Wilco drummer and art-music percussionist Glenn Kotche, phenomenal Alaskan composer John Luther Adams, and Durham-based Americana inventors Megafaun collided in this evening program of intelligent, visceral music.
Kotche is a drummer and composer of “unfailing taste, technique, and discipline” (Chicago Tribune). Adams, “one of the most original musical thinkers of the new century” (The New Yorker), famously uses drums and electronic processes to consecrate the natural world.
Ilimaq, commissioned in part by Duke Performances, was born of their deep mutual admiration. For 50 minutes, Kotche drums his way through a vast, spectral landscape of live electronics and Alaskan field recordings. Later released as an album, Ilimaq premiered on February 22, 2013 at Reynolds Industries Theater. Megafaun opened the concert in a collaboration with On Fillmore, the duo of bassist Darin Gray and Kotche.
Ilimaq was commissioned by Texas Performing Arts at the University of Texas, Walker Art Center, Stanford Live at Stanford University, and Duke Performances at Duke University.