Jon Mueller

Percussionist Jon Mueller returns to Arts + Literature Laboratory with Afterlife Cartoons on Saturday, March 19, 2022 at 7:00pm. Asumaya (Luke Bassuener) will open the show. Tickets are $10 online in advance ($8 for students and ALL Members) at https://jonmueller.bpt.me, or $15 at the door for everyone.

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

Jon Mueller

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... Read More

Asumaya

Asumaya is the solo-looping project of Madison WI percussionist and multi-instrumentalist, Luke Bassuener. Layers of interlocking harmonies and rhythmic patterns become churning compositions designed to make heads spin and feet move. Drawing inspiration from his time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana, and from his other lives as a public elementary art teacher and a part-time post-punk/dub/jazz drummer, Bassuener's songs sound like a warped "world music" from a place that might not exist.

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Arts + Literature Laboratory is located at 111 S. Livingston Street #100, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703.

Our galleries are open Tuesday through Friday 10am-5pm and Saturday noon to 5pm, and other programs take place throughout the week. Please check the events calendar and education section for details.

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Jon Mueller

Jon Mueller

Asumaya

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