Jon Mueller : Afterlife Cartoons
2022 Tour
Jon Mueller's Afterlife Cartoons are solo acoustic percussion performances that use repetitive tom patterns and subtle shifts in grid-like pulsing to instigate overtones, phasing, and choir-like acoustic phenomena that transform the work from mere drum solo to the sonic illusion of a small orchestra. Rhythmic minimalism, contemporary phrasing, and energetic sustain drive Mueller's improvisations into a space somewhere between modern electronic music and primal drumming, inspiring audiences toward movement and contemplation.
“It was simple & complex / minimal & maximal / it was like a one man orchestra of excited strings & when you went to the cymbals at the end I had the most intense overtone experience since MBV in 91!” - Tim Kinsella
Bio:
Jon Mueller’s aim has been to move drums, percussion and rhythm from its anticipated backbeat to a central musical focus, something more intuitive and natural than usually imagined. Audiences throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, and the United Kingdom have experienced this idiosyncratic point of view as, paradoxically, both ‘cathartic’ and ‘meditative’. Notable solo performances have taken place at the Guggenheim Museum, New Museum, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, Alverno Presents, SXSW, Big Ears Festival, Hopscotch Fest and Witching Hour Festival.
From 2013-15, Mueller created and directed the multi-disciplinary project Death Blues. The project issued four critically acclaimed recordings. Rolling Stone cited non-fiction as one of the ‘20 Best Avant Albums of 2014’. Ensemble, created with multi-instrumentalist William Ryan Fritch, was featured on NPR’s ‘First Listen’.
Outside of his solo work, Mueller has performed and recorded with Mind Over Mirrors, was a founding member of the bands Volcano Choir, Collections of Colonies of Bees and Pele, and has worked in depth with artists Dawn Springer, Chris Hefner, Jason Kahn, Asmus Tietchens, Z’EV, Andrew McKenzie, Rhys Chatham, Jarboe, James Plotkin, Duane Pitre, and Raymond Dijkstra. His solo work has been released by American Dreams, Table of the Elements, Type Recordings, Important Records, Taiga Records, SIGE Records and his own imprint, Rhythmplex.
https://rhythmplex.com
Support:
Zach Moore + Chelsea Bridge - Chelsea Bridge and Zach Moore team up for a set of tantalizing experiments in sound and atmosphere. Utilizing their shared appreciation for the obscure and weird, this roommate duo explores the possibilities of the overlooked via improvisation and deliberate performance practices. Beyond meaning there is a state of consciousness in which can only be felt, a feeling universal to life and those living. This is the crux of Chelsea Bridge and Zach Moore.
Hali Palombo - To close out her exhibition “Nothing To Write Home About”, an exploration of liminal space, Hali Palombo will be neatly organizing field recordings taken in these in these in-between places (hotel lobbies, parking lots, truck stops, and more) into arpeggio-based compositions, both simple and complex.
$15