Grampo @ 10 YRS

Today Lampo announces its WS20 season, which begins in late February with new work from Chicago artist Whitney Johnson (aka Matchess) and concludes in June with a special performance by the Jessica Pavone String Ensemble, as we also celebrate 10 years of Lampo at the Graham Foundation. In between, we bring you new projects from Ben Vida with Yarn/Wire and Nina Dante, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, and Jennifer Walshe.

Johnson will premiere a new audiovisual work called Huizkol for viola, tuning forks, electronic instruments and colored light. Inspired by and taking its title from an Anne Carson poem, the quad performance in Madlener House is an opportunity, Whitney explains, to engage our skepticism and belief in the effects of sound on the body (February 22, Graham Foundation). On the preceding Friday, she discusses new and recent works and the limits of sound healing (February 21, Lampo Annex).

On March 7, Ben Vida premieres his new text-based composition for Lampo. Always Already is a hypnotic examination of the materiality of language that emphasizes the rhythm of speech through repetition and variation. Composed and performed by Vida with Yarn/Wire and Nina Dante, this new work is the first of Ben’s vocal compositions to include live instrumentalists. Keyboards, marimba, electronics and voices are braided together to produce a ramble of language and notes (March 7, Poetry Foundation). Vida will trace the development of his text pieces in an artist talk at the Lampo Annex on March 6.

Vida is a former Chicagoan, and so is Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, who returns to the Lampo series on April 18. Lowe premieres a new modular synth and voice performance titled Three-Sided Figure (Graham Foundation). Lowe also will deliver an artist talk during his local visit, speaking about his artistic practice and recent curatorial projects (April 17, Lampo Annex).

The Lampo series of works designed for the constraints of our 10 x 20 foot office continues on Wednesday, April 22, with composer, improviser and vocalist Jennifer Walshe. The Irish artist delves into decades-old tape recordings and AI-generated modelings of her voice in OUR OPPORTUNITIES TO CHOOSE COOPERATION OUR ENDLESS. The performance is your chance to join a mid-week séance, more absurd than haunting. Attendance is limited to four people in each 20-minute performance, offered twice per hour, from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. (April 22, Lampo Annex).

On June 13 Jessica Pavone and her string ensemble (two violas, two violins) will present Pavone’s new compositions, including Rise and Fall, Sooner or Later and Lost and Found. The group explores what she calls “the tactile experience” and her research into cymatics, or the effects of sonic vibrations on human physiology and emotion. (June 13, Graham Foundation). Ahead of the performance, Pavone will display and discuss the scores from her most recent works. (June 12, Lampo Annex).