Cellist Lester St. Louis and trumpeter Chris Williams are the electroacoustic duo HxH (as in “H by H”). Together, they blend acoustic sound, grainy electronics, breaks, cuts, and beats into a kind of expansive, post-techno experimentalism that unfolds with a sense of limitless possibility.

For Lampo, St. Louis and Williams premiere Loop.max.infinite, a concert-length performance featuring strings, horn, and sample-based electronics, presented in quad sound.

HxH has performed at Pioneer Works, Roulette Intermedium, The Kitchen, Musik Installationen Nürnberg, T-Space Rhinebeck, The Lot Radio, and Abasement. The duo has collaborated with artists and organizations including Torkwase Dyson, Fields Harrington, Black Science Fiction, Found Sound Nation, TAK Ensemble, and the International Contemporary Ensemble.

Lester St. Louis (b.1993, Queens, N.Y.) is a New York-born and -based composer, improviser, cellist, sound designer, and curator. He did not begin playing the cello until he was 16 years old and quickly learned that he has perfect pitch. Upon graduating high school, he audited classes all over New York City, studying cello, theory, musicianship, and composition, all without the aid of an institution. Since then, he has performed throughout the U.S., Europe, South America, and China. In addition to working with Chris Williams, he has collaborated with Jaimie Branch’s Fly or Die, Ben Lamar Gay, Yaeji, Tortoise, Yo La Tengo, Miho Hatori, Dré A. Hočevar, Charmaine Lee, Otim Alpha, Nate Wooley, Isabel Crespo Pardo, TAK Ensemble, Random International, Irreversible Entanglements, Pheeroan Aklaff, Terence Nance, Wet Ink Ensemble, and many more. The JACK Quartet, RAGE Thormbones, Jennifer Koh, String Noise, and Ghost Ensemble have commissioned his compositions. St. Louis also co-curates a monthly series in Brooklyn with bassist Luke Stewart called Assembly.

Chris Williams (b.1990, Sacramento, Calif.) is an interdisciplinary artist and musician based in Brooklyn, N.Y. His work explores the dyad of ancestral trauma and power existing in all Black Americans. Williams has toured extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe. He has been commissioned by the International Contemporary Ensemble and WasteLAnd, the Los Angeles concert series. He was the 2023 American Composers Forum Fellow and 2024 Hermitage Artist Retreat Fellow, and he has been in residence at the BANFF Centre for the Arts and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Collaborators include Eyvind Kang, Joanna Mattrey, Lester St. Louis, Patrick Shiroishi, Bennie Maupin, Nicole Mitchell, Fay Victor, Wendy Eisenberg, Yaeji, Luke Stewart, Pink Siifu, and Marjani Forte-Saunders.

Presented in partnership with the Graham Foundation