Wayward Music Series: Lotus Lungs + Welch + Coulter/Freedlund

Lotus Lungs is a trio of three innovative and accomplished guitarists: Matt Benham, Bill Horist and Tom Scully. Based in Seattle, they’ve left footprints in jazz, classical, rock, avant-garde, free improvisation and experimental music, contributing to a dynamic local scene. Individually, they have each stretched the boundaries of the instrument along three dimensions: improvisation, experimentation and tradition. In combo they fuel each other, developing themes and new sonic textures to produce spectacularly varied soundscapes that chart new, eye-opening territory. Tonight they’ll play improvised acoustic and electric sets to celebrate the release of their first album, Guitar Improv Summit Vol. 1.

Neil Welch will perform acoustic solo works on soprano, tenor and bass saxophones, traversing abstract “resonance imaginations” through multiphonics, air and non-tempered melody. Recognized as a major voice of the Seattle jazz and experimental music fields, Welch’s work is derived from improvisation, using largely non-traditional techniques that explore sonic resonance. With a strong connection to place, he performs and documents audio recordings prolifically within the urban and rural landscapes of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Neil embraces a variety of resonant musical styles, with work spanning avant-garde jazz, modern composition, solo saxophone, North Indian classical music, and electronic sound processing. His playing unabashedly confronts the acoustical limits of the instrument.

Haley Freedlund is a trombonist and vocalist, working primarily in free improvisation, jazz, pop, and new works. She has been based in Seattle since 2011, where she has since been establishing herself as a multi-disciplinary powerhouse in the performing arts community. She is a frequent collaborator with Wayne Horvitz, Tom Varner, Christian Pincock, Heatwarmer, Karl Blau, Inverted Space Ensemble, and Verlaine & McCann. She has enjoyed collaborations with Cherdonna Shinatra, iji, Phillip Greenlief, Boom Tic Boom, The Empty Pockets, BATTERY, and St. Paul de Vence.

Amelia Coulter plays the alto trombone. She works mainly with alternative techniques, including modified/prepared trombones and vocal-, text-, location-, and object-oriented performance, with a focus on the Gregorian chant tradition. She has: a bachelor of music from Cornish College of the Arts, and a cat named Hippo.

Each month, Nonsequitur and a community of like-minded organizations and artists present ten concerts of adventurous and experimental music in the gorgeous Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center (which sits on the traditional homelands of the Duwamish people): contemporary/post-classical composition, free improvisation and the outer limits of jazz, electronic/electroacoustic music, new instruments, phonography, sound art, and other innovative musics.

About Wayward Music Series

Each month, Nonsequitur and a community of like-minded organizations and artists present 10 concerts of adventurous and experimental music in the gorgeous Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center: contemporary/post-classical composition, free improvisation and the outer limits of jazz, electronic/electroacoustic music, new instruments, phonography, sound art, and other innovative musics.