BEINGS • Collections of Colonies of Bees
Tue 07/23/24
8:00PM
18+
music
$26 ADV // $35 DOS
Show Lineup
BEINGS
(NYC)
Genre: Avant-Garde, Drone, Experimental, Experimental Rock, Indie, Noise, Psych
Beings, is the New York City-based supergroup quartet of Zoh Amba (saxophone, guitar,
vocals), Steve Gunn (guitars), Shahzad Ismaily (bass, synth), and Jim White (drums). From the
start, the quartet found a rare spark together, the music flows naturally as an ever-transforming
organism built on the quartet’s openness and willingness to explore together. Each musician
brings their own sensibility and distinctive voice to the music, which contributes to its fluidity and
singularity. They explore a variety of styles: structured songwriting, improvisation, spun out
drone, free jazz etc. They have their first album, There Is a Garden, out on June 7 onthe US label No Quarter.
* * * * *
Zoh Amba is a composer and instrumentalist from Tennessee residing in New York. Her music
blends avant-garde, noise, and devotional hymns. Before studying music at the San Francisco
Conservatory Of Music, New England Conservatory and studying with David Murray in New
York, she spent most of her time writing and practicing saxophone in a remote forest near her
home alone where she started to develop her distinct sound and approach. Today, her
powerfully unique avant-garde music is full of folk melodies, mesmerizing refrains, and repeated
incantations. Amba released her first two records in 2022. Her debut record O, Sun which was
produced by John Zorn and released on his prestigious label Tzadik. Zoh Amba’s second
record, Bhakti features Micah Thomas, Tyshawn Sorey, and Matt Hollenberg. She has
collaborated with a variety of high profile musicians such as Tyshawn Sorey, Vijay Iyer,
legendary bassist William Parker, Bill Orcutt, Brian Chase (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Jim White (Dirty
Three), Steve Gunn, etc. Amba has also performed at well respected venues and festivals
Roulette (NY), Ars Nova Workshop (Philadelphia), Vision Festival (NY), ReWire (NL), BRDCST
Festival (BE), Angel City Jazz Festival (LA), Jazz En Agosto (Portugal), Saalfelden Festival
(AU), and Big Ears Festivals (Knoxville).
Shahzad Ismaily is a Brooklyn-based musician, composer and engineer. Born to Pakistani
immigrant parents, he grew up in a wholly bicultural household. Exploring improvisation, tonal
shifts and rhythmic movement, Ismaily worked with a number of avante-garde musicians and
composers including Laurie Anderson, Anthony Coleman, Milford Graves, Eyvind Kang, Butch
Morris and Marc Ribot. Over the last thirty years he has played electric bass, drums, percussion,
guitar, synthesizers and all manner of sound-makers procured in life’s travels. Ismaily has done
work for dance and theater pieces, such as the film Frozen River (Oscar-nominated and
Sundance award-winning) and Inkboat (a butoh crew from California/Switzerland). He has
recorded and performed with a diverse crew of artmakers: Yoko Ono “Plastic Ono Band”, Laurie
Anderson, Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, Laura Veirs, Beth Orton, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Marianne
Faithfull, Faun Fables, Feist, Bryce Dessner, Dustin O’Halloran, Elysian Fields, Shelley Hirsch,
Nels Cline, Bill Frisell, Guillermo E. Brown, Graham Haynes, Keiji Haino, Colin Stetson, Ben
Frost, Damien Rice, Ceramic Dog, Laleh Khorramian, Jolie Holland, JFDR, Secret Chiefs 3,
Sam Amidon, Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer and more.
Jim Ronald White Jim White is a New York based Australian drummer, composer and producer.
Originating with Venom P Stinger in Melbourne he escaped with his band Dirty Three who
became well loved on an international scale. He has gone on to also form bands Xylouris
White, Jim White and Marisa Anderson, Springtime and The Double. He has recorded and
performed extensively with many others including Bill Callahan, Catpower, PJ Harvey, Mary
Margaret Ohara and Nick Cave. His extensive career has also included curating an All
Tomorrow’s Parties Festival (UK), creating a celebrated dance work “More up a Tree “ which
was one of New York Times’ top shows of 2015, and has composed for TV and film. PJ Harvey
has compared White to a ballet dancer while Spin magazine notes “Jim White’s drumming is the
abstract-expressionist masterpiece to modern rock’s paint-by-numbers mediocrity”. Time Out
New York referred to Jim White as “indie rock’s drummer of choice”, saying, “Those who play
with White speak of him with the ardor of religious converts”.
Steve Gunn is a New York-based guitarist and songwriter. With a career spanning nearly fifteen
years, Steve has produced volumes of critically acclaimed solo, duo, and ensemble recordings
on labels such as Matador Records, Three Lobed Recordings, Paradise of Bachelors, and
RVNG. His albums represent milestones of contemporary guitar-driven material, and forward
thinking songwriting. Steve has steadily processed his inspirations into a singular, virtuosic
stream. Close listening reveals the influence of blues, folk, ecstatic free jazz, and psych in his
continually unfolding output. Steve is currently somewhere working on new music.
Collections of Colonies of Bees
(Milwaukee)
Genre: Experimental
For two decades, Collections of Colonies of Bees have existed in various forms and incarnations, beginning with Chris Rosenau and Jon Mueller (who split time with post-rock band Pele).
From there, the line-up grew and evolved. At one time, Nick Sanborn — currently in the spotlight as one-half of Sylvan Esso — counted himself as a member. At another, the group joined forces with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon to release two albums under the moniker Volcano Choir. (In fact, it was Vernon who proclaimed of his collaborators: “If the world was perfect, they would be as big as U2.”)
Never content to paint the soundscape twice, the previously instrumental Bees now come outfitted with vocalist Marielle Allschwang and their most recent full-length, HAWAII, that finds the Wisconsin-based ensemble harvesting the fertile intersection between experimental and pop to maximum effect.