Dream Crease at Audubon Center
LA is a city of interdependence. We take care of each other, and if you’ve been here long enough you begin to notice the patterns and dialogues even in our storefronts. Our favorite restaurant Flavors From Afar sits in the former location of Junior High, the late In Sheep’s Clothing shop was built within the husk of the much beloved Family Books, 2220 Arts sits upon the history of the Bootleg Theater, and our dear Heavy Manners Library founded by Matthew James-Wilson just so happens to operate from the legendary grounds of both Machine Project and the Echo Park Film Center.
This is our first time gathering with our longtime friends of Heavy Manners, as well as co-presenting with Stretch Metal, and we’re going to take it slowwww. Pull up for an evening of long form patient music from John Thayer, visiting us from upstate NY to celebrate his new album Winds Gate out now with the deep heads of Aural Canyon. LA hero Dream Crease is sitting in with us tonight for a set of reverberant cavernous book shop ambience & setting the tone for the night is the debut LA performance of Ramon Narvaez’ j.o.y.s. project, who already has a gorgeous record out now with the venerable Whited Sepulchre Records who’ve released incredible music over the years from claire rousay, Patrick Shiroishi, White Boy Scream, Lake Mary, Midwife, and so many of our buds.
This is an evening for friends, for sharing new music, for making time to get extremely cozy within one of the great modern day independent libraries which gives our city so much. Grab a book, pour some tea, and bliss in. We’ll keep the water kettle running and will have goods for sale to benefit local grassroots conservation efforts as well as our friends and families in Gaza.
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John Thayer is a New York-based musician and audio engineer whose experiential compositions are inspired by a deep attention to the sounds of the natural world. His recordings, centered around a hybrid of studio techniques and improvisatory performance, range from long-form, multilayered ambience to polyrhythmic electro-acoustic collage.
A trained drummer and percussionist, Thayer has toured internationally as a performing artist. As the house engineer for Thump Studios in Brooklyn, he employs a collection of beautiful vintage gear, focusing on fidelity to capture nuanced sound. His work has appeared in multiple television and feature films and has been released by a number of record labels, including AKP Records, Not Not Fun, Aural Canyon, Mexican Summer, Tonal Union, Astral Editions, Moon Villain, Surfacing Records, and Spirit House Records.
In addition to his solo releases, Thayer is a member of jazz abstractionists YAI with multi-instrumentalist David Lackner and Earth Room with Robbie Lee and Ezra Feinberg.
Dream Crease is Marina Aguerre, a beloved local musician and organizer. Throughout her recordings and live performances, Marina creates worlds of magical proportions and depth, layering shimmering synths over ambient incantations.
In the fall of 2013, Marina also founded The Witching Hours, and has since held on air shows with both KXLU and dublab, in addition to coordinating hundreds of shows for local and touring musicians. She has also been a member of Spaceface, Dumbo Gets Mad, Teal Pop, Peel Dream Magazine, and Polartropica.
j.o.y.s. is a collective started by Ramon Narvaez; a Los Angeles based musician by way of Central New Jersey.
j.o.y.s. is short for jump out of your skin. A phrase not only meant to evoke sheer madness or fright but a way of leaving behind what you or others thought you were for a brief or permanent transformation.
joys themselves are a reminder of the all too brief nature of most good things and the reminder to savor those moments brought on by them.
Heavy Manners is a lending library, gallery, and bookstore that seeks to provide a space for developing, sharing, and discussing artwork and creative practice.
Because formal art education is increasingly becoming cost prohibitive and inaccessible, Heavy Manners hopes to be an alternative resource. Their collection focuses on self and independently published books, zines, and other media. Additionally, the library works directly with artists and small publishers, to make overlooked, out of print, and hard to find media accessible. After signing up for one of our membership options, members receive a library card and are able to borrow books from the library. Visitors are welcome to browse or scan our collection during our open hours.
In tandem with the mission of the lending library, Heavy Manners also presents events and gallery shows in their exhibit space, theater, and classroom. With these programs, they hope to create opportunities for budding artists to share their work and established artists to experiment with new projects.