We will be presenting this online through Experimental Sound Studio’s Quarantine Concerts streaming series!
Comfort Music + online edition
Thursday April 2nd 9PM on Twitch.tv
Hosted by The Quarantine Concerts by ESS.
$donate what you can
set one
Art Union Humanscape
Ayako Kato - movement, Jason Roebke - double bass
set two
Scan Lines Duo
Kim Alpert - video, Paul Giallorenzo - electronics
Ayako Kato :
Ayako Kato is a Japanese-native and Chicago-based dancer, choreographer, and improviser. She has been an artistic director of Ayako Kato/Art Union Humanscape since 1998 and presented her work in Europe, Japan, and the United States. In 2017, she was selected for a Links Hall Co-MISSION Fellowship and a 3Arts Residency Fellowship to work at Camargo Foundation in the summer of 2018. In 2016, she received a 3Arts Award in Dance, Meier Achievement Award, and was named Top 5 Choreographers of Chicago by Newcity Stage. In January 2016, the New England Foundation for the Arts, together with the Chicago Dancemakers Forum (CDF), selected Ayako as one of 12 artists for the Regional Dance Development Initiative (RDDI) of its National Dance Project (NDP).
Jason Roebke:
The diversity of Jason Roebke’s musical associations make him one of the most sought after bassists in Chicago and beyond. He composes music for two ensembles, Jason Roebke Combination and the Jason Roebke Octet. Solo performance and a duo with dancer Ayako Kato are also at the forefront of his creative activities. His playing is intensely physical, audacious, and sparse. The Chicago Reader described his work as “a carefully orchestrated rummage through a hardware store.” He is a member of the Jeb Bishop Trio, Jason Adasiewicz Rolldown, Jason Stein’s Locksmith Isidore, Mike Reed’s People, Places, and Things, and Jorrit Dijkstra’s Flatlands Collective & Pillow Circles. Roebke studied privately with saxophonist and composer Roscoe Mitchell as well as legendary double bass pedagogue Stuart Sankey. In 2009, he was awarded the Fellowship in Music Composition from the Illinois Arts Council. Roebke tours widely in the US and Europe.
Kim Alpert:
Kim Alpert believes in human-centric design and integrating technology with strategy in her time-based projects. With a background in fine art, music, and carpentry Kim brings an attention to detail and diverse styles to both her art and commercial work. Kim holds a degree in Digital Art & Design from Full Sail University and was inducted into their hall of fame in 2013. She has shown art at places like Stony Island Arts Bank, SOFA Expo, The Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago and Facets Cinematheque. She has an interactive room to visualize and create sound as part of the permanent collection at the National Music Center/Studio Bell in Canada. Kim tours internationally with performance projects building digital and analog video systems. Her performance practice include works with Mike Reed, Rob Mazurek, Matthew Lux, The Instigation Orchestra and a host of other artists.
Paul Giallorenzo:
Paul Giallorenzo is a Chicago-based improviser, composer, producer, and sound designer using piano, synthesizer, keyboards, and electronics in a diverse range of contexts with a wide array of Chicago and international musicians. He performs improvised, avant-jazz, experimental, and electro/acoustic music, performing regularly locally and throughout North America and Europe. Giallorenzo’s work has been praised for its “inside-out” nature – his ability to push the boundaries of “conventional” jazz toward more freedom but also, on the other side, to bring a measure of structure to more avant-garde material. In addition, he is a co-founder of the important Chicago performance space and gallery Elastic Arts. Writing in the online journal Point Of Departure, John Litweiler said, “His solos and aggressive duets are gems of after-Bop, after-Bley melody,” while AllAboutJazz.org lauded music that “smudges the lines between the tradition and the avant-garde.” His work can be found on the Chicago-based Delmark Records and Austin-based Astral Spirits labels, as well as various other imprints including Leo Records (UK), Not Two Records (Poland), and 482 Music (NY).
Homeroom is curating weekly Thursdays in April at Comfort Station, as part of our annual takeover of the Comfort Music Series. This year, we’re presenting an additional dimension — musicians collaborating with performers from another medium, including video, dance, spoken word, and puppetry.