Friends!
On the evening of August 20th we’re gathering with our friends of Hollyhock House, Luaka Bop, and Little Operation to host the premiere performance of HUG high atop Los Angeles at sunset. If a sunset concert alongside a historic Frank Lloyd Wright house in an art park that overlooks the city sounds like something you might be interested in, then you’ve found your people.
HUG is the new collaborative project from celebrated guitarists and songwriters Gyan Riley, Devendra Banhart, and Noah Georgeson. It’s the sound of three eternal friends becoming children, inviting us along for the journey, and their playful debut album is out in early September via David Byrne’s celebrated Luaka Bop label.
Devendra Banhart begins the record by thumbing a simple melody on a kalimba; then, an incisive, percussive sound fills the open field between his phrases. At first, it sounds like a washboard, or a modulated cheese grater. But when the short rasps grow into a veritable chorus of clipped, plosive trills, you realize it’s frogs. It’s an audibly perfect moment of meditation in this warm summer air — and sets the tone for a record that’s based on humans making nature sounds. Humans are nature sounds.
HUG will be playing a select few shows in the fall, including MassMoCA, ArtYard, the Walker Center for the Arts, and we are so honored to hold this first moment of sharing freely in community with one another at Hollyhock House. Thank you to Little Operation for trusting us with this moment, to Hollyhock House for so enthusiastically hosting and supporting, to Luaka Bop for the art that they help to bring into the world, to our family of Mobius Acoustics for providing the evening’s sound system in hi fidelity wonder, and to Gyan, Devendra, and Noah for the many years of music that have soundtracked our lives.
HUG will begin around 7p
& we’ll see you soon!
🫂
This gathering is free & all ages (always). Arrive early as seating is first-come, rsvp does not guarantee admission, and capacity is limited. Music will take place on the lawn of Hollyhock House, and a quick note that while your furry friends are allowed on the grass at Barnsdall Park (where you can watch and listen) they won’t be able to join us on the lawn of Hollyhock.
Hollyhock House (1921) is Frank Lloyd Wright's first Los Angeles commission and the City's only UNESCO World Heritage Site. Designed for Aline Barnsdall, the house was intended to be the centerpiece of a 36-acre arts complex, which was only partially realized. Gifted to the City in 1927, Barnsdall Art Park has grown to include the Municipal Art Gallery, a theater, and community art centers (all operated by the Department of Cultural Affairs), realizing Barnsdall's vision for a dynamic arts park in Los Angeles. Hollyhock House is open for tours, and new initiatives put contemporary practitioners in dialogue with the site, broadening perspectives on the house’s layered history.
Photo credit: Hollyhock House west facade. Photo by Joshua White, courtesy Galerie Max Hetzler and City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.