Under the name Gardener, Richmond, VA-based Dash Lewis uses a modular synthesizer, effects pedals, and his own voice to create intricately layered, rhythmically complex slabs of trance-inducing psychedelia, weaving looped vocal passages into thick, textured drones. Deeply influenced by German kosmiche music of the 1970s, mid-career Beach Boys, and spiritual jazz, Lewis’s interest lies in the organic interplay between electronics and the human voice. With Gardener, he works to meld seemingly disparate elements into a single instrument. A frequent performer and collaborator, Lewis has toured or shared the stage with The War on Drugs, Meg Mulhearn (Divine Circles, U.S. Christmas), Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Fred Thomas, Benoit Pioulard, Jeff Zeigler, Mary Lattimore, Suuns, Brian Case (Disappears), Tashi Dorji, Mind Over Mirrors, and many more.
Nathaniel Rappole’s solo project Gull is best described as a drum; a living, breathing, squawking drum that cries out assorted music of creatures past and delivers it from a single unique perspective; a communal music broadcast of blood and bile left as an offering on the altar of sound. Gull has been active for more than a decade and has recorded a 7″, 2 EP’s and 2 full length albums and has spent the better part of the past 5 years touring vigorously ~ playing venues, on the streets and in the wilds of North and Central America, Kenya and Europe. Gull has toured in support of White Rabbits, Tres Mts and RNDM and has shared the bar arena with the likes of Silver Apples, Girl Talk, Deerhoof, Adrian Belew, Panda Bear and Melt Banana.