Tag Archives: Experimental Music

BITCHIN’ BAJAS with ELI WINTER AND TYLER DAMON at B-Side, Saturday September 19th

Poster designed by Tim Furnish

The Other Side of Life is proud to present:

BITCHIN’ BAJAS

with

ELI WINTER AND TYLER DAMON

Saturday September 19th, 2026
at B-Side
1076 E. Washington Street, 2nd Floor
Louisville, KY 40206

Buy Tickets

$20 advance tickets, $25 day of show
Advance tickets available online at TicketLeap; Physical tickets available for in-person purchase at Surface Noise, 600 Baxter Avenue, Louisville KY 40204 (cash only)

21+
7:00 PM doors
8:00 PM music

The latest album from BITCHIN’ BAJAS — the trio of Cooper Crain, Rob Frye and Danie Quinlivan — Inland See is deceptively immediate: four songs, entirely within themselves, all together forming an essential whole. With every successive BITCHIN’ BAJAS release, we see that the real key for them is a sense of discovery, that tingle that comes when you feel something breaking through. The sky opening up. Take “Skylarking” — a remarkable construction, built to and fro in the ether, but with a deceptive grasp of four-on-the-floor rhythm. A space dance that achieves completion in almost aggressive terms — aggressive like an oxygen bath! — showcasing jewels from their world music and jazz archives, then returning to their undulous source drone, riding smoothly back into silence. The stuff that fills this Inland See holds you up powerfully, as if you’re floating, saltwater or helium-wise — effervescent, effortless, elemental.

In the wake of 2025’s acclaimed Inland SeeBITCHIN’ BAJAS ascend to higher ground with the Isle Peaks EP! Isle Peaks was initially released as a 2-song Qobuz exclusive, but BITCHIN’ BAJAS are a band of the people, for the people – and the people demanded its availability everywhere! Set for release on August 28th on vinyl, cassette, and digital, the 12″ EP and cassette feature “Watch Your Step”, an exclusive track not included on the Qobuz version or any digital platform. Listen to the title track, out now. Expanding through equal parts krautrock and new age zones, these three tracks ascend with the listener to signal-splitting heights on both atmospheric and esoteric scales. These cuts were sourced from the Inland See sessions, lovingly recorded analog (2″ multitrack tape and ½” 2-track), including the electroacoustic textures of sampled kalimba, field recordings, and autoharp.

Along with the announcement of Isle Peaks, BITCHIN’ BAJAS share a new run of US tour dates, as well as additions to their previously announced European dates. Climb Isle Peaks with us on August 28, 2026.

Photo by Beth Kotz

ELI WINTER‘s music synthesizes aspects of folk, rock, jazz, and devotional music, maintaining a waggish disregard for genre constraints emblematic of Chicago, his adopted hometown. His new album, A Trick of the Light, is an elegantly crafted and vibrant collection that finds the bandleader at the height of his powers: the dazzlingly intense arrangement of Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell’s “Arabian Nightingale” that opens the album, Winter’s muscular, dreamy originals, and his daring arrangement of Carla Bley’s “Ida Lupino.” His concert history spans prestigious music festivals like Primavera Sound and Big Ears, pristine listening rooms, museums, university chapels, laundromat bars, and small rooms in shotgun houses. In Louisville he will perform with Chicago percussionist and improviser TYLER DAMON of Circuit des Yeux.

ELI WINTER‘s second turn as bandleader unfolds like a sky bleeding exhaust fumes, alternating pedal steel waltzes and jazz-burnt fuzz bombs. The record starts with an ecstatic riff on a Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell tune and doesn’t really let off the gas.” — Lars Gotrich, NPR

Live music events in Louisville, KY. Show announcements, music and news, and other ephemera at: https://bsky.app/profile/theothersideoflife.bsky.social.

JOE MCPHEE/KEN VANDERMARK/CHRIS CORSANO TRIO at Roots 101 African-American Museum, Friday September 4th

Joe McPhee/Ken Vandermark/Chris Corsano Trio 2026 Tour Poster, designed by Robert Beatty
Poster designed by Robert Beatty

The Other Side of Life and Roots 101 African-American Museum are proud to present a very special performance by the:

JOE MCPHEE/KEN VANDERMARK/CHRIS CORSANO TRIO

Friday September 4th, 2026
at Roots 101 African-American Museum
121 N 1st Street
Louisville, KY 40202

Buy Tickets

ALL AGES WELCOME
$25 advance tickets, $30 day of show
Advance tickets now available online at TicketLeap;
Physical tickets now available for in-person purchase at:

ROOTS 101 AFRICAN-AMERICAN MUSEUM, 121 N 1st Street, Louisville KY 40202 (cash or card)
10% discount for this event for all ROOTS 101 AFRICAN-AMERICAN MUSEUM members! Applicable when purchased at the museum only.

Better Days Records, 921 Barret Ave, Louisville, KY 40204 (cash or card)
Surface Noise, 600 Baxter Avenue, Louisville KY 40204 (cash only)

7:00 PM doors
8:00 PM music

Joe McPhee (Photo by Žiga Koritnik)

JOE MCPHEE (b. 1939, USA) is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser, known for his pioneering work in avant-garde jazz and experimental music. Primarily recognized for his virtuosic saxophone playing, MCPHEE also performs on trumpet, pocket trumpet, and a variety of other instruments. His career spans over five decades, during which he has collaborated with leading figures in the free jazz and experimental music scenes, including William Hooker, KEN VANDERMARK, Pauline Oliveros, and Roscoe Mitchell, among many others. MCPHEE’s work blends elements of jazz, free improvisation, and contemporary classical music, marked by emotional depth and innovative approaches to sound. Throughout his career, he has maintained a commitment to pushing the boundaries of music, both in solo performances and collaborative projects.

KEN VANDERMARK (b. 1964, USA) is an avant-garde composer, improviser, saxophonist/clarinetist, curator, and writer whose unique history has given him the opportunity to perform extensively and record with key figures of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), New York’s Downtown scene, Free Music Productions (Germany), the English improvisation scene, post-punk, Ethiopian music, and Japanese free jazz. He’s been the director of the Catalytic Sound musician cooperative since 2012, has run Audiographic Records since 2014, in 1999 was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in music, and in 2024 he curated the Music Unlimited Festival in Wels, Austria. VANDERMARK moved to Chicago from Boston in 1989 and has worked continuously from the early 1990s onward, both as a performer and organizer in North America, Europe, Latin America, Japan, and Ethiopia, recording in a large array of contexts, with many internationally renowned musicians.
kenvandermark.com
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CHRIS CORSANO (b. 1975, USA) is a drummer who’s been active at the intersections of collective improvisation, free jazz, avant-rock, and noise music since the late 1990’s. He’s worked with JOE MCPHEE, Bill Orcutt, Björk, and many others — appearing on over 200 albums and touring constantly in an ultra-wide array of collaborations. CORSANO has built an inventive and highly personal musical language through extended percussion techniques and creative augmentations to his kit, with circular-breathed reeds, bowed strings, and resonant materials expanding the drums’ melodic and textural possibilities in addition to their rhythmic ones.
cor-sano.com
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The trio of JOE MCPHEE (sax/voice), KEN VANDERMARK (reeds), and CHRIS CORSANO (drums/percussion) will be performing together for the first time in a limited series of concerts in Louisville, Cincinnati, and Lexington, concluding their tour at the Sound & Gravity Festival in Chicago on September 6th. Though this is their initial music as a group, there have been a number of previous collaborations from these musicians, some of them longstanding: JOE and KEN first played together at the recording session for A Meeting in Chicago in 1996. Since then, they have worked together many times, most notably in the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet. Their latest album performances together are as a duo and documented on Musings of a Bahamian Son: Poems and Other Words by Joe McPhee, released by Corbett vs. Dempsey in 2024.

JOE and CHRIS have worked together extensively for more than 15 years, with many recordings and concerts as a duo and in groups with important figures in the music like Eddie Prévost, Evan Parker, Lol Coxhill, and Steve Swell. KEN and CHRIS have also played together in many configurations, beginning with a trio concert at the Festival Germinal in Mexico City with pianist Sylvie Courvoisier during November of 2014 and, since then, they have continued to develop a special musical rapport. 

Though the music from this new trio by MCPHEE, VANDERMARK, and CORSANO will be completely improvised and spontaneous, it will be informed by their collective histories, a background which includes decades of work with a variety of musical aesthetics and artists that has taken place during hundreds of concerts and dozens of recordings, at home and abroad. 

Founded by Lamont Collins in 2020, the ROOTS 101 AFRICAN-AMERICAN MUSEUM is a place where visitors can see themselves in history, explore the African-American story in its entirety, and gain a greater understanding of the achievements, cultural contributions, and experiences of our community.

Special thanks to Lamont Collins and the ROOTS 101 AFRICAN-AMERICAN MUSEUM staff.

Live music events in Louisville, KY. Show announcements, music and news, and other ephemera at: https://bsky.app/profile/theothersideoflife.bsky.social.

Victor Vieira-Branco’s BARK CULTURE; and the LIVE DEBUTS of ZEUS, AGAIN and THE GLEAMING CORRIDOR at B-Side, Saturday August 15th

(Poster designed by Ben Sears)

The Other Side of Life is proud to present:

Victor Vieira-Branco’s BARK CULTURE

plus the LIVE DEBUTS of

ZEUS, AGAIN

and

THE GLEAMING CORRIDOR

Saturday August 15th, 2026
at B-Side
1076 E. Washington Street, 2nd Floor
Louisville, KY 40206

$15 advance tickets, $20 day of show
Advance tickets available online at TicketLeap;
Physical tickets on sale for in-person purchase at Surface Noise (cash only), 600 Baxter Avenue, Louisville KY 40204

21+
7:00 PM doors
8:00 PM music

“The music throughout [Victor Vieira-Branco’s BARK CULTURE‘s] The Giant is Awkward is enthralling, mysterious, intelligent, disconcerting, and beautiful.” – Aquarium Drunkard

Victor Vieira-Branco’s BARK CULTURE is a trio led by vibraphonist Victor Vieira-Branco featuring drummer Joey Sullivan and bassist John Moran. With over four years of immersive collaboration, the trio is known for their strong ensemble identity, high-energy live performances and extensive touring. Their record “Warm Wisdom” was cited as the Debut Release of 2024 by New York Times Jazz Critic Hank Shteamer and listed as Best Jazz on Bandcamp September 2024. More recently, the trio was enlisted by Rob Mazurek to perform on the soundtrack of Kelly Reichardt’s new film The Mastermind which premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. For the group’s second album The Giant Is Awkward, the trio is joined by pianist and composer Sam Yulsman for five pieces that mirror the prismatic nature of a sound Vieira-Branco has been tirelessly crafting with the group since 2021. With the addition of Yulsman, the group reveals, as Peter Margasak states, “a heightened sensitivity and grace, with increased harmonic splendor thanks to the added chordal voice. The record also marks the vibraphonist’s clear growth as a composer.”

ZEUS, AGAIN is the musical project of Ken Brown, Bob Dixon, and Mathias Kolehmainen. They perform on electric bass, electric guitar, and drums. Collectively they have many decades of experience in performing and recording groups that have been based in Chicago, Louisville, and the Bay Area. Their music builds on their experiences in post rock, post punk, jazz, noise, ambient, traditional settings; references the work of their peers in the contemporary neo-minimalist community; and explores novel interpretations of their personal canons.

THE GLEAMING CORRIDOR is the instrumental electronic solo recording project of Ben Sears, a longtime Louisville area drummer and cartoonist. After six years and three self-recorded/released full length cassettes, he is making his live debut in late summer 2026.

Special thanks to Ben Sears.

Live music events in Louisville, KY. Show announcements, music and news, and other ephemera at: https://bsky.app/profile/theothersideoflife.bsky.social.

The 20th Anniversary of CHIKAMORACHI (Chris Corsano and Darin Gray) with special guests DANE WATERS & STEVE GOOD and YLEM Friday, September 19th at Art Sanctuary

(Poster designed by Robert Beatty)

UPDATE FRIDAY 9/19: Due to an emergency, YLEM will not be able to perform this evening.

The Other Side of Life is proud to present:

The 20th Anniversary of

CHIKAMORACHI (Chris Corsano and Darin Gray)

in their ONLY North American Duo Performance!

with special guests
DANE WATERS & STEVE GOOD
and
YLEM

Friday September 19th at Art Sanctuary (back room)
1433 S. Shelby Street
Louisville, KY 40217 USA

$15 advance tickets, $20 day of show
Advance tickets available online at Art Sanctuary;
Physical tickets on sale Friday September 5th for in-person purchase at Surface Noise (cash only), 600 Baxter Avenue, Louisville KY 40204. Surface Noise is open 12 to 6 PM every day except Tuesdays.

7:00 PM doors
8:00 PM music

CHIKAMORACHI photo by Mark Rappaport

“The rhythm team of Darin Gray & Chris Corsano is especially incredible, ever-engaging, consistently creative and supportive.” – Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery

“…arguably the most riotously energetic and creative drummer in contemporary free jazz” – The Wire

“One of the world’s great drummers.” –The Guardian

Since 2005 DARIN GRAY (upright bass) and CHRIS CORSANO (drums, percussion) have performed side by side as CHIKAMORACHI. Working either in a trio with Japanese saxophonist Akira Sakata or in expanded line-ups with the likes of Japan-based American producer/engineer and multi-instrumentalist Jim O’Rourke, dancer and actor Min Tanaka, Masami Akita (aka Merzbow), guitarist/vocalist Keiji Haino (Fushitsusha), koto player and vocalist Michiyo Yagi, and jazz pianist Masahiko Satoh, they’ve released six albums to date under the CHIKAMORACHI moniker, including 2011’s And That’s the Story of Jazz double CD (with Akira Sakata & Jim O’Rourke), 2015’s Flying Basket (with Akira Sakata, Jim O’Rourke, and Merzbow), and Live at Hungry Brain LP (with Akira Sakata). Neither member is a stranger to the possibilities afforded when the melodic, harmonic and rhythmic duties are left to an upright bass and drum duo. Their September 19th performance in Louisville will be their only North American appearance as CHIKAMORACHI, after taking part in the SOUND AND GRAVITY FESTIVAL in Chicago, IL on Thursday, September 11th as part of the SACCATA QUARTET with Wilco bandmates guitarist Nels Cline and drummer Glenn Kotche.

DARIN GRAY is best known as Jim O’Rourke’s go-to bassist for nearly 20 years, as half of the duo On Fillmore with Wilco‘s Glenn Kotche, and as the bassist for groups Grand Ulena, Dazzling Killmen, and Brise-Glace and many others. As an improviser he has performed and recorded with (among others): Loren Connors, Joshua Abrams, Jason Roebke, Axel Dorner, Kevin Drumm, Alan Licht, and Jim O’Rourke. As a session bassist he has played on recordings by Louisville’s Will Oldham, as well as Cheer-Accident, Bobby Conn, Early Day Miners, and Jim O’Rourke, among others. He has toured extensively around the world with Mavis Staples, Tweedy, Daniel Johnston, and William Tyler. He currently resides in Finland.

CHRIS CORSANO has been active at the intersections of collective improvisation, free jazz, avant-rock, and experimental music since the late 1990’s. He’s been the rim-batterer of choice for some of the greatest contemporary purveyors of “jazz” (Joe McPhee, Paul Flaherty, Mette Rasmussen, Zoh Amba) and “rock” (Sir Richard Bishop, Bill Orcutt, Jim O’Rourke), as well as artists beyond categorization (Björk, Michael Flower, Okkyung Lee, Ghédalia Tazartès, Merzbow).

CHIKAMORACHI last played Louisville at the Nachbar in January 2012, part of which you can watch here:

Supporting CHIKAMORACHI will be Louisville musicians STEVE GOOD (saxophones, clarinet) and DANE WATERS (keyboards, voice). A vital natural resource in the Louisville music scene for multiple decades, Steve Good‘s musical vocabulary orbits lightly through a vast expansive local history: doing time with The Web, E-Or, Juanita, Ut Gret, Sapat, Crappy Nightmareville, Parlour, The Liberation Prophecy and many, many others.  He has documented via audio recording many thousands of local shows. Slint played in his basement, he recorded the first Will Oldham single, he ran sound and documented the weekly experimental music series at Artswatch through the 1990s, and yes, he shared a stage in Switzerland with Donovan back in the 1970s. Dane Waters is one of Louisville’s brightest musical talents. As a solo performer as well as member of Softcheque, Sapat, and The Phantom Family Halo, she displays an impeccable melodic sensibility, and has a voice so wonderfully haunting, it sends chills down your spine. Her most recent releases are available on Bandcamp as well as finer Louisville record stores.

Opening the show, YLEM is the Louisville-based trio of Chris Martin-Leidner, Dustin Marcum, and Eunoia Close. Their self-titled album was recorded by Jim Marlowe (Equipment Pointed Ankh, Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band) at End of an Ear in Louisville and was released in March, 2025.

Special thanks to Kris Abplanalp.

Live music events in Louisville, KY. Show announcements, music and news, and other ephemera at: https://bsky.app/profile/theothersideoflife.bsky.social.

BILL ORCUTT and CHRIS CORSANO, FLANGER MAGAZINE, and JUNGLE BOOGIE at ART SANCTUARY, Wednesday, June 25th

Bill Orcutt and Chris Corsano, Flanger Magazine, Jungle Boogie poster designed by Robert Beatty
(Poster design by Robert Beatty)

The Other Side of Life presents:

BILL ORCUTT and CHRIS CORSANO
with special guests
FLANGER MAGAZINE
JUNGLE BOOGIE

Wednesday June 25th at Art Sanctuary (back room)
1433 S. Shelby Street
Louisville, KY 40217

UPDATE WEDNESDAY 6/25: Shelby Street is closed at the Ash Street railroad crossing four blocks north of Art Sanctuary due to track repair!

$15 advance tickets, $20 day of show
Advance tickets available online at Art Sanctuary;
Physical tickets now available for in-person purchase at Surface Noise (cash only), 600 Baxter Avenue, Louisville KY 40204

18+
7:00 PM doors
8:00 PM music

‘It should surprise you not an iota that [BILL] ORCUTT’s style is rooted as much in the fractal melodies of Trane and Taylor as it is in Delta syrup or Tin Pan Alley glitz. As for [CHRIS] CORSANO, well… to me Corsano is beyond jazz, almost beyond music, his ambidextrous, octopoid technique grappling many stylistic levers and spraying a torrent of light from every direction. Corsano’s ferocity has elevated many “mere” improv records to transcendence, but… he’s crafted his polyrhythms within more narrative channels, bringing to mind his “mannered” playing in the lamented Flower-Corsano duo. It’s not “groove” playing precisely, but it follows many grooves simultaneously, much like Orcutt’s own melodic musings — which is why they’re so naturally lock-in-key here.’ – Tom Carter on Chris Corsano and Bill Orcutt’s album Made Out of Sound.
https://palilalia.com/
https://billorcutt.bandcamp.com/album/made-out-of-sound-2024-reissue
https://cor-sano.com

FLANGER MAGAZINE is the duo of Chris Bush (Caboladies, Equipment Pointed Ankh) and Jim Marlowe (Equipment Pointed Ankh, Tropical Trash, Sapat): ‘Gathering samples, a River Doctor Limnologist inspecting the properties of After the Bend might note the specter of Leroy Jenkin’s free-violin heat-light deep in the water’s thermal stratification. Or mortgage the late-Maestro’s time with Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza to pay down the growing river heat budget. Or take one’s dirty buckets to the banks of the 19th laundromat where Walt Dickerson plays his vibraphone parts from Divine Gemini with dowsing rods. Or excavate the bedrock in the drainage basin, noting skeletal remains of a Shostakovich string quartet attempting to tune up a Kentucky Fiddle’s subsequent influence on the chemical composition of the water. Or consult the historical revisionist reenactment troupe’s episode of Fishing with John (Fahey) in which Codona, The Sea Ensemble and Nuno Canavarro guest host as their fleet of paddle boats churn river water into a regal lager, and all the fish get drunk in their quest for the leaner enamel Hosianna Mantra GPS coordinates of the Fattened Herb.’ – Kris Abplanalp on Flanger Magazine’s album After the Bend.
https://flangermagazine.bandcamp.com/album/after-the-bend

JUNGLE BOOGIE is Ken “Bundy” Brown, founding member of Tortoise, and former member of Bastro, Gastr del Sol, Directions, and Pullman. Jungle Boogie’s Cease and Desist is now available at Bandcamp:
https://jungleboogie.bandcamp.com/album/cease-desist

Live music events in Louisville, KY. Show announcements, music and news, and other ephemera at: https://bsky.app/profile/theothersideoflife.bsky.social.