Ro(b)//ert Lundberg's Addendum performs commoning studies
Lundberg’s exploratory compositional practice focuses on textures, melody, movement, and infrastructure -- infrastructures of performance and of the wider world. By inviting ever-shifting ensembles of players to respond live to scores and prompts, Ro creates a chamber music curious about the possibility of commoning in concert. At Compound Yellow, Lundberg's ad hoc ensemble will explorenew work -- seeking common cause to consider the possibilities of possibling together. Joining Lundberg will be a dream crew of Chicago creative soundmakers: Will Greene, Caroline Jesalva, Tyler Wagner, and Ben Zucker.
Ro(b)//ert Lundberg is a water drinker ~ infrastructural thinker ~ music, word, and image tinkerer. Their solo work focuses on the interaction of human infrastructure and the spaces it inhabits. Through slowly shifting rhythms in sound, language, and video, they attempt to reorient audiences to more-than-human relations hiding in plain si(gh)t[e]. Drawing sonic inspiration from the glitch minimalism of Ryoji Ikeda, the tuneful experimentalism of Arthur Russell, and the engrossing trance of Hamid el Kasri, Lundberg constructs performances that unsettle presumed relations to pipes, property, pollution.
Now based in Chicago, they have performed throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe at venues and festivals such as Big Ears, Roulette Intermedium, Norwegian BioArt Arena, and CURRENTS New Media Festival. They perform solo and in outfits ranging from improvising ensembles to art rock bands HIGHSIGH and JOBS, with collaborators including John Dieterich, Max Jaffe, Lia Kohl, Matt Mehlan, Ryan Packard, Jessica Pavone, Cyrus Pireh, Zander Raymond, and Dave Scanlon. They studied music at The New School and law and environmental art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Will Greene plays guitar and saxophone and currently resides in Chicago, IL. He improvises and writes music based on what he would like to hear. Generally, Will is fascinated by repurposing old, almost-forgotten sounds, finding new, soon-to-be-forgotten sounds, and exploring dynamic and physical limits in their extremes.
Caroline Jesalva (she/her) is a Chicago-based improviser, violinist-vocalist, multidisciplinary artist, and curator. She studied music at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA where she developed a practice centered on contemporary, improvised, and experimental music composition and performance. Her work intersects many disciplines including experimental theater, songwriting, performance art, classical, and free jazz. She has performed in spaces across the US, including Jordan Hall, MASS MOCA, Compound Yellow, Oracle Egg, Elastic Arts Foundation, Moeser Auditorium, Hideout, Hungry Brain, Bombyx Center for Arts, Rosehill Cemetery, the International Museum of Surgical Science, and many more.
Tyler Wagner is an improvising bassist and electronics artist working in Chicago, IL. In high demand across multiple scenes as a collaborator, Tyler supports some of the city’s finest songwriting vocalists (Maria Elena Silva, Aliyah Jones, Wyatt Waddell, Evann McIntosh), plays as 1/5th of collective improvising group Banana Acid, and works in inventive ongoing duo collaborations with improvisors Sarah Clausen (Special Effect), Erez Dessel, filmmaker / projection artist Ruby Que, and movement artist Mya McClellan.
Ben Zucker is an experimental composer and performer, interested in music’s unique capacities to model systems of change through a rigorous, dynamic play of contemplation and visceral immersion in sonic extremes. Starting from a background in jazz and theater, this speculation now regularly mixes in explorations of philosophy, improvisation, ambience, alternative notations, juxtapositions, and protocols. His practice includes “stirring compositions…built on a lifetime of musical curiosity” (Chicago Reader), and performances on vibraphone, brass, keys, voice, and electronics across styles. This intentionally diverse practice has included highlights such as compositions featured at the Berlin Philharmonie, London Roundhouse, and in PBS documentaries, residencies with OneBeat and the Stockholm EMS, and collaborations with groundbreaking musical figures ranging from Anthony Braxton to Sudan Archives. Deeply invested in the structural elements of musical life, their career has also involved extensive engagement with labor organizing, education, and project management. He lives in Chicago, working as a freelance artist, lecturer at Roosevelt University, President of New Music Chicago, and curator for Elastic Arts’ Improvised Music Series.
