Matt Mehlan & Sonnenzimmer: Slow Dances

Saturday, June 5, 20218:00 pm
  • A limited number of tickets will be available to attend this performance in person.
  • Tickets must be purchased online by 6pm on the day of the performance.
  • Performances will continue to be live streamed and available for free.
  • Please support Roulette this season. Donate.

Slow Dances is a game for stochastic choreography and accompanying music by Matt Mehlan & Sonnenzimmer (Nadine Nakanishi & Nick Butcher).

Released as a 53-card deck (52 playing cards + USB card drive with music), Slow Dances consists of a series of prompt cards that create a flexible score for dancing, based on chance and dancers’ own interpretations.

Matt Mehlan: music and visuals
Sonnenzimmer: graphics
Victoria Keddie: visuals
Dancers: Mariangela Lopez, Verónica Santiago Moniello, and Mor Mendel.

View the Slow Dances playlist.


Matt Mehlan is an artist, musician, and producer based in Chicago. An active figure in underground music in New York City for a decade before returning to his hometown; Matt leads the band Skeletons, mixes and masters recordings at his STUUDIO, runs the record label Shinkoyo, and teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Matt is a co-founder of the original Silent Barn space in Queens, NY, a member of the 19 piece supergroup Congotronics Vs Rockers (with Deerhoof, Konono No 1, Juana Molina, Kasai Allstars), and has produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered releases by Zeena Parkins, Janka Nabay, Anthony Braxton, Joe McPhee, Jobs, Amirtha Kidambi, IE, Nine 11 Thesaurus, The Fly Girlz, and The Wet Ink Ensemble, among others. He has performed around the world and released music on Shinkoyo, Ghostly International, Tomlab, Crammed Discs, The Social Registry, Sockets, and Altin Village and Mine.

Sonnenzimmer is the collaborative practice of Nick Butcher and Nadine Nakanishi. Their work investigates and challenges the preconceived notions of the graphic arts. Their experimental studio was established in 2006 in Chicago. Together, they explore the physical and psycho-physical nature of graphics through publishing, exhibitions, design, music, and performance. While they move through an array of media, their focus is on triangulating a deeper understanding of graphic expression at large.

Victoria Keddie is an artist working in experiential media, with a focus on transmission and broadcast. For over a decade, Keddie has been the Co-Director of E.S.P. TV, a nomadic TV studio, and episodic cable access serial, that hybridizes technologies to realize synthetic environments and deconstruct the televisual for live performance. Keddie teaches Immersive Sound for Video and Advanced Televisual Broadcast. Keddie has performed and exhibited internationally at venues and festivals such as The Barbican (London/UK), Fridman Gallery, The Swiss Institute, Pioneer Works, The Kitchen, Museum of Moving Image, The Museum of Art and Design, Queens Museum of Art, Microscope Gallery, and Anthology Film Archives (New York/US), Human Resources (Los Angeles/ US), Lightcone, (Paris/FR), Syros International Film Festival (Syros, GR), Studio XX (Montreal/CA), LOOP Festival (Barcelona/ES), Pallas Projects (Dublin/IE), Reykjavik Arts Festival (Reykjavik/ IS), General Public (Berlin/DE), Axis Art Centre (Crew/UK), The Independent Film Festival (Naples/ IT), Liste Art Fair (Basel/CH), Seeing Sound Festival (Bath/UK), and Daimon (Gatineau/CA). Video works are distributed through Lightcone, (Paris/FR) and The Filmmakers Co-op (NYC/US). Sound works released with Counter Audition (Cambridge/US), In Context Music (Toronto/CA), Robert & Leopold (NYC/US), and Chaiken Records (NYC/ US).

Photo credit: Sonnenzimmer; Jojo King; Troy Lehman

Matt Mehlan & Sonnenzimmer: Slow Dances

Saturday, June 5, 20218:00 pm
  • A limited number of tickets will be available to attend this performance in person.
  • Tickets must be purchased online by 6pm on the day of the performance.
  • Performances will continue to be live streamed and available for free.
  • Please support Roulette this season. Donate.

Slow Dances is a game for stochastic choreography and accompanying music by Matt Mehlan & Sonnenzimmer (Nadine Nakanishi & Nick Butcher).

Released as a 53-card deck (52 playing cards + USB card drive with music), Slow Dances consists of a series of prompt cards that create a flexible score for dancing, based on chance and dancers’ own interpretations.

Matt Mehlan: music and visuals
Sonnenzimmer: graphics
Victoria Keddie: visuals
Dancers: Mariangela Lopez, Verónica Santiago Moniello, and Mor Mendel.

View the Slow Dances playlist.


Matt Mehlan is an artist, musician, and producer based in Chicago. An active figure in underground music in New York City for a decade before returning to his hometown; Matt leads the band Skeletons, mixes and masters recordings at his STUUDIO, runs the record label Shinkoyo, and teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Matt is a co-founder of the original Silent Barn space in Queens, NY, a member of the 19 piece supergroup Congotronics Vs Rockers (with Deerhoof, Konono No 1, Juana Molina, Kasai Allstars), and has produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered releases by Zeena Parkins, Janka Nabay, Anthony Braxton, Joe McPhee, Jobs, Amirtha Kidambi, IE, Nine 11 Thesaurus, The Fly Girlz, and The Wet Ink Ensemble, among others. He has performed around the world and released music on Shinkoyo, Ghostly International, Tomlab, Crammed Discs, The Social Registry, Sockets, and Altin Village and Mine.

Sonnenzimmer is the collaborative practice of Nick Butcher and Nadine Nakanishi. Their work investigates and challenges the preconceived notions of the graphic arts. Their experimental studio was established in 2006 in Chicago. Together, they explore the physical and psycho-physical nature of graphics through publishing, exhibitions, design, music, and performance. While they move through an array of media, their focus is on triangulating a deeper understanding of graphic expression at large.

Victoria Keddie is an artist working in experiential media, with a focus on transmission and broadcast. For over a decade, Keddie has been the Co-Director of E.S.P. TV, a nomadic TV studio, and episodic cable access serial, that hybridizes technologies to realize synthetic environments and deconstruct the televisual for live performance. Keddie teaches Immersive Sound for Video and Advanced Televisual Broadcast. Keddie has performed and exhibited internationally at venues and festivals such as The Barbican (London/UK), Fridman Gallery, The Swiss Institute, Pioneer Works, The Kitchen, Museum of Moving Image, The Museum of Art and Design, Queens Museum of Art, Microscope Gallery, and Anthology Film Archives (New York/US), Human Resources (Los Angeles/ US), Lightcone, (Paris/FR), Syros International Film Festival (Syros, GR), Studio XX (Montreal/CA), LOOP Festival (Barcelona/ES), Pallas Projects (Dublin/IE), Reykjavik Arts Festival (Reykjavik/ IS), General Public (Berlin/DE), Axis Art Centre (Crew/UK), The Independent Film Festival (Naples/ IT), Liste Art Fair (Basel/CH), Seeing Sound Festival (Bath/UK), and Daimon (Gatineau/CA). Video works are distributed through Lightcone, (Paris/FR) and The Filmmakers Co-op (NYC/US). Sound works released with Counter Audition (Cambridge/US), In Context Music (Toronto/CA), Robert & Leopold (NYC/US), and Chaiken Records (NYC/ US).

Photo credit: Sonnenzimmer; Jojo King; Troy Lehman

 

Matt Mehlan at Roulette 2021