Événement

Emily Wells at ALL

Arts + Literature Laboratory welcomes multi-instrumentalist Emily Wells on Thursday, June 23 at 7pm. Tickets $18 ($15 students/members) in advance online until 2 hours before the performance or $20 at the door beginning at 6:30pm. Advance purchase recommended as capacity will be limited. Currently proof of vaccination or negative COVID-19 test taken with 72 hours of the event and face mask required. Please check the ALL website for the most up to date safety guidelines.

Quietly transfixing composer / producer Emily Wells is known for her varied use of classical and modern instrumentation, a master of blending the worlds of classical and electronics (NPR) and dramatic, meticulous and gothic songs (New York Times). On stage Wells builds a new instrument out of acoustic and electronic drums, synth, violin, and her evocative performances leave audiences equal parts dancing and grieving. Wells latest work, This World is Too _____ For You released in March has been hailed by NPR as breathtaking mind-blowing and visionary. The ten song album, arranged for chamber ensemble by composer Michi Wiancko, was commissioned by Saint Paul Chamber Orchestras Liquid Music Series and Metropolis Ensemble who performs on the album along with drummer / composer Shayna Dunkelman (Du Yun, Xiu Xiu).

The new songs are the rub between desire for, and desire to strip oneself of all wanting Wells says of the new material, which clamors around all the edges, and sometimes into the center of our collective uncertainties.

I grew up with hymns and I often find myself drawn to a form that seeks redemption, even for transgressions unknown... they are an offering, an oath. As a queer kid raised in the south and the midwest by a music minister and a preacher's daughter I am interested in the reclamation of themes and ideas that have often been used to constrain me. Of Wells video work, which accompanies her performances, she says, the video and the songs are mirrors of one another: grace, the body, movement, and the natural world, beating against our windows, drunk with the answer.