Concerts

NonSeq: Cat Toren’s Human Kind + Every Shade of Green

Vancouver-born award-winning pianist/composer Cat Toren leads Cat Toren’s HUMAN KIND, a dynamic Brooklyn-based quartet with Xavier Del Castillo (sax), Jake Leckie (bass), and Matt Honor (drums). Described by UK Vibe as “vibrant, earthy and spiritual”, this project is influenced by the free-form, socially conscious jazz of the late ’60s, reimagined for the modern day. The group will perform music from their self-titled debut album as well as from Scintillating Beauty, their 2020 release on Panoramic Recordings that reached the NPR and New York Times Jazz Critics Polls, and was featured in The Best New Jazz on Bandcamp.

Gathering threads from the corners of her imagination to tell stories of creatures and places of folklore yet to be written, Every Shade of Green is the performance project of Carolyn b (Mt Fog). She uses her voice as instrument along with synthesizer, violin and whatever else inspires, looping sounds and improvising as the moment requires. Melodies that feel like memories mingle with elements that call from early music (particularly the works of Hildegard von Bingen), art pop, and ambient. “Domus de Janas (“House of the Fairies”) are underground tombs cut into rocky hillsides that resemble the homes of the living. Constructed 5000 years ago in modern-day Sardinia, these stone houses feature spiral pattern decorations, many chambers, and false doors. I recently came upon the knowledge that I’ve seen these so-called Fairy Houses in dreams of mine. This evening’s Every Shade of Green set will traverse these ancient and dream spaces, asking questions about the borders between the living and the dead, the interior and the exterior, and the coziness of imagining life as moss on a rock.”

Curated by Christopher Icasiano for Nonsequitur’s NonSeq series.