Elijah McLaughlin Ensemble is performing at Comfort station in support of their upcoming new LP record that will be released by Tompkins Square Records in 2022.
The Chicago group, which features Elijah McLaughlin on 12 and 6 string guitars, Joel Styzens on hammered dulcimer, and Jason Toth on upright bass, blends elements of American primitive guitar, with free jazz and modern classical music into something daringly original and stunningly beautiful.
-Record Crates United
A versatile pianist, composer and sound artist, Shi-An Costello has been described as a “precise, engaged, welcoming performer, unafraid of deep ambiguities“ (The Reader), “in such spare textures and hushed dynamics, the smallest development seems seismic” (Chicago Classical Review), and on his piano interpretations of Shostakovitch and Schumann, “a tour de force . . . steely and granitic [Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87]” and “dreamy and sensitive [Davidsbundlertanze]” (Boston Musical Intelligencer). As a composer, Shi-An has written new works for Dal Niente, International Contemporary Ensemble, Access Contemporary Music, Chromic Duo, The Response Project, trickpony, Jonathan Hannau, and most recently, for himself, a High Concept Labs commission. Shi-An’s latest 2021 release, [alloy]: new works for prepared piano, Greg Nahabedian of I Care If You Listen writes: “[alloy] is remarkable in its curation: there truly is something for everyone ... Costello has done an amazing job of performing the music in a way that is faithful to the compositions while sequencing the tracks in a cohesive manner and creating a musical through-line...” Preceding [alloy], Costello’s released two commercial solo albums of works from the classical canon on Blue Griffin Records, Rounded Binary (2018), and Posthumous (2020), as well as a self-released project under his electronic artist name, Coshian, water (2021). Costello previously held position as Visiting Artist and Piano faculty at Boston Conservatory at Berklee and New Music School. He holds degrees in Music Composition and Performance from Columbia College and the Schulich School of Music of McGill University.
Shi-An will play his own arrangement of Louis Andriessen's Worker Union, along with other works composed by him and his collaborators, announced from stage.
