Full Mantis / Rempis-Dorji-Damon and way more behind the screen!

•MILFORD GRAVES FULL MANTIS 7:00 pm (Film Screening!)

•BEHIND THE SCREEN CONCERT: 9:00 pm
_Dave Rempis+Tashi Dorji+Tyler Damon
(Chicago / Asheville)
_Tom Carter+Damon Smith+Sarah Ruth+Aaron Gonzalez+Stefan Gonzalez
(Houston / Boston / Denton / Oak Cliff)
_Monte Espina+Parham Daghighi+Kevin Butler
(Dallas / Austin)

MILFORD GRAVES FULL MANTIS
Best Documentary Feature, Oak Cliff Film Festival 2018.

First ever feature-length portrait of renowned percussionist Milford Graves, exploring his kaleidoscopic creativity and relentless curiosity. Graves has performed internationally since 1964, both as a soloist and in ensembles with such legends as Albert Ayler, Giuseppi Logan and Sonny Sharrock. He is a founding pioneer of avant-garde jazz, and he remains one of the most influential living figures in the evolution of the form. Oscillating from present to past and weaving intimate glimpses of the artist’s complex cosmology with blistering performances from around the globe, Milford Graves Full Mantis is cinema full of fluidity, polyrhythm and intensity, embodying the essence of Graves’ music itself. Directed by Jake Meginsky and Neil Young.
https://www.fullmantis.com/

DAVE REMPIS + TASHI DORJI + TYLER DAMON
A hard-charging but patient trio that came together in the fall of 2017, after saxophonist Dave Rempis, a stalwart of the Chicago improvised music scene, worked with both Tashi Dorji (guitar) and Tyler Damon (drums) individually as part of a lengthy solo tour of the U.S. that he undertook in the spring of that year. Dorji and Damon’s work as a guitar/percussion duo has become well-known, a highly refined and specific language developed through relentless touring and recording over the last few years, with a sound that straddles improvised music, rock, and any number of as-yet-undefined territories. These two provide an incredibly fresh take on the possibilities inherent to spontaneous composition. The trio’s forthcoming debut record Hiljaisuus is slated for release on the well-known Astral Spirits label in summer 2018.
https://www.daverempis.com/kuzu

TOM CARTER + DAMON SMITH + SARAH RUTH + AARON GONZALEZ + STEFAN GONZALEZ
Tom Carter’s electric guitar work weaves strands of melody, drone, fuzz, and charged silence into intricately detailed instant compositions. Best known for his work as half of the iconoclastic acid-folk improvisers Charalambides. His Long Time Underground recording was selected as the number-one experimental album of 2015 by Pitchfork.
https://tomcarterguitar.bandcamp.com/music

Damon Smith’s explorations into the sonic palette of the double bass have resulted in a personal, flexible improvisational language based in the American jazz avant-garde movement and European non-idiomatic free improvisation. Visual art, film and dance heavily influence his music, as evidenced in his collaborations with director Werner Herzog on soundtracks for Grizzly Man and Encounters at the End of the World, and an early performance with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. He also has collaborated with a wide range of musicians, including: Cecil Taylor, Roscoe Mitchell, Michael Pisaro, Wadada Leo Smith,vPeter Brötzmann and Peter Kowald.
https://balancepointacoustics.bandcamp.com/

Sarah Ruth employs hammered dulcimer, harmonium, electroacoustic sound art, and extended vocal techniques. She performs frequently both solo and with multiple bands and improvisational ensembles in the North Texas area. She is a University of North Texas graduate where she focused on vocal studies and electroacoustic composition. She has also studied with Meredith Monk and members of her vocal ensemble. Her recent albums have been released on Pour le Corps Music and Tofu Carnage Records.
https://www.sarahruthalexander.com/

Aaron Gonzalez plays all kinds of bass, the elder son of Dennis Gonzalez and older brother of Stefan. Together, the three of them, they are Yeels At Eels, with just Stefan they are both Akkolyte. Also with Stefan and adding the extraordinary portuguese guitarist Luis Lopes and saxophonist Rodrigo Amado they have been Humanization 4tet. Solo he is Deflowered Electric Flesh Bride and, along with Wyatt Rosser, Sarah Ruth and Stefan sometimes become Asukubus.
http://bandcamp.for-tune.pl/album/in-quiet-waters

Stefan Gonzalez is a drummer, percussionist, and vocalist from Dallas, TX. He is most known for his work with his family bands Yells at Eels and Akkolyte (with brother Aaron). Stefan also performs with Ingebrigt Haker Flaten’s super group The Young Mothers featuring Texas-based musicians Jonathan Horne, Jawwaad Taylor, Jason Jackson, and Amsterdam-based drummer Frank Rosaly. He performs solo under the moniker Orgullo Primitivo and also plays with the Dallas industrial noise trio Mother II.
https://tofucarnagerecords.bandcamp.com/album/clues-in-the-chaospile

MONTE ESPINA + PARHAM DAGHIGHI + KEVIN BUTLER
Monte Espina is an electroacustic free improvisation duo consisting of Ernesto Montiel and Miguel Espinel. The group focuses on the use of amplified sounds and signal processing to create evolving soundscapes and musical forms.
https://monteespina.bandcamp.com/music

Parham Daghighi is an Iranian-American multi-instrumentalist active in contemporary improvised music. He is a core member of Texas-based exploratory music groups SSBT and Friendship Cemetery. Recent recordings include 247 Main by SSBT on Astral Spirits and Friendship Cemetery’s self-titled split cassette on Self Sabotage Records.
https://thatscoolrecords.bandcamp.com/album/tcr-020-two-live-cassette

Kevin Butler has traveled the Earth since the dawn of time. He was plucked from his ancestral home in Latvia by a Gypsy caravan, sold to a carnival to become a sousaphone player before inexplicably ending up in Texas.