hypersurface & Fred Lonberg-Holm/Toshi Makihara/Victor Vieira-Branco/Todd M
hypersurface:
hypersurface is an NYC-based trio consisting of Drew Wesely (guitar/objects), Lester St. Louis (cello), and Carlo Costa (percussion) focusing on the fractal levels of sonic form that emerge through improvisation. The trio’s work over the past few years has revolved around exploring timbral, durational, and formal aspects of improvisation through employing a large range of objects such as tile, railroad spikes, and ceramic plates to alter the sounds of their instruments as well as incorporating the natural acoustic sounds from the resonating chambers of instruments manipulated through amplification systems. The trio is deeply involved in exploring liminal sonic spaces which deconstruct imagined boundaries between sounds ‘interior’ or ‘exterior’ to an environment and emphasize the embodied phenomena which arise from a deep merging with the sonic moment. Relationships between timbre, duration, gesture, and rhythmic structures form a layered tapestry of sonic “particles” that breathe and move in and as the music.
Drew Wesely is a guitarist, composer, and improvisor based out of Brooklyn, NY. His music explores the intersection between noise and pitch running the gamut from ferocious energy and abstracted lyricism to repetition, space, and minimalism. His compositions aim to create dynamic, self-perpetuating musical spaces which embrace players’ idiosyncrasies and allow the music to grow from itself organically while maintaining a unique intensity. In recent years he has established himself as a unique member of the Brooklyn improvised music community performing and recording with Joe Morris, Ingrid Laubrock, William Parker, Francisco Mela, Ralph Alessi, Tom Rainey, Joe Moffett, Eli Wallace, Joanna Mattrey, Carlo Costa, Sean Ali, Hery Paz, Lester St. Louis, and many others.
Lester St. Louis is a composer, cellist, and curator based in Brooklyn, NY. An autodidact, St. Louis did not begin playing the cello until he was 16 years old and quickly learned that he has perfect pitch. Encouraged by his high school orchestra teacher, St. Louis dove into the cello with energy and respect. Lester has worked in, performed and created in artistic environments in The United States, Canada, South America, Europe and China with groups and artists such as Dré Hočevar Trio, Jaimie Branch Fly or Die, Ensemble Adapter, TAK Ensemble and many more. St. Louis was a Jerome Fund for New Music awardee in 2018 and was commissioned by the prestigious JACK quartet in 2019.
Percussionist, drummer and composer Carlo Costa was born and grew up in Rome, Italy. Since 2005 he has been based in New York City. In the past several years he has been making music which is largely improvised and/or experimental in nature. Through the use of a variety of unusual techniques and added objects Carlo has meticulously developed a distinctive and wide-ranging sonic palette. His long standing projects are Natura Morta (with Frantz Loriot and Sean Ali), Earth Tongues (with Dan Peck and Joe Moffett) and Moritz/Ali/Costa (with Jonathan Moritz and Sean Ali). Carlo additionally performs solo concerts and has released two solo albums to date.
Fred Lonberg-Holm/Toshi Makihara/Victor Vieira-Branco/Todd Margasak/Matt Engle
Cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm has played and studied music in a variety of situations from the Juilliard School to the gutter. A former student of Anthony Braxton, Morton Feldman, Bunita Marcus and Pauline Oliveros, his primary projects are his Valentine Trio and The Lightbox Orchestra. He is also a member of a number of ongoing collective projects (The Boxhead Ensemble, The Friction Brothers with Michaels Zerang and Colligan, The Flatlands Collective, Keefe Jackson’s Fast Citizens) as well as participating in numerous one off “ad-hoc” or infrequently convening ensembles.
Toshi Makihara’s performance work effortlessly blends percussion with dance-like body movement. Through a rigorous, systematic, and practiced process of experimentation and repetition, Makihara seeks out sounds that he and others have never heard before, experimenting with touch, force, and speed, and always remaining aware of sound’s relationship to the body. He uses a variety of percussion instruments, as well as objects found in nature and everyday items, such as metal or machine parts. Makihara first studied percussion in his home country of Japan, learning the importance of breathing and posture. He has also studied Japanese butoh—a performance style that involves playful, grotesque imagery and slow, controlled motion—with dance master Kazuo Ohno and others.
Victor Vieira-Branco is a vibraphonist, composer and improviser based in Philadelphia, by way of Brazil. he got his footing in the expansive creative music scene in Sao Paulo, having played extensively with trio repelente, a band with Rodrigo Hara and Mauricio Takara of Sao Paulo Underground, Hurtmold, Rob Mazurek’s Black Cube SP. In the later half of the 2010’s, Vieira-Branco was active in the free improv scene. He regularly performs in regular and ad-hoc ensembles throughout the Northeast.
Cornetist Todd Margasak makes sounds that seem to emanate from the jazz tradition and from householdappliances and simple hand tools. A former student of AACM trumpeter Ameen Muhammad and hard bopper Johnny Coles. Margasak has performed with Sonic Liberation Front and many others.
Matt Engle grew up in the Philadelphia area and has been an active member of the creative and improvised music scene for over 20 years. He has contributed to many varying musical situations and has previously performed with Dan Blacksberg, Bobby Zankel, Sonic Liberation Front, Shot By Shot, Jarrett Gilgore, Dave Liebman, Marshall Allen, Jaimie Branch, Elliot Levin, Anthony Pirog, Raymond King, David Middleton, Muhammad Ali, Oliver Lake, Tim Berne, Thurman Barker, and Brandon Seabrook among many others.
accessibility: ramp into lobby, then 7 stairs into theater