Drummer Ryan Sawyer’s Shaker Ensemble, a project stemming from his pair of mis-matched maracas and an ever evolving group of improvisers, shares For Those Who Wish to Sing Will Always Find a Song, released in October 2025 by Lobby Art Editions. Opening the evening is a set by experimental pedal steel guitarist and Lobby Art Editions co label head Sam Wenc, with collaborators, to premiere his latest album Language At An Angle.
Debuting in January 2024 the Shaker Ensemble is shepherded by a trust based composition within the framing of the phasing, audio-hallucinatory playing of the maracas. Born out of a need for healing and self soothing, the ensemble has grown into a participatory event that incudes the audience and architecture of every building it presents in.
Ryan Sawyer Shaker Ensemble
Ryan Sawyer maracas, voice
Laura Cocks flutes, voice
isa crespo pardo voice
Nate Wooley trumpet, voice
Jessica Pavone viola, voice
Henry Fraser bass, voice
Madison Greenstone clarinets, voice
From Language At An Angle liner notes, by Jack Braunstein:
“Language At An Angle” is the latest offering from Sam Wenc (fka Post Moves); an eight-part tone poem and journey through the heart, and, as the title suggests, a reflection on meaning itself. Fleshed out with a crew of wildly talented improvisor-composers, the music sits in a unique place at the edges of free-improvisation, East Asian court music, and the overtone-centered wizardry of drone technicians like Ellen Fullman and Kali Malone.
This performance will be the premiere of this material in large ensemble format after a year of solo performances that took Sam from Arizona to Japan. The music retains the intensity of its original form while only revealing more deeply the intricacies of its textural and melodic accomplishments. As an expression of states encountered through Wenc’s extended engagements with long durations of sitting meditation, it is a truthful and profoundly beautiful record. As a fully-realized album from one of the best avant-garde pedal steel players in the game with 13 years of sound exploration and technique development under his belt, it’s monumental.
Compositionally and spiritually, there is no greater influence on this record than the late Susan Alcorn, to whom the album is dedicated. Like all of those who had the privilege to be taught by Susan, Wenc was transformed by her presence and generosity. While her boundless creativity and fierce technical ability on the instrument are a treasure to all open-minded steel players, what I understand Sam to treasure most about her mentorship were the more intangible things–the wholeness of spirit that she brought to her playing and relationships, and her sensitivities to the spiritual forces of the world. Susan’s passing was a devastating loss for her community: there are some transformations for which you can’t prepare. What Language at an Angle offers instead is a practice of making meaning in this world, tenuously, temporarily, as it is, deeply. And in doing so, he is passing on a gift. Ready or not, we might need it.
