Elastic Arts

The Elastic Arts Foundation (EAF) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization focusing on music - art
(101)

11/09/2024

We’re absolutely thrilled to kick off the two-day Music in the Garden Festival TONIGHT!

Night one (Saturday 11/9) will have performances from Sharon Udoh’s Counterfeit Madison, visiting electronic artists Sarah Belle Reid / Ryan Gaston performing in a quad speaker arrangement, and the improvising vocal ensemble The Mouth is the Beginning (ft. Roberta Brenza, Paige Brown, Carol Genetti, Janna Lee, Julian Otis, Ben Zucker).

Night 2 (Sunday 11/10) will have a solo performance from the brilliant cellist Katinka Klein, Special Effect (new duo from Tyler Wagner and Sarah Clausen), songwriter Najee-Zaid, and a film premiere from Gabe Udofia.

These two nights will be an extremely special gathering of the Elastic Arts community and we’d love to see you! Artist Christina Sadovnikov has installed a beautiful art installation in our space too! Ticket link in bio with a special discounted two day pass, or tickets available at the door both nights. We’ll see you soon!

11/07/2024

TONIGHT! The Improvised Music Series welcomes Hugo Flores García and Teiku! 8:30PM!

Hugo Flores García (he/they) is a computer musician, improviser, programmer, and scientist whose creative practice spans improvised and composed music for guitars, sound objects and electronics, sound installations, bespoke digital musical instruments, and interactive art. His solo performance promises to be a captivating exploration of sound.

Teiku (co-leaders pianist Josh Harlow and percussionist Jonathan Barahal Taylor) build Teiku on the foundation of the music they grew up singing: their Jewish-Ukranian ancestors’ Passover songs, passed down aurally over generations. Using these songs as source material for expansive improvisation, the group weaves through an adventurous set that maintains its ritualistic origins while simultaneously venturing into the unknown. Their performance at Elastic will feature longtime friends and collaborators, Ben Willis (bass) and Molly Jones (woodwinds). Join us!

8:30 pm - Hugo Flores García

9:30 pm - Teiku

11/05/2024

The CLEAT Series has an incredibly special November edition planned this Friday with visiting artists Sarah Belle Reid + Ryan Gaston visiting Chicago and presenting new work for 16 channels. Reid and Gaston are presenting a structured improvisation for piccolo trumpet, MaxMSP, and homemade electronic instruments. The piece was developed over the course of the 2024, using the 16-channel CLEAT system. Much of the sound material explored in this work is created from very short bursts or grains of sound, which are strung or clustered together to form larger gestures. To accomplish this, they use a granular sample player built in MaxMSP, and a hardware-based pulsar synthesizer—a new instrument developed by Gaston specifically for use in this piece. The result is a dynamic, unpredictable soundscape that swings between sparse, delicate textures and frenetic swarms of noise.

Paige Alice Naylor and Haruhi Kobayashi are no strangers to the Elastic stage, but this will be the first time here presenting work as a duo. Each of them have written music for the CLEAT system in the past, often using voice as a central compositional tool. For this performance they will be remixing songs from their U.S. September tour using the CLEAT system, blending voices and electronics to create a more immersive, embodied experience.

Music at 8pm!

11/02/2024

Tonight! Join us for night two of the Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival with the Joy Yang Trio! The band will be celebrating the release of the new record ‘Live On’. Joy (piano), Mitchell Maftean (double bass) and Ori Sergel (drum set) bring raw emotions to life through their unique sonic performance, offering fresh original compositions and arrangements of Jazz standards. The new album is a live concert recording dedicated to the life and memory of Joshua Bell (1996-2021). Listeners are taken on a journey through time, space, rain and pain, emerging joyously in a dance that celebrates life. We’ll see you at 8:30PM!

10/30/2024

We’re honored to once again host Asian Improv aRts Midwest as they present the 29th Annual Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival with the first two nights here at Elastic Arts. This annual event is an essential cornerstone for highlighting and documenting the significant role that Asian Americans and their collaborators have in contributing to the city’s historic and vibrant musical landscape. Please join us!

Friday evening (11/1) will open with a duo from Chien-An Yuan and Naomi Columna. The night will close with the Francis Wong Ensemble, ft. Tatsu Aoki, Kioto Aoki, Mwata Bowden, Edward Wilkerson Jr., and Mai Sugimoto. Featured on the ensemble program will be selections from Wong’s Legends and Legacies II and III projects that explore significant musical moments in his family history in the Chinese diaspora. On Saturday night (11/2) the Joy Yang Trio will be celebrating the release of her new record ‘Live On’. Joy (piano), Mitchell Maftean (double bass) and Ori Sergel (drum set) bring raw emotions to life through their unique sonic performance, offering fresh original compositions and arrangements of Jazz standards. The new album is a live concert recording dedicated to the life and memory of Joshua Bell (1996-2021). Listeners are taken on a journey through time, space, rain and pain, emerging joyously in a dance that celebrates life. This will be an absolutely beautiful two nights with Asian Improv aRts Midwest, so do come out to support this long-running festival!

10/29/2024

This week’s Improvised Music Series is a night of fusion and an exciting blend of styles within this duo and trio.

Kiroff/Spuzzillo Duo (Cleveland) will perform a set of improvised, micro-tonal songs infused with free jazz and electronics. Tyler Spuzzillo will perform on fretless bass and Matthew Kiroff on a microtonally altered Wurlitzer electric piano where the micro-tones are achieved by filing down the tines. The vocal styles lie somewhere between Jandek, Cat Power and Neutral Milk Hotel, a wholly unique, eccentric mutation of forms.

Jacob Little Cloud Fawcett (Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Ojibwe) is a Chicago based drummer and composer who blends aspects of jazz and traditional Native American music in order to create original compositions that accurately reflect Indigenous culture and experience. He will be joined by fellow Chicago improvisors, Keefe Jackson and Ausberto Acevedo. This will be their first time collaborating on stage.

8:30 pm - Matt Kiroff / Tyler Spuzzillo duo

9:30 pm - Fawcett/Jackson/Acevedo Trio

10/28/2024

This Tuesday Elastic Arts + The CLEAT Series wraps up our series of artist-led introduction workshops exploring spatial audio. For our final workshop we have Norman Long here to discuss their experience writing and performing for spatial audio systems.

Norman will begin with a demonstration and discussion of their artist’s approach to multichannel sound. In the second half of the workshops, you will have an opportunity to experiment with multichannel sound techniques on the 16-channel CLEAT system installed at Elastic.

No prior experience with multichannel sound necessary! You will need to bring your own laptop to actively participate in the second half of each workshop, however you are also welcome to simply listen and observe without a laptop.

We’ll kick it off at 7:30pm, and it is FREE! We’ll be streaming this is as well, so tune in or stop by!

10/26/2024

TONIGHT! We’ve got a special Pleiades Series featuring some spooky and abstract sound + film! One of Chicago’s most multifaceted and prolific Hali Palombo will join us for a new set of audio explorations. Tonight she will be playing a live score to the 1922 silent film Häxan composed from audio recordings of wax cylinders. Preceding Hali’s performance we’ll hear a solo electronics set from Hanna Elliott aka Bankatez. This project scrapes the depths of dark textures, grooves, and timbres using samplers and modular synth. There are echoes of Hanna’s previous project HOGG, but it clearly goes to new distances.

Following the live sets we’ll have the classic Pleiades Jam for all femme/nonbinary/trans artists, but this time is special! Hali Palombo has provided a selection of silent films they’ve created for the jammers to improvise alongside. This is going to be an awesome night of sound and video, so bring your instrument!

Hit up [email protected] to reserve your spot in the jam. Admission is FREE for all jammers.

10/23/2024

SATURDAY! We’ve got a special Pleiades Series for October featuring some spooky and abstract sound + film! One of Chicago’s most multifaceted and prolific Hali Palombo will join us for a new set of audio explorations. Their work often explores a brand new approach to sound and video. Tonight she will be playing a live score to the 1922 silent film Häxan composed from audio recordings of wax cylinders. Preceding Hali’s performance we’ll hear a solo electronics set from Hanna Elliott aka Bankatez. This project scrapes the depths of dark textures, grooves, and timbres using samplers and modular synth. There are echoes of Hanna’s previous project HOGG, but it clearly goes to new distances.

Following the live sets we’ll have the classic Pleiades Jam for all femme/nonbinary/trans artists, but this time is special! Hali Palombo has provided a selection of silent films they’ve created for the jammers to improvise alongside. This is going to be an awesome night of sound and video, so bring your instrument!

Hit up [email protected] to reserve your spot in the jam. Admission is FREE for all jammers.

10/22/2024

Thursday’s Improvised Music Series brings together jazzy and electronic explorations with stunning results. Jakob Heinemann returns to Chicago with a collaborative ensemble with Norman W. Long, and Sebastian Strinning from Switzerland. Dave Gordon’s Plasmosonic Sextet then builds on Gordon’s long-running collaborations in creative music with a special performance utilizing Elastic’s unique 16-channel CLEAT speaker system. Sounds at 8:30pm!

8:30 pm -
Jakob Heinemann - double bass, electronics
Norman Long - laptop & synths
Sebastian Strinning - saxophone

9:30 pm - Plasmosonic Sextet:
Dave Gordon - piano, keyboards, percussion
Dushun Mosley - drums, percussion
Brian Gephart - tenor and soprano saxophone, percussion
Chris Dammann - bass
Jack Gallagher - bass trumpet

10/20/2024

This Wednesday we host our third spatial audio artist-led workshop as part of the CLEAT series’ *Making Multichannel Music* using the 16 channel CLEAT speaker system!

This week we have Elastro curator and prolific artist Paige Alice Naylor leading! They will be sharing their process from their sound installation “Sonant Arboretum” which premiered at Elastic in 2021, as well as demonstrate generative pre-recorded & live vocal processing through Max/MSP. If you come, you’ll get to play along with the patch too. We’ll have time for Q&A, and you could even bring a laptop and plug your own patch into the system if you’d like. Meet us here Wednesday at 7:30PM! It is FREE.

10/18/2024

This Sunday Local Universe presents the New Now Showcase! We’re excited to be hosting this series that highlights Chicago local artists of diverse genre. Tonight we have Buddhist noise poetry from Emotional Maturity, music concrete performance from 21 Million Kites (Ensemble), and the long running Black Diamond featuring Artie Black and Elastic’s own Hunter Diamond. We’ll start the music shortly after 7pm.

10/17/2024

TONIGHT!

Two intense solo acts full of cascading distortion take the stage for this week’s Improvised Music Series. Series curator Ben Zucker performs music of vibraphone and feedback from their new album Alike Untils, and NYC-based guitarist, writer, and “punk hero” Erica Dawn Lyle stops through Chicago to melt minds. Join us as we explore the creative worlds of these two solo artists!

8:30 pm - Ben Zucker
Vibraphone, electronics

9:30 pm - Erica Dawn Lyle
Guitar

10/17/2024

We’re thrilled to welcome cellist Jamie Kempkers this Saturday as he celebrates his new album ‘Amazing Music of Jamie Kempkers’ where he joins creative forces with bassist Tatsu Aoki. The two have a long running history of collaborations through various improvisational outlets including the great MIYUMI Project. Tonight we’ll hear the two stripped down to their core string instruments, amplified. Thanks to our friends at Asian Improv aRts Midwest for bringing this wonderful concert to Elastic. Music at 8:30pm!

10/15/2024

Join us Wednesday night for our 2nd week of the $free$ October Making Multichannel Music workshop series here at Elastic Arts. This week we have the wonderful Dani Jean-Baptiste and Dante Ammons giving us the rundown on the choreographed dance/spatial audio piece they performed here in June. We were all blown away and can’t wait to hear more about their process. We’ll get started at 7:30pm with their presentation, then leave time at the end for Q&A + general CLEAT inquiries. You can bring your laptop and plug into the system if you’d like, or bring an instrument and collaborate with Dani / Dante’s Max MSP patch! We’ll see you then!

10/15/2024

Join us for an incredibly special Elastro event one week from today! We’re honored to host Portuguese artist Rafael Toral performing a solo performance in a quad speaker arrangement! Elastro curator Daniel Wyche will begin the evening with an ensemble set including Emily Beisel, Bill Harris, and Veronica Salinas.

Rafael’s new record ‘Spectral Evolution’, marks a significant return to the electric guitar after 15 years in his “Space Program,” performing only with self-built electronic modules. Here, the unique compositional fronts of guitar and electronics crush together in a powerful new synthesis, as Toral weaves twelve distinct episodes into a flowing whole. Released on Jim O’Rourke’s reactivated Moikai, “Spectral Evolution imbues the ambiance of jazz harmony-inspired interplay with dense electronic mass in a new expanding universe.”

Join us! Music at 8pm.

10/11/2024

TONIGHT! We have three performances that integrate video and multichannel audio on our 16 channel speaker system. Come experience series debuts from Moth Vegas, WYRD MODULO, and the return of series curator Sam Clapp’s project Bliss Point! We’ll start a bit after 8pm

10/10/2024

We’re so happy to welcome back Shake Shook Shaken after a summer break. This is a theater/movement workshop series produced by Julie Meckler designed for people to gently bring body awareness, allowing participants to open up, explore outside of their comfort zone, bond with each other, create and show. By playing with these concepts using our bodies, voices, words, and each other, we will explore our own awareness and sensitivity as artists and people. This month we’ll have Lindsey Weinberg and Julie leading on the topic of COUNTERBALANCE!

No prior dance or acting experience is necessary, just willingness to move and exhale. This workshop series is for anyone and everyone.

What’s too much?
What’s not enough?
How do extremes balance each other?
Are you too loud? Do you need to speak up?

Come discover with us! Saturday at 12pm

Address

3429 W Diversey #208
Chicago, IL
60647

Website

http://www.elasticarts.org/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Elastic Arts posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Elastic Arts:

Videos

This Wednesday night Sharon Udoh curates a brand new event Pianist and a Partner Perhaps! Sharon has invited five wonderful (and very different!) pianists to perform a 20 minute solo set, or invite a collaborator (perhaps). It’s going to be so much fun hearing a full night on our Steinway grand piano, so come join us Wednesday night at 8pm! At this inaugural event, we have Erez Dessel, Paige Brown, John Bitoy, Anaïs Maviel, and Mabel Kwan. Don’t miss it!

We’ve got an exciting Elastro planned for November featuring the trio Garden Parties, a duo of Jack Langdon / Olivia Shortt, and a solo set from Nolan Chin. Garden Parties is an experimental improvisational trio consisting of Jeff Kimmel, Ben MacDonald, and MT Coast. The group was formed with the aim of bringing friends together to share in the joy of making improvised music. Their music can be described as minimal, jazz, noise, and ambient, but the motivation behind the music is to create spaces for exploration. Nolan Chin’s current program will feature prepared piano with electric guitar in a solo performance exploring pathways related to acoustic/electric manipulation under constraint, sympathetic resonance, free improvisation, and sonic textures created under the lens of mid 20th century music. Chicago-based organist Jack Langdon (he/him, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians), and the Toronto-based saxophonist and multimedia performer Olivia Shortt (they/them, Anishinaabe, Nipissing First Nation) will play an improvised set of electroacoustic, drone-influenced improvised music. We’ll get started at 8pm. Join us!

Join us this Thursday for an evening of experimental improvisation touching on chamber music, noise, collage, and silence. The night features a new acoustic trio The Good-by Number, and we’ll be celebrating a new release by Derek Baron (NY) and Luke Martin (MN). 8:30pm start! 8:30 pm - The Good-by Number Hannah Bureau - violin Bekah Doetzel - cello Ethan T. Parcell - drums, clarinets 9:30 pm: Derek Baron - piano Luke Martin - sine waves and cassettes

TONIGHT! We have an incredible CLEAT Series planned where two duos present new work for our 16 channel speaker system! Visiting artists Sarah Belle Reid and Ryan Gaston will present a structured improvisation for piccolo trumpet, MaxMSP, and homemade electronic instruments. The piece was developed over the course of the 2024, using the 16-channel CLEAT system. Much of the sound material explored in this work is created from very short bursts or grains of sound, which are strung or clustered together to form larger gestures. To accomplish this, they use a granular sample player built in MaxMSP, and a hardware-based pulsar synthesizer—a new instrument developed by Gaston specifically for use in this piece. The result is a dynamic, unpredictable soundscape that swings between sparse, delicate textures and frenetic swarms of noise. Paige Alice Naylor and Haruhi Kobayashi are no strangers to the Elastic stage, but this will be the first time here presenting work as a duo. Each of them have written music for the CLEAT system in the past, often using voice as a central compositional tool. For this performance they will be remixing songs from their U.S. September tour using the CLEAT system, blending voices and electronics to create a more immersive, embodied experience. Music at 8pm!