Bark Culture is a new trio out of Philadelphia led by Victor Vieira-Branco on vibraphone, John Moran on bass and Joey Sullivan on drums. The group approaches Vieira-Branco’s compositions in an episodic frenzy, leaping from idea to idea, rarely looking back and using improvisation as a means of collective momentum.
Vieira-Branco is somewhat new to the Philadelphia region despite having been born there. He spent the 2010’s in Brazil where he got his footing in the expansive creative music scene in Sao Paulo, having played extensively with trio repelente, a band with Rodrigo Hara and Mauricio Takara of Sao Paulo Underground, Hurtmold, Rob Mazurek’s Black Cube SP. In the later half of the 2010’s, Vieira-Branco was active in the free improv scene, both as a performer and putting on numerous shows over the years of his stay there, having performed with Mauricio Takara, Bernardo Pacheco, Philip Somervell, Thomas Rohrer, Lorena Hollander, Romulo Alexis, Negro Leo and Rogerio Martins amongst others.
Joey Sullivan and John Moran have been active in the Philadelphia scene for some time now.
Moran has been a part of Maya Keren’s trio with Julian Miltenberger, Micah Graves’ group, as well as playing in bands like EAT, Guitars and Drums, and Ceiba, both of the latter alongside Joey Sullivan.
Sullivan is active in both setting up some very successful free music showings as well as playing with an array of east coast improvisers. Playing drums in out music groups like Violet Salon III with James McKain and Jared Radichel as well as playing in active alt-folk groups like Florry.
The background all three share as friends, drummers and their collective participation in diverse musics have this group exploring a common territory that could be easily heard in both a theatre or a crusty basement.
Andrea Pensado works with sound as a performer and programmer. She has been using digital media and live interactive musical systems since 1995. She studied in Argentina and Poland. At first, she composed mainly for acoustic instruments. However, she felt gradually more attracted by different sound realms. Today, the abrasive digital noise of her music is far away from her earlier pieces. Harsh dense layers of sounds, often interwoven with her voice, combine hybrid synthesis techniques to create a highly personal sound language, which reflects an intuitive, emotional and paradoxically also logical approach to music making. She currently lives in the US.
23 ENSEMBLE:
23 Ensemble is a dynamic, effusive collective of musicians creating auditory environments in which to skry the aethyrs for new sonic possibilities. We have been an evolving group of musicians since our first “large ensemble” shows in 2008. The seed of the idea was gestated by drummer Andy Kivela (Sisters and Brothers/Bourgeois Homes/The Impenitents) as a way to explore a more fully improvised based musical approach. As the idea evolved and grew, the group was trimmed down to an ever shifting base quartet. Andy welcomed guitar wunderkind Adam Bosse (Fred Cracklin) to the fold in 2011, saxophone colossus Andy Allen (Hollow Deck/Creative Healing) in 2014, and just recently, bass wizard Nat Baldwin (former Dirty Projectors/solo) in 2021. We are honored to be able to present new, free improvised music for your listening enjoyment.