Bill MacKay & Nathan Bowles / TALsounds

Sunday June 12 * 7pm * MASKS, VAX REQUIRED * TICKETS

Bill MacKay is a Chicago-based composer, improvisor, guitarist and writer. He has created an extensive body of original work, while energizing the folk, avant-garde, and experimental diaspora. MacKay is also a poet, visual artist and polyglot, and is a member of both the avant-garde rock outfit Black Duck (with Doug McCombs) and the experimental groove-drone project BCMC (with Cooper Crain). Nathan Bowles is a musician and teacher living in Durham, North Carolina. His work, both as an accomplished solo artist and as a sought-after ensemble player, explores the rugged country between the poles of Appalachian old-time traditions and ecstatic, minimalist drone. Although his recent solo recordings prominently feature banjo, Bowles is also widely recognized as a masterful and versatile drummer, and he considers himself first and foremost a percussionist, with banjo (and piano) as a natural extension of his percussive practice. Current projects include his trio with Casey Toll (Mount Moriah) and Rex McMurry (CAVE) along with membership in long-running projects Black Twig Pickers and Pelt. Keys, the debut album from Bill MacKay and Nathan Bowles, is, on the surface, a collection of guitar and banjo duets – but from the opening moment, it is clear that Bill and Nathan’s agreed-upon duo is a living organism, growing as it goes.

TALsounds (Hausu Mountain | Chicago, IL) is the lush, synthesizer-driven, ambient project of Natalie Chami (Good Willsmith.) Equipped with an organic mix of ethereal loops and interstellar arpeggiation, Chami explores the vast light and darkness of the universe with a hauntingly beautiful vocal caress.