Flame Keepers 89: Ben Garnett

Flame Keepers

Ben Garnett

July 17, 2023

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About the Artist

Ben Garnett is a Nashville-based acoustic guitarist & composer interested in possibility, composition, and connection. After majoring in jazz guitar performance (2016) at the renowned University of North Texas, Garnett moved into the world of contemporary American acoustic music, where he’s since made his home as an internationally touring artist.

In March 2023, Garnett released his debut solo LP “Imitation Fields” produced by Chris Eldridge (guitarist of the band Punch Brothers), on Padiddle Records. Described as a “vivid dreamscape of acoustic immediacy and electronic fantasy,” the album has since been written about in Premier Guitar, and has received recognition across the acoustic world. Acclaimed acoustic guitarist Bryan Sutton calls the work “…a beautiful record. Songs that are modern and musical, bringing out the best in every musician involved. I’ll be listening to this for a long time.”

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Flame Keepers 88: The Growth Eternal

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The Growth Eternal

July 10, 2023

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About the Artist

The Growth Eternal is the primary creative project of Tulsa-born, LA-based multi-instrumentalist ghalani. Conceived in 2018 as a necessary expressive outlet following years of rigorous jazz bass guitar study, the Growth Eternal (true to its name) provides ghalani with the consecrated space to intuit, evolve, and explore beyond the confines of genre and influence, operating, all the while, with humility and intention— a state akin to the Buddhist Shoshin (“beginner’s mind”).

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Flame Keepers 87: Isabel Crespo Pardo

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Isabel Crespo Pardo

July 3, 2023

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About the Artist

Isabel Crespo Pardo (they/them) is a NYC-based latinx vocalist, improviser-composer, and interdisciplinary artist. Rooted in conceptual clarity, their work actively entangles music, visual art, text and performance, always evolving to reflect the intra/interpersonal spaces they inhabit. Reveling in soft chaos, they embrace openness and specificity to create poetic work(s). More info »

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Flame Keepers 86: Lester St. Louis

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Lester St. Louis

June 26, 2023

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About the Artist

Lester St. Louis (b.1993) is a New York born and based Composer, Improviser, Cellist, Sound Designer and Curator. His work traverses through performance, installation, curation, artistic research and recording. His works are rooted in dynamic environments of improvisation both sonically and socially, ecstatic sound worlds. flow and interaction.  He has performed internationally throughout The U.S, The E.U, Canada, China and in South America; and collaborates with artists such as Chris Williams [under the moniker HxH],  Jaimie Branch’s Fly or Die, Ben Lamar Gay, Yaeji, Tortoise, Yo La Tengo, Miho Hatori, Dré A. Hočevar, Charmaine Lee, Isabel Crespo Pardo, TAK Ensemble, Random International, Irreversible Entanglements, Superblue, Terence Nance, Found Sound Nation, Wet Ink Ensemble and many more. As a composer, Lester has been commissioned by artists such as The JACK Quartet, RAGE THORMBONES, Jennifer Koh, String noise and Ghost Ensemble among others.

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Flame Keepers 85: Guido Kohn

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Guido Kohn

June 19, 2023

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About the Artist

Guido Kohn works with the sonic possibilities between instrument, preparations, digitallity and analogue effects. Raised in Buenos Aires, now based in Berlin, he considers himself an “expanded strings player”: classical education as a cellist first, later developed a fixation on the electric bass, eventually started playing electronic devices and no-input pedals. His performances are usually centered on improvisation, with experimental and noise aesthetics. He presents himself either solo or in diverse constellations, both stable (“El Segundo Es Terrible”, duet with Sofia Salvo, the trio with Edith Steyer and Samuel Hall, “Müller’s Revenge” with Dr. Nexus, Marcello Busato Utku Tavil, Isabel Rösler and Antti Virtaranta, as examples) and also inedit formations. As well, he is half of the LatinElectroPunk group Las Migrañas.

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Flame Keepers 84: Olivia W-B

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Rachel Weaver

June 5, 2023

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About the Artist

Olivia W-B is a guitarist, vocalist, and composer based out of Boston. Their work is about tension and anxiety between the personal and the political, exploring pleasure, pain, and the brutality of the mundane. Current projects include vocals for noise punk band Rong, compositions for sextet Premium Velvet Headache Pillow, solo guitar, and experimental art and music event series FIND OUT. 

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Flame Keepers 83: Rachel Weaver

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Rachel Weaver

June 5, 2023

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About the Artist

Rachel Weaver is a writer, environmental educator, mixed media artist, creative collaborator, and community organizer who works in various mediums to understand our environmental imaginations. They perform as blendways, expressing mixed media multisensory ecological reveries including soundscape ecology, sound collage, ambient music, field recordings, zines, fiber arts, future news, & nous news. Rachel has performed and produced mixed media performance art showcases at KUZU Community Radio, Denton Zine & Art Party, dallas contemporary museum, Dallas Museum of Art, Oak Cliff Film Festival, Interference Fest, Sonic Murals, Thin Line Festival, Speedbump lil d, University of North Texas, Texas Woman’s University, Denton-Dallas-Ft. Worth galleries and venues.

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Flame Keepers 82: Mike Haldeman and Alfredo Colon

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Mike Haldeman and Alfredo Colon

May 22, 2023

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About the Artist

Mike Haldeman spends much of his days searching and learning, trying to extract and uncover unexpectedly joyful and emotionally potent sounds from unexpected places and methods. mike takes the raw materials of guitars and clarinets, and through a labyrinthine course of cables and computers, sculpts sound-worlds that may resemble anything from howling gusts of wind, to gentle cascades of water, to a room full of quietly glittering miniature music boxes, to unsettling industrial clamor and clanging metal. he is grateful to be contributing to the flame keepers space, and particularly excited to be reuniting with friend and collaborator alfredo colon for this round of sound explorations in a new context together.

About the Artist

Alfredo Colon is a New York City native. The saxophonist was born to immigrant parents from the Dominican Republic and grew up in Washington Heights. He studied under musicians such as Lee Konitz, Jason Rigby, Steve Wilson and Jacob Sacks. Colon has performed alongside musicians such as Henry Threadgill, Moses Sumney, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Nduduzo Makhathini, Amirtha Kidambi, Harish Raghavan and many others. He has performed at esteemed spaces such as Jazz at Lincoln Center, Roulette Intermedium, BAM, The Jazz Gallery, The Stone, National Sawdust and a myriad of others. Colon was awarded the Jazz Coalition Commission Fund Grant in early 2020. His piece ‘A Witch Gets Married’ premiered online on October 2020. The performance can be viewed here. He is also one of the recipients of Roulette’s Van Lier Fellowship for 2022. Alfredo plays P Mauriat instruments and D’Addario reeds.

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Flame Keepers 81: Sofía Salvo

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Sofía Salvo

May 15, 2023

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About the Artist

Sofía Salvo is a saxophonist, improviser and composer from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Based in Berlin since 2019, her career today focuses on experimentation and improvisation, either with the baritone saxophone or with samples and different electronic media. Her work combines acoustic and electronic sounds, melting in a personal noise-textured language that contains darkness and mystery, but also humor. As a passionate supporter of the alternative music scene, she is not only a performer, but also a curator of various events in Berlin.

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Flame Keepers 80: J. Mordechai

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J. Mordechai

May 8, 2023

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About the Artist

J. Mordechai is a Brooklyn based composer-producer who uses sound to investigate the space between protest and pleasure. Since 2016, he has released music that spans genres of pop, folk, noise, and club music.  He has contributed scores to projects with choreographers Olivia Burgess, Liana Kleinman, Alice Pan, Evan Sagadencky, Rosie D’Angelo, and Max Stone. J. is a current performing member of Aisle Knot and Crosslegged in addition to previously serving in Beshken, Fast Preacher, and Slumberjack.  His latest release ‘Reveries’, a five-track EP recorded between 2021-2022 planted the seeds for the two full-length albums forthcoming in 2023. More »

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Flame Keepers 79: Sam Forst

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Sam Forst

May 1, 2023

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About the Artist

Sam Forst (he/him) is a musician and artist based in Portland, Oregon. His long-term practices include playing improvised saxophone music in outdoor spaces and home recording under the name Sage Rats. He is the author of a poetry chapbook titled Free Jazz Vanity Plate. His work concerns themes of memory and time, and incorporates influences from the musical traditions of the Southeastern United States, where he grew up. 

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Flame Keepers 78: Mobéy Lola Irizarry

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Mobéy Lola Irizarry

April 24, 2023

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About the Artist

Mobéy Lola Irizarry (they/she) is a genderqueer composer, improviser, multi-instrumentalist, painter, and transdisciplinary artist. Based in Brooklyn, they hail from the Puerto Rican diaspora in Hartford, CT, and are a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. She makes within the lineages of decolonial uprisings, collections of tiny mirrors at queer clubs, and things that come from trees. Mobéy is a cofounder and composer for Las Mariquitas, NYC’s Queer and Trans-centered Salsa band, and a member of the experimental performance trio Dendarry Bakery and the Latin Rock outfit AVATAREDEN. In 2023 alone she has performed at the Denver Art Museum, the Shed, was a resident artist at CEPA in Puerto Rico, established Las Mariquitas’ “Salserx Futurism” residency in collaboration with the bar Cmon Everybody, and is co-composing a ballet with Dendarry Bakery and choreographer Arthur Aviles for the New York Theatre Ballet and the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance. Lola’s solo album Seka’s Dream will release May 2023 on Panapen Records and Funnybone Records. More »

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Flame Keepers 77: Cole Blouin

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Cole Blouin

April 17, 2023

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About the Artist

Cole Blouin (*1994) is an American composer interested in memory, desire, sound, place, and time. Recent projects include TORSO, an experimental pop record (2017-2023) and Mundiglossia/Bloom (' patiently...'), a 41-minute soprano saxophone solo. Their mentors have included Trevor Bača, Anthony Coleman, and Joe Morris. They attended New England Conservatory and are currently based in Ridgewood, Queens. Recent projects include Torso, an experimental pop record [2017-2023]; ongoing investigations include work for the large ensemble Clouds Happening and a handful of improvised music projects: a duo with Cenk Ergün; a trio with Sivan Cohen-Elias and Lauren Siess. More »

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Flame Keepers 76: Grettch

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Grettch

April 10, 2023

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About the Artist

Grettch is a singer songwriter and Berklee College of Music alumna based in Berlin. Raised within the landscapes from the Northern Patagonia of Chile, her music journey started with learning classical piano performance. Her music is a blend of powerful and ethereal sounds influenced by the nature and landscape from the south of Chile, rock music and classical piano. Her curiosity in culture and music exploration has led her to perform song arrangements from different music traditions including Brazilian, Hindustani Indian classical, music from the Balkans and Contemporary Classical music. She has credits as a singer for Grammy nominated album Shuruaat, in the category of best global music album ‘23 as part of BIE. Grettch currently is an MA student from Catalyst Institute of Creative Arts and Technology where she is exploring spatial audio composition.

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Flame Keepers 75: Garrett Wingfield

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Garrett Wingfield

April 3, 2023

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About the Artist

Garrett Wingfield is a Miami-based performer and composer who moonlights as an anti-genre activist. His compositions “...demonstrate his unique skills as a writer and instigator of group improvisation...” (Free Jazz Blog) and are “...equally informed by disparate influences — as much Ellington as it is Berio, as much Ornette as it is Zappa…” (Nextbop). He is currently developing a new sonic language involving various liquids interacting with reed-based instruments. His structural integrity is at times questionable. More »

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Flame Keepers 74: Teddy Tawil / TEDTEDTED

Flame Keepers

Teddy Tawil / TEDTEDTED

March 20, 2023

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About the Artist

Teddy Tawil aka TEDTEDTED is an multi-instrumentalist and electronic artist from Beirut, residing in Berlin. His artistic journey started out as a drummer who was fascinated by the possibilities of imitating electronic music with his body. His exposure to jazz music from an early age influenced his perception of time in music, as he found himself drawn to complex rhythmic structures. Eventually, electronic music became his main focus, as it grounded his virtuosic needs while providing him with a wide spectrum of expression alleys, influenced from IDM to electronica, breakbeats and experimental dance music. 

TEDTEDTED's work is heavily focused on exploring the intersections of political struggle, noise, sound design, dystopia, dysphoria and catharsis by way of designing soundscapes and decorating time with frustrated beats and nervous transients. In his work, he attempts to rebuild what is constantly destroyed in a deteriorating world.

TEDTEDTED’s first album was released in collaboration with Ruptured Label, an independent experimental music label based in Beirut. His second album was released independently. He also co-wrote two of Kinematik’s most recent albums, a Lebanese experimental ensemble.

Currently, TEDTEDTED is delving into a science fiction project of resistance, vulnerabilities, humanoid warring machines and brain deconstructions. The project is a continuation of his exploration of dystopian themes, highlighting the resilience of the human spirit in face of adversity and hegemony. More »

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Flame Keepers 73: Arlo Tomecek

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Arlo Tomecek

March 20, 2023

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About the Artist

Arlo Tomecek works to combine creative expression with activist work. They are an audio engineer, dancer, choreographer, poet, and musician. Arlo’s work has been shown in Berlin, Edinburgh, New York, Oaxaca, and Tulsa. Their podcast series, Poetry Walks, airs every Tuesday 6PM EST on Radio Kingston. Their work controlling the UNcontrollable, a written work, was published in April 2021 by the Smolny Institute and later presented the work as a Guest Speaker for the RAW Conference for UNT Dallas, Texas in 2023. Their poetry was recently published by the Pink Moth Collective in Minnesota. Arlo strives to cultivate practices that reimagine possibility where there once was obstacle; finding power in the powerless, control in the uncontrollable. More »

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Flame Keepers 72: Skyler Hill

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Skyler Hill

March 13, 2023

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About the Artist

Skyler Hill is a sound maker, performer, and improviser who is deeply interested in dissolving sonic, social, and performative boundaries. Currently, they are pursuing research into interactive musical spaces and creating a new form of musical game, titled House, which questions the audience-performer binary and allows for experimental forms of participation. Under the name Wavy Enneper, they also recently completed a concept EP which documents the process of trans becoming through the musical embodiments of anxiety, euphoria, and self acceptance. With backgrounds in jazz and improvisation, the making of sound in particular moments and environments is a lens through which many of their projects are focused. However, they are also active as a producer, electronic/electroacoustic artist, and mixing and mastering engineer, working with sound in unique ways through analog and digital means. A recent piece of theirs which combines many of these methods is Mood, Irrealis, for string quintet, saxophone, voice, and electronics. Written, arranged, recorded, mixed, and mastered by them, this piece shows the beginning-to-end process of music making that they’ve grown to enjoy, as well as the combinations of song and experimentalism that informs much of their work. More »

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