SYS: Sara Zalek, Johanna Brock, Emily Beisel, Caroline Jesalva, Allen Turner, Tina Lafauve

Saturday, July 6, 2024
7:00 PM 9:00 PM
Compound Yellow (map)

Join us for a very special Side Yard Sounds curated by Sara Zalek!
Saturday July 6th
7pm to 9pm
#244 Lake Street, Oak Park, IL
BYOB
$15 Your contributions help us keep paying artists and keep this program alive!

Side Yard Sounds is a series at Compound Yellow that features a bevy of creative musical artists who traverse diverse forms: from the intriguing waters of experimentalism and the avant-garde to forward-reaching jazz and other modes that are expanding our vision of music both in and outside of Chicago. These performances take place in the side yard of our compound from April-October each year.

Allen Turner is a game designer, storyteller, artist, author, composer and performer who has been involved in storytelling and education most of his adult life. He teaches game and design at DePaul University and runs the DePaul Originals Game Studio. He believes in the power of play, motion, and story as fundamental, powerful medicines which shape our sense of self, relationships, and our connection to the cosmos.

As a performer he enjoys exploring the narrative power of dance as a space of personal ritual and transformation via various forms of folkloric dance and movement. His motions pull from all of his heritages and experiences with various teachers becoming a fluid blend of Raqs Sharqi, Butoh, Veil work, Modern West African, and North American Men’s Traditional and Omaha (Grass) dances, fencing, tai chi, and escrima.

As a creator of music he explores creating psychedelic, dreamy soundscapes and danceable rhythms under the auspices of the Council OF Fools Rhythm Council.

Emily Rach Beisel is a Chicago-based improviser, composer, educator, curator and woodwind specialist. Beisel is known for visceral performances blending extended vocal and instrumental techniques with analogue electronics and rich bass clarinet tone. Their solo album Particle of Organs has been described as “Operatic, wild and dark. It showcases the raw, unadulterated power of the body and the instrument, weaving together sounds that are both corrosive and tender.”

As a curator, Beisel seeks to increase the visibility and involvement of femme, trans and nonbinary artists in the creative music community. They founded the Pleiades Series at Elastic Arts, presenting monthly performances along with a community-based free improvisation jam for femme and nonbinary performers.

Beisel is a member of the contemporary ensemble Fonema Consort, touring most recently in Brazil, Mexico, Minneapolis and New York and premiering works of living composers including James Dillon, Richard Barrett and Julio Estrada. Beisel holds a Master of Music degree from Northwestern University and is a member of the American Federation of Musicians Local 10-208.

Johanna Brock (pronouns she/they) is a Chicago-based composer, improviser, and multi-instrumentalist. A trained orchestral violist, Brock takes inspiration from modern and canonical music for violin and viola, creating new compositions using voice, synthesizers, and audio samples. Working with layered sound, Brock’s music explores the boundaries between sound and linguistic meaning. In addition to Lead Rocket with Sara Zalek, Brock is also a member of the improvised string ensemble Akjai, the sound/art project Barbiefoot, and the dance/music project Lykanthea. Brock was recently commissioned by the Chicago Film Archive to create “Kiss The Rest” with filmmaker Caitlin Ryan, combining field recordings from across Chicago with a neo-operatic duet for voice and Viola. Their sound installation, created with visual artist Sofia Moreno, was featured in the gallery exhibition of “Flores Nocturnas” at the University of Wisconsin Eau-Claire in March 2024. This June, Brock joined the new-music ensemble a.pe.ri.od.ic for a performance of visual scores by Chicago composer Renée Baker. This Fall, Brock is looking forward to supporting the performance of Lykanthea’s new album at the MCA.

Tina Lefauve is an engineer who has always enjoyed the inherent rhythms and drones of mechanical and electrical machinery. Her creative processes focus on simple analog circuits and objects found in tool lockers, railyard gutters, and dusty basements. She seek situations to create sounds-scrapes that are outside of the conventional music performance paradigm. Her goal is to make ‘noise music’ quietly that is approachable and multi-emotional. She likes to sit on her porch late at night and listen to the freight trains and the hum of the city.

Sara Zalek (pronouns they/them) is a transdisciplinary artist, producer, and curator of situations and curious objects. Rooted in physical investigations of trauma, resilience, and transformation, their work is intimate, raw, poetic. They make performances into learning situations, workshops, and sensing environments to encourage thoughtful interpersonal connections. @01saratonin / www.saratonin.com

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Tags: Allen Turner, Caroline Jesalva, Compound Yellow, Emily Beisel, Johanna Brock, Oak Park, SYS: Sara Zalek, Tina Lafauve