Haunted House played at Tonic, the Cooler, Brownies and other venues in the late 1990s, until one of its band members moved away. The band was comprised of avant blues guitarist Loren Connors, vocalist/lyricist Suzanne Langille, avant guitarist Andrew Burnes (of San Agustin) and Neel Murgai (soundtrack for “The Yes Men Fix the World”) on the daf. They re-unite for this performance, after roughly a 10-year hiatus. Simon Hopkins in Motion Reviews writes: “…There’s something extraordinarily alien about the blues that all the ‘rootsy’ marketing in the world can’t deny. Loren MazzaCane Connors is one of a handful of musicians helping his audience rediscover that other worldliness, and seldom has he done so with more clarity than here, as single blues phrases are seemingly extended across minutes rather than bars. Langille’s ethereal voice adds to the tension and exoticism, Murgai’s daf perhaps even more so. Meanwhile, Burnes’s guitar is the perfect foil for LMCs.”
Che Chen & Robbie Lee are Brooklyn, NY-based multi-instrumentalists who have been steadily and intensively developing their unique approach to free improvisation over the last several years. Using a shifting constellation of instruments that has included bass clarinets, baroque recorders, reed and pipe organs, renaissance keyboard instruments, flutes, saxophones, bowed and plucked strings, little drums, bells, tape machines and their voices, Che Chen and Robbie Lee create earthy, slow moving improvisations that are informed as much by the ethnic folk traditions of the world as they are by 20th century composition and improvisation. Their music places precedent in listening, attention and dynamic interaction in the moment. Chen and Lee have released an LP and several cd-r's on their own Telegraph Harp imprint.
Sondra Sun-Odeon is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist/vocalist transplanted from California where she spent her childhood taping classical music pieces off the radio and sneaking a hand held transistor radio into bed surreptitiously. She writes and performs in the Brooklyn band Silver Summit, as well as performing solo. Lyrically inhabiting an ethereal cloud of longing and elation, her solo songs range over stoner-rock and goth lullaby territory all at once.
Born and raised in Sweden, and having played the guitar and cello in several rock bands (as well as performing in a silent movie orchestra and an Arabian Music ensemble), Helena Espvall moved to the US in the year 2000. Besides performing with renowned Philadelphia band Espers, Helena collaborates with many others in the psychedelic folk and free improvisation world. She has recorded with folk guitar legend Bert Jansch, toured with Vashti Bunyan and Damon & Naomi, and released two albums consisting of Swedish folk songs and improvisations together with Tokyo musician Masaki Batoh, on Drag City records.
Espvall and Sun-Odeon will be performing a special collaborative set for this performance.