Cultural Weekly Live: The Musicians

I’m incredibly excited about the upcoming Cultural Weekly Live event. There will be poetry, panel discussions, dance, and of course food and drinks.

And what’s a live event without music, especially when we get to hold it in a beautiful space like Osso (the former One-Eyed Gypsy space) in downtown Los Angeles. Not only does it serve delicious food (the fried chicken!!) and awesome cocktails, Osso has a full stage. We are definitely going to take advantage of it.

We have three musical acts scheduled, all with personal connections to us in addition to being great musicians. They are Lilly Flor del Valle, Isaac Takeuchi, and ThE CoNcEnTr8s.

Lilly Flor del Valle

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I first met Lilly when she began working at Tía Chucha with Luis Rodriguez. My earliest memory of speaking with her was when we were trying to schedule Luis to take part in LAB•FEST at The Last Bookstore. At first (because I didn’t know any better), I thought she was just Luis’s awesome assistant. But I realized real quickly what a multi-faceted artist she is. She writes, edits, paints, and of course, sings.

She most recently took part in the final installment of the legendary Bluebird, a monthly reading series curated and hosted by Jessica Ceballos.

Lilly Flor!!! #bluebirdreadingseries #avenue50studio #gabo

A video posted by Jessica Ceballos (@bluvlvt) on

Can’t wait to hear more than the above few seconds of her performing. She’ll be kicking off the event.

Lilly Flor del Valle is a first generation Salvadoreña , born again Xicana and mother to a beautiful Bumblebee. She is currently the editorial assistant for Tia Chucha Press and Jaranera in the North East San Fernando Valley. She strives to live each day ARTfully.

Isaac Takeuchi

Isaac Takeuchi is a cellist I met through my Writ Large Press partner, Peter Woods. I’ve seen Isaac perform twice before. The first time was when his band, Inner Ecstasy, performed during LAB•FEST. The second time was a solo set he did inside our tiny DT•LAB space upstairs in the labyrinth of The Last Bookstore.

I can’t wait to hear him for the third time.

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Isaac Takeuchi lives in Los Angeles, his main focus is the cello performance and composition. He has been playing for cello for 17 years. He studied cello performance at the CSUN. He has played in many ensembles over the years and is currently teaching privately and at various institutions in Southern California. He currently teaches cello, origami, accordion, and piano.

He has also played with many successful bands over the years including Soko, Saint Motel and Chelsea Wolfe.

His current project is with a line-up of cello, violin, vocals, guitar and drums, Inner Ecstasy is as much chamber music as experimental rock. They take influence from everything from 20th century minimalism, baroque, noise, post-rock, shoe gaze. The dichotomies of structured counterpoint and the chaos of avant-garde experimentalism are represented and melded into a cinematic voyage of the human experience. Inner Ecstasy is basks in harmonic bliss and dissonant terror. The poignant inter weavings speak of empathy and nostalgia, sacred with but a flicker of hope.

ThE CoNcEnTr8s

ThE CoNcEnTr8s are another band that I’ve experienced and met through Peter Woods (seriously, all great LA music comes through Peter).

I first heard them perform when they took part in #90for90. I recognized Tylana Renga Enomoto from the time the Grammy-winning Quetzal played for us at LAB•FEST. They brought the house down with their avante-classical dub net-punk performance.

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The CoNcEnTr8s was founded by violinist Tylana Renga Enomoto and cellist Peter Jacobson in 2009. As a duet they would busk on the streets for fun and to make extra money when needed. They would perform music from many genres, including (but not limited to) songs by David Bowie, J. Dilla, Astor Piazzolla, Neil Young, W.A Mozart, Mulatu Astatke and Ramon Ayala. Shortly after, they began writing and recording their own music while incorporating drums/percussion and other instruments. In December 2013 they released their first album entitled “RawBits” (available on Bandcamp.com) featuring these collaborations.

Currently, the CoNcEnTr8s, joined by the incomparable William Logan on drums, performs as a trio (violin, cello, drums) and plays mostly original music. Their sound is a mix of classical, groove, experimental and improvisational elements inspired by the notion that we are all connected to something far greater than just ourselves.

 

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