John & Dan, Tekla Peterson at Arts + Literature Laboratory

Guitarist Dan Kaufman and percussionist/multi-instrumentalist John Bollinger have covered some truly sprawling territory with each other over the years in the NYC-based outfit Barbez. Since the early 2000s, that band has twisted its way through eerie experimental rock full of aching melody, drawing on elements of Eastern European folk music and jagged free jazz with equal fluency. This is not merely a novel combination of surface touches, either. Technical daring and a deep sense of history run through Barbez’s discography, which includes multiple projects celebrating the anti-fascist resistance movements of the mid-20th century. (Kaufman is a Madison native, and indeed we’re talking about the same Dan Kaufman who has chronicled the modern history of Wisconsin politics in his journalism for The New Yorker and The New York Times, and in his 2018 book The Fall Of Wisconsin.) 

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Bollinger and Kaufman also play together as a duo, simply named John & Dan, with the kind of expansive looseness that can only come from years of collaboration and focus. On “Rainy Day In Bern,” Bollinger’s vibraphone cascades gently over Kaufman’s wiry guitar trills and loops, occasionally giving way to outbursts of dense chords and restive drumkit. The two dig deeper into jagged instrumental rock on the frenetic “Fear Of Midtown” and the downright furious “D&D,” which begins with a calming vocal interlude before Bollinger lunges in with a bass part of nearly Jesus Lizard proportions—the kind where the impact of pick and string kind of hurts—over the bristling turbulence of his own drums.

John & Dan recorded these and several other tracks in sessions for the project’s forthcoming debut album. They began working on the recordings several years ago with producer Martin Bisi (who has worked with artists including John Zorn, Brian Eno, and Sonic Youth), and finally finished the tracking in April 2023. They’ll be drawing on that material at this show, perhaps also incorporating some of Bollinger’s playfully odd videos into the set. 

Opening up here is Tekla Peterson, the romantic and tormented synth-pop alter ego of Madison-based musician Taralie Peterson. A veteran of formidable avant-garde projects like Spires That In The Sunset Rise and Louise Bock, she debuted the Tekla Peterson moniker with the 2022 release of Heart Press. Its six songs blend sugary hooks with the anguished yearning of Peterson’s vocals.

—Scott Gordon

Photo by Gabrielle Plucknette.