Beben von Kobra (Chicago/New Orleans) brings together four of the leading figures of the Chicago and New Orleans music communities in an improvising quartet that is as singular in approach and diverse in style as its members, which include Aurora Nealand (reeds, accordion, objects, voice), Steve Marquette (guitar), Anton Hatwich (bass), and Paul Thibodeaux (drums).
Jack Wright is a saxophone extremist, dedicated to to free playing since 1979. Described twenty years ago as an "undergrounder by design," he is a veteran improviser based mainly in Philadelphia. He has played mostly on tour through the US and Europe since the early 80s in search of interesting partners and playing situations. Now at 75 he is still the "Johnny Appleseed of Free Improvisation," as guitarist Davey Williams called him in the 80s, on the road as much as ever. He continues to inspire players outside music-school careerdom, playing sessions with visiting and resident players old and new. His partners over the years are mostly unknown to the music press, and too numerous to mention. He's said to have the widest vocabulary of any saxophonist, including leaping pitches, punchy, precise timing, sharp and intrusive multiphonics, surprising gaps of silence, and obscene animalistic sounds.
Evan Lipson has operated as a musician since adolescence—intuitively seeking the liminal realms in which intellect and instinct, history and myth, and creative and destructive force intersect. Drawn towards aberrant perspectives at an early age, his formative experiences were primarily rooted in extreme and often discordant forms of rock, metal, free improvisation, modernist composition, jazz, oddball pop, soundtracks, noise, and electronic music. Massimo Ricci, of Touching Extremes writes, "Lipson easily stands among the best bassists I've heard lately, his terrifically strapping tone epitomizing the decision to really learn how an instrument works."
Rich O'Meara is a long-time DC improvisor. Solo percussion. Vibraphone, metal, wood, objects. Minimilaist and meditative.
