BLACKFISH

A special
music-only performance featuring the musicians of The Thank-you Bar, BLACKFISH features multi-instrumentalist
composer James Everest (Minneapolis, MN) and improviser/composer Joel Pickard
(Portland, OR) who perform live improvised duets in a series of surround-sound
installation concerts that accompany live performances of The Thank-you Bar. Using the vastness of the Northrop stage and
auditorium, Joel Pickard plays pedal steel guitar and upright bass, and James
Everest plays nylon and steel string acoustic guitars through a myriad of
effects and looping pedals to create spontaneous sounds and songs that span
from the intricate and spare to dense, layered, sonic constructions.

James
Everest is based in Minneapolis and has worked on a variety of musical
projects, including Lateduster, Neotropic (UK), Sans Le Systeme, Roma Di Luna,
Vicious Vicious, with collaborators Walter Kitundu and Eduard Nesterenko (RUS),
and as a solo artist. Since 2002 Everest has been a close collaborator with
choreographer Emily Johnson | Catalyst, writing and performing original scores
for several performances with Lateduster, as a solo artist, and most recently
with Joel Pickard. Since 2005, he has hosted and curated the Making Music
conversations series at the University of Minnesota's Whole Music Club and the
Walker Art Center.

Joel Pickard
is based in Portland, Oregon and works as an artist creating music for dance,
theatre, video, commercial advertising, and performance. In 2003 he created
Hatfarm (a music production company) as a name under which all of these various
projects come together. Joel has an MA in composition from Mills College in
Oakland, CA where he studied with Fred Frith, Alvin Curran, and Pauline
Oliveros. Active as a performer, Joel plays guitar in Jigsaw with cellist
Jacqueline Ferrier-Ultan and pedal steel guitar in Mire with electronic artist
Elise Baldwin, guitarist William Collins, and drummer Seth Warren. 

Artists and programs subject to change.