What to expect at The Tone Cluster #3

Our January 20 event centers on live sets from electronic artists Thomas Wincek and Samarah.

We’ll be taking a look at electronic music in Wisconsin in the next installment of our live event series, The Tone Cluster, on Wednesday, January 20 at the High Noon Saloon. Our guests, Thomas Wincek and Samarah, will both be playing solo live sets of new material, and before that will join me for a brief live discussion that we’ll be recorded for the weekly Tone Madison-WORT-FM podcast.

This will be the first time Wincek, best known for his work in All Tiny Creatures and Volcano Choir, plays a hometown show with the new all-hardware improvised solo set he recently began touring around. And it’ll be the first time in a while that we’ve heard from Samarah, a veteran producer who spent more than a decade performing and promoting shows in Madison and currently resides in Fond du Lac.

While the two make very different music, both have me excited for the wide-open possibilities built into their approaches. Samarah’s work reaches across techno, ambient music, and dub, caring little for subgenres and instead incorporating all these elements into vast, meticulously sculpted spaces. Wincek has been sharing excerpts of his new live set on Soundcloud, and they build bright, focused synth phrases and drum samples into spiraling pieces that offer a more abstract take on the pop tendencies Wincek explores in All Tiny Creatures.

Doors open at 5:30, discussion begins at 6, live sets at 6:30, no cover, 21 and up. Stick around after for a free night of talks from our friends at Nerd Nite Madison.

And thanks to WORT-FM and MadCity Music Exchange for sponsoring The Tone Cluster!