In its sixth year, SUMMERSONIC is undergoing a metamorphosis: we’ve stuffed three weekends worth of concerts into one blow-out afternoon of music by some of the most fascinating musicians working in Chicago right now.

SET TIMES
1pm: The party commences.
2pm: AKENYA
3pm: MELINA AUSIKAITIS
4pm: SIMULATION
5pm: BEN LAMAR GAY’s Beast Need Beast
6pm: HOMME
7pm: AVERY YOUNG & de deacon board

Interstitial music by
A SUMMER’S GUITAR SEXTET
led by LEROY BACH

August 27, 2016
PARTY STARTS AT 1
MUSIC STARTS AT 2

ADMISSION
$20 general
$15 students/members
Tickets at the door or in advance at bit.ly/ess_summersonic

SUMMERSONIC 2016 is sponsored by our pals at Lagunitas Brewing Company and Perrier

Avery R. Young & de Deacon Board
Imagine Eddie Hazel as frontman for the Chamber Brothers and you have the recipe for the gospel-tinged funkdafied soul of avery r. young & de deacon board. An acomplished poet and mentor of numerous emerging young writers and performers in Chicago, Young delivers sermon and blues with comedic sensebilities. He and his deacon board megres his play with vernacular with a soundscape that funks, thumps and rocks. The most soulful export of Chicago’s Westside, his voice both field holler and mourner’s bench confession. He leads the deacon board with a boisterous raspy voice and passionate performance style that engages and enlightens his audience.

Homme
HOMME is an experiment in voice and sound by Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart. They joined forces in 2014, inspired by the free improvisational music scene in Chicago, and influenced by folk and avant-garde rock. Their combined vocal and musical talents yield an incredible dichotomy of harmony and chaos that leaves the audience wanting more. HOMME has been compared to PJ Harvey, Nirvana, and Kate Bush, but their innate chemistry creates something uniquely satisfying and wholly different from their predecessors. (Photo by Maren Celest.)

Akenya
Akenya is a 23-year-old multi-genre singer, pianist, composer, and arranger who is pursuing her dream of becoming a world-renowned, professional musician. Her music places a strong emphasis on jazz and the culmination of hip-hop, funk, pop, classical, world music, and other loves of hers. In the jazz world she has worked with and performed for the likes of Esperanza Spalding, Fred Hersch, Vijay Iyer, Jason Moran, Luciana Souza, and Dave Holland to name just a few. She is also well known in the Chicago hip-hop and soul scenes and has collaborated with some of the city’s leading artists including Chance the Rapper, Noname, Smino, Saba, Eryn Allen Kane, Donnie Trumpet, and Jean Deaux. Akenya is currently working on a full LP, Moon in the 4th, as a follow up to her debut EP, Overcome, which was released in 2010. This new album will feature all originals, including her latest single “Disappear,” which premiered last November and can be streamed via soundcloud as well as purchased via bandcamp.

Ben LaMar Gay’s Beast Need Beast
Ben LaMar Gay is a composer/cornetist/vocalist who moves components of sound, color and space through folkloric filters to produce brilliant electro-acoustic collages. The unification of various styles is always in service of the narrative and never a pretentious display of technique. Ben’s true technique is giving life to an idea while transforming the thought and theory of the term “Americana.”

Personnel:
Ben LaMar Gay: voice, diddley bow, synths,
Carlos Pride: gungon, talking drums, kalimba
Coco Elysses: conga, doumbek, honeydew seeds
Baba Brer Rabbit V: tricks and charming glances

Simulation (Matchess/Gel Set)
As a collective identity, crystallized singularity from duality, Simulation explores the ways in which reality is filtered through the consciousness. Creating long form, meditative sound pieces, and rhythmic dance compositions, Simulation seeks to alter reality through the vibrations of sound. Compositionally, we use digital and analog instruments from different decades, endeavoring literally to fuse multiple eras of time with the present into a hybrid temporality. We seek to inspire transcendent consciousness through seriality and rhythmic cycles.

Melina Ausikaitis
Melina Ausikaitis is a storyteller. She is long-time participant in both the art and music scene in the city of Chicago and has also performed and shown internationally. Currently she is continuing her collaborations with the Hubbard Street dancer and choreographer Jonathan Fredrickson and the band Joan of Arc. Melina has curated the art exhibits at Chicago’s Rainbo Club for the past 9 years. Check out www.aitismusic.com to listen to the self-released compilation album of Melina’s songs that was debuted this year.

Official Website

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Tags: A Summer's Guitar Sextet, Akenya, avery r. young, Ben Lamar Gay, Chicago, Experimental Sound Studio, Homme, LeRoy Bach, Melina Ausikaitis, Ravenswood, Simulation, SummerSonic 2016