Astroturf Noise, Systolic Murmurs & Sam Wenc

Astroturf Noise:

Astroturf Noise exists at the intersection of free improvisation, effects-heavy noise music, and American roots music.The group’s sound marries the propulsive rhythmic drive of bluegrass with the snarl of Downtown agitators such as the Lounge Lizards, Arto Lindsay, and James Chance along with textural flavors touching on glitch music, dub, doom metal, and Ornette Coleman. A broad melange to be sure, but one anchored by the group’s energetic drive and idiosyncratic improvisational language. This is the synthetic counterpoint to Bill Monroe’s “Bluegrass Boys”.Astroturf Noise was formed by Sam Day Harmet (mandolin/fx) and Sana Nagano (violin/fx) in 2016 after meeting at Karl Berger’s Creative Music Studio and discovering a shared affinity for high-energy free improv and American folk traditions. After a period of developing as a duo, they added versatile bassist Zach Swanson in 2018. Their debut self-titled album features guest contributions from genre-defying artists Billy Martin (percussion) and Sarah Bernstein (violin).

Systolic Murmurs:

Subtle, shifting, irregular patterns via plucked/bowed/rubbed strings n things, crumbling electronic impulses and tape-delay decay, strange seeds planted or tossed to the winds, growing how and where they care.  Tones coaxed by Emily Milano (Permasquelch), Jordan Burgis (Honey Radar), Will Henriksen (Florry).  

Sam Wenc: 

Sam Wenc is a composer and interdisciplinary artist often working with sound, text, and fabric. As a multi-instrumentalist, he utilizes guitar, pedal steel guitar, vibraphone, electronics, field recordings, and found objects to compose structured and formless work that is curious about the themes and parameters of “folk" music. He has released music on labels such as Noumenal Loom, Obsolete Staircases, Where to Now (UK), Moone Records, his own label, Lobby Art. He received a MFA in Music & Sound at the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College.

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