Michael Zerang and Tim Kinsella perform for the 2nd time ever as a duo and the first time with their new band name, Typhoon Matisse.
Texas based vibraphonist Stefan González is visiting Chicago in preparation to move there this fall. In an attempt to immerse themself in the vibrant improvised and free jazz community, they are playing in a first time trio with dear friends, Chicago mainstays, and respected world class improvisers, Lily Glick Finnegan (drums) and Andrew Scott Young (bass).
8:30 pm: González/Finnegan/Young Trio
9:30 pm: Typhoon Matisse
$15 / $10 w/ Student ID - Tickets Available at the Door
Ritual Rhythms Chicago presents an evening of ritual journeys through transformation and transcendence, exploring death and rebirth through music, storytelling, and dance. Featuring Secrets of the Beehive, Mehtab Kirtan’s Death Songs, and dancers Kitty Khaos, Noori, and Stacy.
Join us for the closing of current visual gallery exhibition “quiet as it’s kept” curated by Harlem West. Today will be a final opportunity to see the work, but also experience a film screening of of Suzanne, Suzanne by Camille Billops. Please join us! The event is free and open to the public.
Film: 1:15pm
Artist Talk: 2:30pm
Join us for a multi-genre Printers Row offsite event featuring performances from Casts, Norman W. Long, and Akjai, and readings from local small press authors, including Kathleen Rooney, Téa Jones Yelvington, and Robert Kloss (Always Crashing), Aug Stone, Scott Laudati, and Benjamin Niespodziany (Maudlin House), and Jessica Anne, Emily Capers, and Timothy Moore (Long Day Press).
Join us for our final outreach event of the summer at South Merrill Community Garden! We’ll have Naydja Bruton’s Rhythm Ninjas, udochukwu anidobu, and Amari Amai. More info on their performances TBA!
September’s CLEAT Series features three sets from Chicago artists, with a duo from Steve Reidell & Tim Kinsella, solo set from Alexander Panos, and the duo Squonk.
A unique free jazz meeting featuring two leading Croatian improvisers, an unconventional double-drum-and-bass trio with Chicago powerhouses, and a quintet convergence that promises to be explosive!
Our Elastro series welcomes electronics composer Hunter Brown back to Chicago, alongside Elastic debuts from chelliah and Stereotypewriters.
Bugs World a costume dance party coming to you this September 5th 2026 on Saturday from 9pm-2am!Playing the funkiest electro and acid house/techno tunes.
Metamorphosize to enter the costume contest for 1 of 3 prizes
We’re honored to once again curate a slot at this year’s Chicago Jazz Festival! This Thursday 9/3 the festival hosts a run of great performances throughout the Cultural Center starting at 11am. Our friends and heroes Extraordinary Popular Delusions will present an hour of music at 11:15AM at the Claudia Cassidy Theater, free admission! We’re calling all you non - 9-5er’s, flexible schedule friends, or those who have an 11am Loop lunch break, to join us for a set from one of the most legendary Chicago improvised music ensembles - EPD! We’ll see you Thursday morning!
As part of the 2026 Chicago Jazz Festival Citywide series we present a free show with Elastic Arts mainstays.
Tonight we will be celebrating Black Chicago house music at Elastic with a The.BlkRoom takeover! Sharing Resources for Black and Brown artist while enjoying late night house-vibes with TBRs Resident DJ DJ John West, with friends Yanna Lynette, and DJ Khali Melon. Come and enjoy food, great music, artist, resources, and performances by special guest!
Join us as we welcome back Matthew Daher’s project The Wisdom to Know the Difference with Chicago artist Sarah Lutkenhaus opening the night.
Celebrating the Black Diaspora, the.BlkRoom and Elastic Arts collaborate on a courtyard event featuring an Afro Puerto Rican Baile performance from Lauren Brooks and Los Medicos. This is followed by a late night showing of Black Orpheus presented by the blkfilmclub. The event will feature free food, art activations, and performances by Elastic Dark Matter Residents Udo and Xavi Burgos.
Janna Lee uses her voice to explore different facets of herself and exorcise uncomfortable emotions that can’t be put into words. Her solo work combines harsh noise drowning in reverb with haunting processed vocals that probe the dark recesses of a woman’s psyche. Molly Jones is a saxophonist from free jazz and Balkan brass traditions. Her playing originates in a place of playfulness, listening, and attention.
Olbrzym i kurdupel,in Chicago from Poland, consist of two exquisite musicians: Tomek Gadecki (tenor and baritone saxophones) and Marcin Bożek (bass guitar). The music they play is simple, unrestrained, and uninhibited improvisation. They are joined by Danny Kamins, an improvising saxophonist based in Houston, TX.
8:30 pm: Janna Lee / Molly Jones duo
9:30 pm: Danny Kamins + Olbrzym i kurdupel
$15 / $10 w/ Student ID - Tickets Available at the Door
AfriClassical Futures is a quarterly music and conversation series that foregrounds the accomplishments of Black composers and musicians from the diaspora and beyond that are educated or working in, around, or influenced by Western Classical music and classical traditions more broadly.
On August 23rd, electronic music based label Lunt and Oglesby will be hosting their 11th annual Kit Swap. Kit Swap is a daytime event where soccer enthusiasts and electronic musicians come together to trade soccer jerseys and/or music gear. Got a soccer jersey that doesn't fit anymore? MIDI controllers or synths that have no use in your studio? Come through and make a trade. There will also be 11 live electronic acts, a FIFA station and custom upcycled jerseys for sale from Crossbar Syndicate.
FFFT returns for its second iteration of sound and movement collaborations for 2026 at Elastic Arts!
The Improvised Music Series welcomes saxophonist/electronicist/composer Jorrit Dijkstra from Boston. On this trip Dijkstra continues his longstanding musical relationship with Jeb Bishop and, following up on his January 2024 Chicago visit, performs again with Michael Zerang, while meeting Mabel Kwan for the first time.
Pleiades returns on August 19 with a duo set from pianist Mabel Kwan and interdisciplinary artist Selina Trepp. Kwan’s playing brings a quiet intensity and deep sensitivity to sound, while Trepp’s work explores improvisation, perception, ecology, and intuition. The evening also features a solo drums and electronics performance by Minneapolis-based Emma Garau, whose background in DIY punk, noise, free jazz, and experimental music informs her expansive approach to sound.
Relative Intensity Noise is BACK!
Immerse yourself in an encompassing otherworldly environment of artists performing simultaneously for the entire event. Experience Rin Peisert’s durational live art exhibition, Relative Intensity Noise, focusing on performance, action, and sound, on Saturday, August 15th from 8-10pm. The exhibition will feature physical endurance, interactive movement, spatialized audio, and a sculptural installation of found objects played as a massive and unwieldy percussion instrument.
August’s CLEAT features two trios, including an ensemble work from visiting composer Suzanne Thorpe, and a new work from Chicago based project Binary Stitches.
Join Elastic Arts for an immersive evening of music at the Oakland Museum & Garden. Dark Matter Resident Nova Zaii and Sam Thousand will open with a restorative sound bath, followed by a performance from the Micah Collier Trio featuring Sam Thousand. Free and open to the public, Friday, August 14, from 6–8 PM.
Ken Ueno presents an evening of solo performance. The program foregrounds Ueno’s extended vocal techniques, embodied movement practices, and exploration of resonance, breath, and physical gesture as compositional material. Combining improvisation, experimental sound, and person-specific approaches to performance, the event moves between intimate sonic textures and visceral physicality, creating a space where voice, body, and environment become deeply intertwined. We welcome Ken from Berkeley, CA.
Banana Acid is an improvising ensemble made up of Aaron Kaufman-Levine, Caroline Jesalva, Erez Dessel, Garrett Frees, and Tyler Wagner. Banana Acid is committed to the practice of spontaneous composition. Their unique sonic language synthesizes deep individual studies of various music traditions, including early jazz, free jazz, classical, electro-acoustic, and folk music.
8:30 pm: Ken Ueno
9:30 pm: BananaAcid
$15 / $10 w/ Student ID - Tickets Available at the Door
Tone Glow is excited to present "River of Stars," a two-program retrospective of works by Bruce Wood (b. 1951). Wood is a Massachusetts-based painter whose love for the avant-garde maestros Stan Brakhage and Robert Breer led to his own interest in filmmaking. He moved to Chicago in the 1970s so he could study under Brakhage, and soon thereafter had a short but prolific stretch of years constructing monochromatic works that both reduced and magnified images into dazzling portraits of light and rhythm.
We’re excited for this rare Monday show where we host travelling experimental americana duo Horses 4K, a duo take of local legends Desert Liminal, and a rare solo set from the amazing Sam Wagster.
Join us for a special activation of our current visual gallery exhibition “quiet as it’s kept” curated by Harlem West. Today will be another opportunity to see the work, but also experience live ‘sonic storytelling’ from Dark Matter Residency alumni Carissa Pickney along with curator Harlem West. Please join us! The event is free and open to the public.
Tone Glow is excited to present "I'll Walk With God," a screening of nine 16mm experimental short films that grapple with mortality and death. This event was curated by Kerry Laitala, an award-winning moving-image artist who uses analog, digital, and hybrid forms to investigate how media influences past and present culture through science, history, and technology. The event will feature five of her shorts made between 1997 and 2026, including a work-in-progress reel of her new film THE CAT LANDS ON ALL FOURS. The program will also feature works by artists who have influenced her: Gunvor Nelson, Chick Strand, Phil Solomon, and Scott Stark. With hand-processed filmic practices, mystifying collage work, and intimate depictions of family members, "I'll Walk With God" offers numerous avenues to consider life, film, and their outer limits.
An evening of collective exploration from two open-ended ensembles balancing alt-jazz groove and experimentation, lead by Juliann Wang and Matt Coglianese
We’re excited to welcome two solo electronic artists from Philadelphia, Morgan Garrett and Gloorp. Chicago artists Z Soniat and Rikki G. Godd open the evening.