CLOSING NIGHT
Amolvacy + Neel Murgai Ensemble +
Shelley Burgon & Maria Chavez

Sunday, January 24
Admission: $10, $10 minimum
Showtimes: 8pm

WE are SOLD OUT for THIS SHOW

We have arrived at the finish line. And what a fine line it is!

Amolvacy (pictured above) is Aaron Moore from Volcano the Bear, Dave Nuss from No-Neck Blues Band, and Sheila Donovan of the Laboratory Theater Company, NYC. The band was born in NYC four years ago and has released the LP Ho-Ho-Kus on Black Velvet Fuckere, and last years LP A La Lu La on Ultramarine (IT). The band creates compositions from its improvisations, centered around strong elemental percussion, radical theatrical vocals, and classical acoustic instruments. They are honored to be playing the very last show at Monkey Town.

Raga-chamber-jazz? It's true. The Neel Murgai Ensemble redefines the meaning of global dialogue. This is not the exotic fusion of your neighborhood deli but New Music that transcends the ancient future traditional. Rooted in North Indian classical styles, his music is inspired by a multitude of sources: raga, jazz, minimalism, free improvisation, Mongolian throat singing and Eastern European gypsy.

Featuring downtown improv wizard Mat Maneri on viola, Sameer Gupta (Supplicants, Marc Kerry's Focus Trio) on tabla and Greg Heffernan (Paradox trio) on cello, this quartet is a perfect balance of sounds and styles. The delicate nuances of sitar and tabla are complemented by viola and cello to produce a stringy texture of radiant buoyancy. The self titled debut CD of the Neel Murgai Ensemble is now available on Innova Records.

http://www.neelmurgai.com
http://www.innovarecordings.com/artist1.asp?skuID=394

Multi-instrumentalist Shelley Burgon is best known for her improvisatorial work using harp and laptop. She is a member of the chamber group Ne(x)tworks and Stars Like Fleas. Shelley has performed her music for series such as the the MATA Festival, Issue Project Rooms Points in a Circle, free103point9 Wave Farm and Summer Winds. In May 2009 she was honored to premiere a new piece for the Merce Cunningham Hudson Valley Project at the Dia:Beacon. Shelley received a BA in Music from SFSU and an MFA in Electronic Music from Mills College. She can be heard as a collaborator and guest on many labels including Hometapes, Skirl, Tzadik and Ipecac. She is greatly inspired by Maryanne Amacher and is currently at work on a solo electronic record.

www.myspace.com/shelleyburgon
http://www.nextworksmusic.net/
www.myspace.com/starslikefleas



Maria Chavez
Born in Peru, avant-turntablist Maria Chavez currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. With a collection of new and broken needles that she calls "pencils of sound" and a selection of records, she creates electro-acoustic sound pieces.

Chavez made her New York City debut in a duet with Thurston Moore, collaborated with Otomo Yoshihide as part of the 2007 Wien Modern Festival, and recently shared a stage with Pauline Oliveros and Lydia Lunch during Vienna’s Phonofemme Festival 2009.

Having also performed at such internationally acclaimed venues as STEIM (Amsterdam) and Sonoteca (Lima, Peru), she was awarded a Jerome Foundation Emerging Artist Grant by New York’s Roulette Intermedium in 2008 and was recently selected to be a recipient of the Van Lier Fellowship which is generously offered to young sound artists by The Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund of the New York Community Trust.

An ambulatory fall season, Chavez found herself performing at San Francisco’s Electronic Music Festival, The International Turntable Orchestra Festival in Berlin, Gdansk and Krakow, Poland, Ostrava, Czech Republic and the NY Sound Festival at CAPC, Musée d'Art Contemporain de Bordeaux, France with Alan Licht and Phil Niblock.