with Senso di Voce - Esin Gunduz and Megan Kyle

Jon Mueller - drums, percussion

Afterlife Cartoons is a tour of drum songs by Jon Mueller presented to small audiences in safe environments. In these performances, Mueller will use melodic phrases, repetitive patterns, abrupt shifts, and dynamic energy to construct abstract narratives of sound that are felt rather than told.

Bio (from wikipedia):

Jon Mueller (born 1970 in Waukesha, Wisconsin) is an American percussionist and composer, active in experimental and rock disciplines. Jon Mueller was introduced to music through his parents, and began taking guitar and piano lessons at an early age. After quitting both, he became interested in the drums after his friend inherited a drumset. The instrument appealed to him due to its focus away from melody. In an interview with Natasha Pickowicz, Mueller stated, "Hitting the drums and cymbals sounded good, no matter the combination." He then began taking snare drum lessons before moving to a full kit.

In 1990, he studied with jazz musician Hal Russell while attending Columbia College in Chicago. In the 1990s, he met guitarist Chris Rosenau, with whom he developed a long-time association. Together, they founded the groups Pele and Collections of Colonies of Bees. The latter group later co-founded Volcano Choir with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon. Their debut album Unmap reached number 92 on the Billboard 200 chart.

He has also worked with a variety of musicians such as James Plotkin, Rhys Chatham, Asmus Tietchens, Z'EV, Jason Kahn, Marcus Schmickler, Bhob Rainey, Jack Wright, and others. In 2003, he began experimenting with vibrating drums on top of speakers. This direction is documented on his What's Lost is Something Important CD, Metals CD, Physical Changes LP/CD/DVD, and Alphabet of Movements LP.

He has performed solo and in various groupings throughout North America, Europe, United Kingdom, and Japan, in venues including New Museum (New York), Arnolfini (Bristol, UK), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, (Montréal, QC), Issue Project Room (New York), Guggenheim (New York), and Cafe OTO (London, UK). His solo and collaborative recordings have been released by labels such as Table of the Elements, Polyvinyl Records, Type Recordings, Jagjaguwar, Hometapes, Important Records, Taiga Records, and many others.

In 1999, he formed the record label, magazine, and music distribution company Crouton. Crouton published over 40 releases, mostly in limited editions, featuring the work of The Hafler Trio, Asmus Tietchens, Daniel Menche, Robert Hampson, Robert Haigh, Jarboe, Lionel Marchetti [fr], Jason Kahn, Aranos, Alessandro Bosetti, Osso Exotico, Z'EV, Collections of Colonies of Bees, Pele, and many others, as well as his own releases. Crouton also organized events in the Milwaukee and Chicago areas. These were documented by the press and even filmed as part of a PBS documentary (on Ken Vandermark). The business closed in 2009. In 2009, he was referred to by Pitchfork as "an audacious ringleader for new music."

In 2011, he started his Death Blues project, described by Mueller as, "a multidisciplinary project that addresses the inevitability of death as impetus to become more present in each moment." Performances for the project took place throughout the U.S., including Hopscotch Fest[6] and Alverno Presents.

Rhythmplex creates projects designed for resonance. Often focused on a location or historical movement, various elements are combined to move an experience forward in new ways. Started in 2009 by drummer and percussionist Jon Mueller, Rhythmplex has produced a variety of multidisciplinary projects in addition to thoughtful products and events.

Learn more at:
rhythmplex.com
rhythmplex.bandcamp.com

Described as "transformative" and "wildly innovative" by their audiences, Senso di Voce | Sense of Voice is Esin Gunduz (voice/composition/harmonium/harmonica) and Megan Kyle (oboe, English horn).

Senso di Voce's work is about resonances, physical and metaphorical. They build new compositions and improvisations around their interpretations of ancient and early music from Western and non-Western traditions. They illuminate connections of timbre, embodied sensation, and emotional impact in order to bridge apparent divides of history and geography, and to create a captivating emotional experience that they share joyfully with their audiences.

The ensemble has created projects for the "post-industrial cathedrals" of Silo City, a collection of monumental repurposed grain elevators in Buffalo, New York. Using the reverb-profile of the silos, the duo recently reimagined the project in a surround sound version for gallery spaces, bringing one acoustical space to life within another. Recent projects include the sound installation Sounding Spaces for PLAY/GROUND 2021 and an upcoming gallery concert-lecture project in Rochester, NY. In August 2021, Senso di Voce was awarded a 2021 Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Grant.

For composer, vocal performer, and improviser Esin Gunduz, sound originates in the body. She explores life's energies as visceral sensory experience and sound, building landscapes of her own recorded-voice samples to surround acoustical instrumental textures, creating breathtaking acoustic vistas. She had her works performed at the NonClassical (UK), Banff Centre (CA), and as part of the National Sawdust Digital Discovery Festival (USA). — esingunduz.com

Oboist Megan Kyle performs as a soloist, improviser, chamber musician, and orchestral musician. She is fascinated by expressive extremes and unexpected acoustic phenomena on the oboe, experimenting with defamiliarizing or "glitching" the instrument through microtonality, multiphonics, timbral variation, and noise. She performs and creates material with the new music ensemble Wooden Cities, the musical research group Null Point, and the oboe/piano/violin/cello quartet The Evolution of the Arm. Her performance credits include the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival and Chicago's Preston Bradley Hall as well as the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, and New World Symphony.

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