Jessica Way is a guitarist and vocalist in the etherial doom-metal band, Worm Ouroboros, the dark folk/ambient band Barren Harvest, and the experimental folk project Hiraeth Eschar. As a guest vocalist she has collaborated with metal bands Ash Borer and Atriarch, industrial entity Theologian, and neo-folk’s Kinit Her and Fovea Hex. Through poetry and symbolism, her music delves lyrically into an inner world of light and dark, exploring the beautifully anguished territories of the heart.
Way will be performing solo compositions and arrangements of ancient songs of loss using multilayered vocal and guitar looping. Her first solo full length will be released on Black Horizons in 2017.
Leila Abdul Rauf, Diverging from the sounds of her work in heavier projects (Vastum, Hammers of Misfortune, Cardinal Wyrm, Ionophore), Leila creates an overall atmosphere of introspection, accessing what is often unconscious and obscured by the human condition: songs are not so much composed as captured from dreams. Evoking haunting and desolate places, a private world is exposed, where time and space are distilled down to what remain of distant memories and hidden emotions. Selections will be performed at ATA from both of her solo albums, Insomnia and Cold and Cloud, embedded within improvisational pieces. Nathan A. Verrill (Cardinal Wyrm) and Ryan Honaker (Ionophore) will be accompanying Leila’s set on violin, synths and live sound captures. Visuals by Nathan A. Verrill will also be projected during the performance.
https://leilaabdulrauf.bandcamp.com/
Kevin Hufnagel,Multifaceted guitarist/composer Kevin Hufnagel has been playing, writing, performing, and recording for over 28 years and is perhaps best known for his work in progressive instrumental rock trio Dysrhythmia, avant-death metal act Gorguts, Vaura and occult rock/metal band Sabbath Assembly. Kevin has also collaborated with artists such as Jarboe (Swans), Costanza Francavilla (Tricky), Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (Psychic TV).
Kevin’s solo career began in 1997 when he recorded and self-released his first recording; a cassette EP titled ‘While I Wait’. Twelve years later in 2009, Kevin released his first full-length album ‘Songs for the Disappeared’, on his own Nightfloat Recordings imprint. ‘Songs for the Disappeared’ was an album which unified eclectic and exploratory uses of the acoustic guitar into a cohesive and gripping whole.
With 2012 came two new, more hypnotic offerings. The first, titled ‘Transparencies’, was recorded primarily with electric guitar. Rich with texture, without forsaking melody and detail to composition, it was praised by The New York Times, Decibel Magazine, Wire, and The Needle Drop among others for it’s strange and haunting sonic landscapes. The digital-only ‘Polar Night’ followed in a similar vein, but instead abstracted 12-string acoustic guitar into the ether.
The Fall of 2013 brought the release of ‘Ashland’, a gorgeous, left-turn of an album. With ‘Ashland’ Kevin chose the baritone ukulele as his canvas of expression, setting aside the guitar entirely. Drawing from his training as a classical guitarist and love of dark, 70’s psychedelic folk music; ‘Ashland’ featured hymn-like melodies within webs of ornate fingerpicking.
Kevin’s newest solo releases ‘Kleines Biest’ and ‘Backwards Through the Maze’ are by far his most experimental and daring. Guitar sounds are sculpted into completely unrecognizable, surreal abstractions; through a mixture of prepared guitar technique, digital processing, and editing. The results are equal parts sound design and modern composition, guided by a dark sense of dream logic.
