Musical duo Anteloper brings surround sound to Stephens Lake Park
Cutting-edge duo Anteloper isn't merely content to push someone else's idea of the musical envelope. No, they'd rather make their own envelope from the inside out.
Jaimie Branch (trumpet, electronics, percussion, vocals) and Jason Nazary (drums, synths) create a remarkably inventive, immersive sound that's far bigger than two people should logically make. This is jazz. This is hip-hop. This is Technicolor electronic sound and so much more.
"Acoustic musicians sun-kissed by electro-magnetism, flowing out into everything" is how Branch describes the duo's aesthetic on the Bandcamp site for their record label, International Anthem.
Their notes will flow into the open air over Stephens Lake Park next weekend, performing as part of Dismal Niche's Illuminations Summer Series, with a hand from the "We Always Swing" Jazz Series.
More: These 13 summer arts events in Columbia boast serious talent
The genius of 'Pink Dolphins'
Each member of this dynamic duo owns killer resumes, bending in distinct directions yet looping back together. Branch leads the impressive jazz band Fly or Die and has gigged with the likes of TV on the Radio. Nazary has released music under his own name and played with Helado Negro, among others.
The kindred spirits met as teens, International Anthem notes, and released their first Anteloper project in 2018. The particular genius of their pairing can be heard on "Pink Dolphins," a five-song set released a few short weeks ago.
"Inia" opens the whole affair with ambient noise that shimmers, scratches and scrapes over Nazary's deep drum tones; the song sounds as if it's assembling itself as it goes.
First recognizable trumpet notes come just more than halfway through, as Branch holds forth over self-aware sonic vibrations. The song's latter act is nothing less than jazz, but expands and contracts to become so much more.
"Delfin Rosado" shimmers and thumps along, a real transfer of equal weight between Branch's trumpet and Nazary's drums, with electronic flourishes squeezing and sealing in the sound.
"Earthlings" is both the literal and spiritual centerpiece of the album, unspooling its delightful surprises over more than 8 minutes of music. A collaboration with superlative guitarist Jeff Parker, the track opens with darkly cinematic colors and Branch vocalizing about isolation and injustice.
Parker's guitar crackles at the edges and his bass playing asserts itself in the mix. After a fanfare-like passage from Branch, the song begins to spiral downward in the best of the ways, living on the low end with funky, pulsing patterns that burrow into the brain.
"Baby Bota Halloceanation" follows with stacked rhythms and Branch's trumpet pointed skyward, her notes like a clarion call to some sort of focus amid the day's chaos.
International Anthem describes "One Living Genus," the set's 15-minute finale, as "an expansive ... movement of futurist psychedelia — loud, direct, impatient, impolite, pushing for progress."
It "recalls the colorful, uncompromisingly creative and revolutionary spirit emanating from Brazil in the late 1960s," they add, "but vibrates more like the modern cultural diffusion of the New York city that the band calls home."
Early on, the track pushes ahead viscerally; it shivers almost reflexively in key moments. Some sections refract the light of bands such as Radiohead and Mogwai. And by track's end, its sweet ambience evokes someone gently pleading through the resonances of a Tibetan singing bowl.
All these influences baptize the listener in complicated but gratifying sonic relationships. Each measure of music is its own world, yet reaches out to make connections.
"We’re improvisers first and we’re bringing 'moment music' into these other zones of hip hop and electronic music, drum-machine music, sound-system culture," Branch notes on Bandcamp.
Columbia listeners can experience these moments when Anteloper plays Stephens Lake Amphitheater at 7 p.m. Saturday; Chicago Sunspots shares the bill. Tickets range from $10 to $20.
More: Animal Collective, Waka Flocka Flame, Dustin Lynch lead Columbia concert announcements
Other Dismal Niche dates on approach
A Columbia-based music and art collective, Dismal Niche programs thought-provoking, multi-sensory events that foreground innovative music. Future dates include ambient pioneer Laraaji with Onishi-Beis Duo and Katina Bitsicas July 29 as part of the Mizzou International Composers Festival.
And the yearly Columbia Experimental Music Festival is set for Nov. 3-6, with a lineup including Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Lubomyr Melnyk and the duo of Jermiah Chiu and Marta Sofia Honer. More artists are set to be announced.
Visit https://cargocollective.com/dismalniche for more details.
Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at adanielsen@columbiatribune.com or by calling 573-815-1731. Find him on Twitter @aarikdanielsen.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Musical duo Anteloper brings surround sound to Stephens Lake Park
