tune in to elastic arts!

It’s that time of year — DKV Trio is back for their annual two night run here at Elastic Arts! This fantastic pairing of journeymen Chicago improvisers found its roots in the mid-1990’s and has worked actively since that time. It has become an important tradition for this group to finish out the year for us here at Elastic, so we hope you can join us for one or both of these shows.

Ken Vandermark - reeds
Kent Kessler - bass
Hamid Drake - drums

It’s that time of year — DKV Trio is back for their annual two night run here at Elastic Arts! This fantastic pairing of journeymen Chicago improvisers found its roots in the mid-1990’s and has worked actively since that time. It has become an important tradition for this group to finish out the year for us here at Elastic, so we hope you can join us for one or both of these shows.

Ken Vandermark - reeds
Kent Kessler - bass
Hamid Drake - drums

The Improvised Music Series kicks off 2026 with an invitation to our community of music makers! Following an opening set by the evening’s ‘house band’, we’ll put together rotating small sets of performers to get new sounds and connections going in the new year.

Our first Elastro series of the year features the visiting duo of Andrea Parkins + Eliad Wagner, and a solo performance from Anne Liao. Andrea Parkins' and Eliad Wagner’s electroacoustic duo tumbles through a thicket of sonic densities, fusing sounding objects — a sliver of stone, a bell on a string, a spring in a chamber — with electronic tones, rhythms, and noise. The artists focus on gesture as a foundation for composition and improvisation — shaping their music through haptic interaction, careful listening, and the spontaneous "invention of instruments" through playful engagement with their materials. Join us Saturday January 10th!

Like an ecstatic game of telephone gone haywire, Noa Micaela Fields’ debut book E (Nightboat Books) practices mishearing as a glitchy hormonal transition of language. Join us for the book launch ritual of enjambment as embodiment as escape art: an evening of ethereal remixes, multimedia performances by collaborators, and euphoric dancing in the naughty clairvoyant loading zone. 

Regina Martinez sets the tone during a selective listening hour, followed by live performances by Maya Nguyen, Ruby Que, Noa Micaela Fields, and Barbiefoot. Stick around for a dance party with DJs girly*** and relaxxX. As Vaginal Davis decrees, “E is for epic!” 

For the last 24 years, Trio WAZ has performed together, making it one of the longest standing experimental music trios in Chicago.  Trio WAZ is an eclectic experimental group made up of the time honored members:  Edward Wilkerson Jr. - one of the great saxophone and clarinet players on the Chicago scene, Tatsu Aoki - a prolific artist, composer, musician, educator, and consummate bassist and Shamisen Lute player, and Michael Zerang - a percussionist focusing extensively on improvised music, free jazz, contemporary composition, puppet theater, experimental theater, and international musical forms.  Each brings their own unique arsenal of musical savvy mixing it up with their distinct dispositions to interplay and an incomparable synthesis of musical actuality.  Come listen and burn off the extra carbs from celebrating National Fettuccine Alfredo Day, remember to bring your own leftover Chardonnay!"