“Or… (night)” Solstice Celebration at Common Sage

A handbill features a negative image of a sprig of sage with all the relevant event information.

There’s uncommon hospitality at Common Sage, Tim Russell and Liz Sexe’s avant-garde-focused but distinctly cozy house venue. The music-dance power duo welcomed friends into their recreation of La Monte Young’s “Dream House” to mark the composer’s October birthday. As Russell and Sexe continue to get back into the swing of more regular hosting, they’re planning a send-off to 2022 in the form of a winter solstice celebration, “Or… (night),” as a tribute to another boundary-pushing composer, James Tenney (and to the longest night).

Russell and Sexe have gathered an inspiring crew of local talent, including noisemakers Emili Earhart, David Henry, and Ari Smith, to interpret Tenney’s 1970-1971 piece of indeterminacy, “For Percussion Perhaps, Or…” While there are a number of recorded performances that elicit the piece’s nuanced drone via prepared hurdy-gurdy, trombone, and electronics, and even solo keyboard (you like Julia Holter, right?), the instrumental configurations for this house show will remain a surprise.

Beyond that, most beckoning about this special event is the union of artistic mediums, with short film projection by Barry Paul Clark and dancers Sexe and Mauriah Donegan Kraker, who will all add further visual flair through their kinetic chemistry.

For those relatively unfamiliar with Tenney’s history, take it from writer Bradford Bailey, who asserts that Tenney’s work encompassed “nearly all of the central conceits used by avant-garde composers during the second half of the twentieth century.” Perhaps there’s no better way to find your way in than through the doors of Common Sage.

Potluck begins at 7 p.m., with performances to follow at 8 p.m. And, if it’s temperate enough outdoors, Common Sage will start a fire pit in their backyard.

—Grant Phipps