The band Muscle Memory features At Play performing artist-in-residence Steven Reker and musician Matt Evans. For this / visitor, the duo will use an array of amplifiers as modular units as they add physical and spatial dimensions to their compositions, inspired by Sonic Arcade: Shaping Space with Sound. Having collected over a dozen amps from friends and collaborators, Reker and Evans will simultaneously create a dense sonic landscape while arranging, and rearranging, the amps in a number of sculptural formations.

Reker and Evans will explore the reciprocal nature between their musical compositions and the arrangement of the amps through a sequence of temporarily inhabitable moments. This process reveals how the physical organization of the equipment builds and affects sonic experiences. Ever-changing and producing multiple shifts in perception, this / visitor features acts of adaptability and endurance inspired by the physicality and instability of live performance.

Marking the culmination of Reker’s At Play residency at MAD, Saturday night’s showing of this / visitor will feature additional performances by multi-instrumetalist and vocalist Ka Baird and psychedelic sci-fi trio War Bubble.

About the Artists

Ka Baird is a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist living and working in New York City. She is one of the founding members of the avant-psych project Spires That in the Sunset Rise. Since moving to New York, Baird has set off in numerous directions apart from Spires. Her current work explores piano improvisation, extended vocal techniques, physical movement, and electronic manipulation of the flute.

Matt Evans is a Brooklyn-based percussionist and composer who frequently works in cross-disciplinary contexts, playing in bands, performing with new music ensembles, and producing performances that integrate music and movement. He co-leads, performs, and records with projects including Tigue, Open House, Bearthoven, Rokenri, Man Forever, Ensemble Signal, Contemporaneous, and Private Elevators.

Steven Reker is a Brooklyn-based composer and performer. He has presented his work at the Kitchen, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center’s American Songbook, Performance Space 122, New York Live Arts, Baryshnikov Arts Center, the Skirball Cultural Center, New York City Center, and many other venues and performing arts centers in the United States. He has collaborated or worked as a composer/performer with artists Robert Wilson, David Byrne, Miranda July, Jodi Melnick, Zac Pennington, Bill T. Jones, Yasuko Yokoshi, Fred Thomas, and Annie-B Parson.

Psychedelic sci-fi trio War Bubble builds upon their individual acclaimed backgrounds to create a thick cosmic tenderness. Talk Normal’s Sarah Register, a celebrated New York City mastering engineer, continues her guitar and vocal jubilance, here adding electronics to her repertoire. Christina Files is on drums and synth; her vast musical history includes Swirlies, Silver Interior, Erase Errata, and Mary Timony, as well as a career of engineering and production with bands including Explode Into Colors, Shellac, and Black Dice. Rounding out the group is Eli Lehrhoff, a longtime Brooklyn improvisational collaborator and curator of the annual Smhoakstock Festival. A founding member of the bands DUBKNOWDUB and Brat Pit, Lehrhoff has produced for a series of art stars including Jake Dibeler, Alexandra Drewchin, and Raúl de Nieves.