As the season changes we’ll become crossroads for two artists on the road: Will Guthrie is an Australian drummer/percussionist living in France on tour across the US, Rob Magill is a California based composer/improviser traveling with his saxophone. Kristina Smith, Rachel Weaver, and Stephen Lucas, have played at the Molten Plains in different iterations, never before together as a trio.
WILL GUTHRIE
An Australian drummer / percussionist living in France. He plays solo using different combinations of drums, percussion, amplification and electronics, and leads the contemporary hybrid percussion / gamelan group ENSEMBLE NIST-NAH. His music has been released on labels such as Black Truffle, Editions Mego, Erstwhile, Clean Feed, among many others.
In the new millennium, his work took a long detour away from the drum kit through junk electronics, extreme amplification and electro-acoustic techniques. Alongside continuing his electro-acoustic work, in the last decade, Guthrie has returned to the drums with a vengeance, developing a series of solo works marked by a radical single-mindedness, from relentless rhythmic workouts to earth-quaking explorations of the bass frequencies of gongs and other metal percussion instruments. In the crowded world of free jazz/improv percussion, Guthrie’s work is distinguished from the delicately pointillist approach of much European improvisation by its rhythmic sophistication, unashamed virtuosity and undeniable physicality, touching on aspects of world musics from Javanese gamelan to South Indian Carnatic music.
ROB MAGILL
A Southern California based composer/improviser/multi-instrumentalist/singer-songwriter. Started recording solo material in 2010. Inspirations of music drawing from, 17th-21st century Classical Music, Jazz, Delta Blues, Post-Hardcore, Punk, American Folk, Indigenous Folk, Noise, Improvised Logics, and so forth. Using these ideas freely within specific contexts, along with unknown aspects of sound.