The Avalon Lounge and StretchMetal present Drone Rodeo, StretchMetal’s monthly ambient music series in the round. This special edition welcomes Winds Gate, the latest EP by John Thayer, marking a stop on his album release tour.

John Thayer is a Hudson Valley–based musician, producer, and audio engineer whose experiential compositions are inspired by a deep attention to the sounds of the natural world. A trained drummer and percussionist, his solo work blends studio experimentation with improvisatory performance, ranging from layered ambient soundscapes to polyrhythmic electro-acoustic collage. His recent ambient album Winds Gate, released on Aural Canyon, expands this work into a slow-moving, immersive exploration of time, landscape, and perception. He has released music on labels including AKP, Not Not Fun, Astral Editions and Moon Villain, and is a member of YAI and Earth Room. Thayer is also an active collaborator in the experimental scenes of NYC and the Hudson Valley and was formerly the house engineer at Thump Studios in Brooklyn.

Winds Gate finds John Thayer at this very riverside, pointing a field recorder and a modular rig right at the churn of the water, as if the Hudson River School painters traded their oils for Ableton. Sweet, weathered educational-film synth tones and drones fade into light over burbling, textural capture of forest transmissions and riparian current, while enigmatic audio processing pushes cycling white noise and chopped up samples from one speaker to the next and back again. Impossibly huge sky above, an impenetrably deep canyon plunging below the surface.

StretchMetal is a Chicago-based nonprofit resource network, label, and concert series promoting emerging artists in the ever-evolving landscape of abstract sound.

StretchMetal presents: Drone Rodeo ft. J.Ashdown & John Thayer (Album Release Show)

StretchMetal presents: Drone Rodeo ft. J.Ashdown & John Thayer (Album Release Show)