispers, much of A Name Writ in Water invites big, natural metaphors, somehow only easily comparable to snow-capped mountain ranges or towering icecaps. His compositions simply feel colossal. Unsurprisingly, A Name Writ in Water is stubbornly unassuming in its prettiness, inadvertently figuring songs as portraits, melodies as promises...charting the gray spots between highways and oceans, between guitars and laptops. The maps he draws are beautiful."
pitchforkmedia.com

Locals William Joel (aka Brenmar Someday) plays an experimental ambient set, and Adam Langston(guitars, pre-recorded loops, percussion), backed by up by Michael Silvestri (bass, percussion) and Jordan Roberts (drums) brings in "pop music" heavily rooted in old timey folk (finger picking), country music, and freak folk.

Tuesday 3/28/06 - 9:30PM
elastro electro/acoustic series
Carol Genetti/Eric Leonardson
Carol Genetti-vocals; Eric Leonardson-springboard
Wealthsource
Toby Summerfield-guitar; Brian Dibblee-laptop; Frank Rosaly-percussion/electronics

The experimental music duo of Eric Leonardson (springboard) and Carol Genetti (voice) have been playing together for almost 10 years. Using very basic and unlikely sound materials they keenly structure free flowing musical dialogues. With his self-built instrument Leonardson elicits spooky atmospheres and oddly comic vocal sounds from amplified coils springs, wood, and nearly anything else he can find. Genetti's unique brand of extended voice is informed by her study of jazz, Bulgarian, and Hindustani styles and techniques. Her vocal sound palette also echoes those sounds associated with electronic instruments. Together, their music possesses an uncanny "oneness" and has been described as disturbing, fleeting, and amazing. The duo has toured throughout Germany and North America, and their first CD Animus, was released in 1998."Animus takes the world of experimental musical instrumentation, extended vocalization and improvisation to the next level."—Glen Engstrand, The Improvisor

**reservations recommended** call 773 772 3616