Description
Saturday, November 22 • 7:30 PM • BKCM Concert Hall
Described by The Guardian as “filled with a wild, distorted energy” and in The Wire as “rare and rewarding,” The Vex Collection uses unheard-of combinations of traditional instruments, newly devised musical contraptions, and a philosophy of mad-scientific experimentation in their pursuit of ancient and futuristic sounds. The band is led by composer-performers Mat Muntz (bass, Balkan bagpipes, and homemade woodwinds) and Vicente Atria (drums and electronics) in collaboration with the Korean woodwind virtuoso gamin (piri, taepyeongso, saenghwang), and acclaimed guitarist Brad Shepik.
The Vex Collection grew from Mat and Vicente’s shared fascination with the double reed, an ancient musical technology developed by virtually every culture on Earth in order to produce loud, brilliant, and beautifully intense sounds. On their self-titled debut, the striking presences of traditional instruments from Scotland, Korea, and the Balkans are not softened or altered so as to better blend with one another; they are allowed to clash thunderously in one moment and synthesize miraculously in the next, imagining some forgotten past where these sounds could have emerged as part of an organic folk tradition. This volatile energy is directed and shaped from below by the rhythm section chemistry of Muntz and Atria. Longtime collaborators in the New York jazz scene, the pair guide the band with precision and propulsion through prog-rock rhythmic minefields, hypnotic grooves, and improvised explorations.