Untethered yet pleasant sounds from Asheville and Baltimore cruise on into your ears at THE RED ROOM.
Liz on Liz:
“I have always played music, piano then cello as a child. As an adult, I re-taught myself piano, and have been playing for the past ten years. At first nothing made sense. I was improvising on a few different types of keyboards, the music felt off and I was desiring something which was out of my reach. This went on for several years. Then a ‘cracking open’ – a very abrupt shift in understanding. I had just started to practice Shostakovich’s Preludes and Fugues. They’re still too difficult for me, but the way he moves around the keyboard loosened some unconscious constraints. Around the same time I played an electric piano for the first time, that one was a Wurlitzer. These two factors, and improvisation suddenly felt very natural. I could move around freely, and the touch-sensitivity of the electric piano allows for movement and variety in gesture and tone. That was years ago, and since then I have been playing a Rhodes electric piano. In improvisation I am most interested in melody and gesture, and letting melodies unfold themselves or go out of reach. I like to keep the rhythms open, untethered. Sometimes I play and it sounds new to me, and sometimes it sounds like an old familiar song that I can’t place.”
Emmalee Hunnicutt explores the subtleties of sound with her inventive cello playing. Classically trained from a young age, she brings an intimate understanding of the cello to her compositions and improvisations. Working in the realms of texture and emotion, her work acknowledges the mysterious nature of art and life. In addition to writing and performing as a solo artist, she is also part of a number of collaborative projects. Most recently, she released an album of improvised pieces with guitarist Shane Parish (Tzadik, International Anthem, Marmara) and bassist Frank Meadows (Cabin Floor Esoterica) under the name The Library of Babel on UK label Blue Tapes. Praised as “intensely special” by the Quietus, “Blue Nineteen” is a sign of things to come.
Sarah Louise is a 12-string guitarist based in the mountains of North Carolina. The impulse for a new composition comes frequently from observing the sounds and movements of the woods around her home. Lush and ethereal at times, yet embracing dissonance as well as tonal and time-signature shifts, her music often encompasses a full spectrum of emotions within one piece. All-original tunings, picking patterns and bold transitions mark her as a unique player. Scissor Tail Editions released her first album, “Field Guide,” in early 2015, which quickly became an underground favorite. Her brand new album, VDSQ Volume 12, is already garnering praise from media outlets like NPR and artists such as Ben Chasny, who calls Volume 12 an album “that makes me love the sound and possibilities of the acoustic guitar.” https://
