London-based Touch isn’t a record label in the traditional sense; it’s far more multifaceted. It might be more accurate to describe Touch as a collective that also extends into publishing, performance curation, and site-specific multimedia events driven by a loosely defined stable of international avant-garde electronic and sound artists, who include guitarist and producer Fennesz, […]
Tag: Michael Vallera
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TALsounds and Matchess braid their music together on the debut of Damiana
TALsounds and Matchess braid their music together on the debut of Damiana, Chi-ROCK Nation celebrate hip-hop heritage with a monthlong exhibit, and more.
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Chicago duo Cleared atomize their stark rock sound on The Key
Recording studios have reputations, and Chicago’s Electrical Audio is well-known as the place to go if you want to capture how your band really sounds. But when Michael Vallera and Steven Hess of local duo Cleared entered that establishment in spring 2019, they were in the early phase of a transformation. Their first four albums […]
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Steve Hauschildt of Emeralds celebrates a new album of crystalline ambient techno
Steve Hauschildt of Emeralds celebrates a new album of crystalline ambient techno, Thirsty Ears Festival brings classical music to the streets of Ravenswood, and more.
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Michael Vallera adds effective bite and tension to his latest album of ambient works
Michael Vallera has worked in a wide variety of Chicago bands including Cleared, Luggage, and Maar, exploring disparate facets of his musical interests, many of them aggressively loud. Over the last few years he’s pursued an interest in meditative ambient sounds. I was a bit surprised that on his 2016 solo debut, Vivid Flu, he’d […]
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Josh Rosenthal of Tompkins Square reads from his new crate-digging memoir
On Wednesday at City Lit Books, Josh Rosenthal will read from The Record Store of the Mind (and guitarist Michael Vallera will play a solo set).
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Reader’s Agenda Tue 1/22: Michael Vallera at Empty Bottle, The Motherfucker with the Hat, and R.H. Quaytman
What’s on the Reader‘s Agenda for Tuesday, January 22, 2013
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Best shows to see: Freakwater, Michael Vallera
Shows to see over the next few days include Freakwater, Michael Vallera, Femi Kuti, Castle, and the NRG Ensemble
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Three Beats: Yakuza keeps spreading out on Beyul
Avant-garde metal band Yakuza’s front man: “Yes, organic food makes my lungs stronger”
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Experimental music from Italy’s Stefano Pilia and New York’s Corridors on Wednesday
New York’s Byron Westbrook, performing in his Corridors guise, joins Italy’s Stefano Pilia on a bill of experimental music Wednesday evening at a local DIY space
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Three Beats: Jazz great Eddie Johnson gets a posthumous CD release; experimental duo Cleared celebrates the cassette; Rockford emo band Joie de Vivre says au revoir
A posthumous CD release for the great Eddie Johnson Tenor saxophonist Eddie Johnson, who died last year on April 7 at age 89, was one of Chicago’s greatest jazz musicians, a pure embodiment of the classic swing he’d grown up playing. He only made two albums under his own name, and the better of the […]
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New Guitar Music at the Hideout Tonight
Dan Burke’s Complacency label releases Offstrings, a fine collection of experimental guitar music; the participants perform tonight at the Hideout.