BEFORE THE MOLTEN PLAINS: Amba, Gonzalez & Gonzalez // Ewen & Horne

MOLTEN PLAINS FEST is happening for its second year and we are thrilled to host once more the PRE-FESTIVAL CONCERT for this gathering of adventurous music and further sounds, BEFORE THE MOLTEN PLAINS. Rising young saxophonist Zoh Amba is coming from New York and will play with Dallas’ finest and fiercest: Aaron Gonzalez and Stefan Gonzalez. Guitar players Sandy Ewen and Jonathan Horne are meeting from New York and Austin for a scintillating duo with many years of history behind them. It’s the first time for Zoh and Sandy at the shop, Jonathan has been here before with Thor & Friends, and opening for Joe McPhee along with Matthew Frerck and Gerard Bendiks; Aaron and Stefan are mainstays whenever some intense creative music takes place at The Wild Detectives.

MOLTEN PLAINS FEST is a two-day festival fostering the spirit of forward-thinking creativity at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios in Denton, Texas. You can find more information on the line-up, schedule, and presale tickets  here: https://moltenplains.com/

***the Molten Plains Fest $35 Special Presale Two-Day Pass grants access to Before The Molten Plains***

ZOH AMBA

Zoh Amba is a composer, saxophonist, and flutist from Tennessee. Her music blends avant-garde, noise, and devotional hymns.  Before studying music at the San Francisco Conservatory Of Music, New England Conservatory and studying with David Murray in New York, she spent most of her time writing and practicing saxophone in the forest near her home. Today, her powerfully unique avant-garde music is full of folk melodies, mesmerizing refrains, and repeated incantations. Amba released two records in 2022, her debut record O, Sun which was produced by John Zorn and released on the prestigious label Tzadik. Zoh Amba’s second record, Bhakti features Micah Thomas, Tyshawn Sorey, and Matt Hollenberg. She has collaborated with a variety of high profile musicians such as Jim White (Dirty Three), legendary jazz bassist William Parker, Brian Chase (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), etc. Besides plenty of venues, Amba has performed at well respected festivals in 2023, as the Big Ears Festival and Le Guess Who.

SANDY EWEN

a sound artist, visual artist and architect who relocated to NYC from Houston, TX.  Ewen’s audio practice focuses on extended guitar techniques, improvisation, graphic scores and interdisciplinary collaboration. Her unique approach to guitar incorporates a wide array of implements – railroad spikes, sidewalk chalk, threaded bolts, steel wool and other items become an arsenal of abstraction. Ewen has worked extensively with film makers, dancers, poets and musicians to create films, audio recording, sound interventions and performance art. Ewen’s musical collaborations include trio Etched in the Eye, duo with Tom Carter called Spiderwebs, the trio Garden medium, and ongoing collaborations with percussionist Weasel Walter and bassist Damon Smith. Also, Maria Chavez, Roscoe Mitchell, Keith Rowe, Lydia Lunch, Jaap Blonk, Henry Kaiser and more.

JONATHAN HORNE

He began his studies playing along to Ventures recordings, and upon graduating high school, moved to Berea College in Kentucky to get a first hand experience of Appalachian folk music, gospel, and bluegrass. Not long after that, he dove into improvised music, became addicted to jazz recordings, and the goal shifted to practice to find a personal sound. Unsurprisingly, he found saxophonists and drummers as hugely inspirational to illuminating the path to try some things out on a guitar. Jonathan currently plays guitar in Young Mothers, City at the Edge of Forever (a trio with Ingebrigt Haker Flaten and Joe McPhee), Horne + Holt (a cello and guitar duet whose debut album was produced by Efrim Menuck from GY!BE), the maybe one day renamed Texas Butt Biters (a quartet with John Dikeman, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, and Stefan Gonzalez), Fussy Chickens (a duo with Sandy Ewen), a trio with Lisa Cameron and Joshua Thomson, projects with Thor Harris, and numerous other recorded collaborations and strange rock oriented groups. Jonathan has also worked with Glenn Branca, Burton Greene, Rob Mazurek, Chad Taylor, Jaimie Branch, Julien Desprez, Mette Rasmussen, Weasel Walter, Damon Smith, Marshall R. Trammell, Mars Williams, Dave Rempis, Eugene Chadbourne, among many others.

AARON GONZALEZ

A composer, a music teacher, performance artist, and plays all kinds of basses. Elder son of Dennis Gonzalez and older brother of Stefan. Together, the three of them, they were Yeels At Eels (beautiful melodies, explosive rhythm fluxes and bursts of dynamics that borders and passes through countless possibilities in contemporary jazz), with just Stefan they are both Akkolyte (an intense experimental grindcore duo), also with Stefan but adding the extraordinary portuguese guitarist Luis Lopes and saxophonist Rodrigo Amado they have been Humanization Qtet. Firelife Trio is a recent collaboration with Houston saxophonist Danny Kamins, and Stefan. Aaron has also played and recorded with Famoudou Don Moye, Alvin Fielder, Louis Moholo-Moholo, Ra Kalam Bob Moses, Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten, Eugene Chadbourne, Gregg Prickett, Tom Carter, Tim Green, Sarah Ruth Alexander, and many more.

STEFAN GONZALEZ

Drummer, percussionist, and vocalist from Dallas, TX. They are most known for his work with his family bands Yells at Eels (with brother Aaron Gonzalez and father Dennis Gonzalez) and Akkolyte (with brother Aaron). Stefan also performs regularly in Europe with Ingebrigt Haker Flaten’s super group The Young Mothers featuring Texas-based musicians Jonathan Horne, Jawwaad Taylor, Jason Jackson, and Amsterdam-based drummer Frank Rosaly. They perform solo under the moniker Orgullo Primitivo. Past groups, collaborators, and recording projects include Unconscious Collective, Asukubus, Jandek, Mike Watt, Luis Lopes Humanization 4tet, Curtis Clark Trio, Ariel Pink With Added Pizzazz, Renegade Spirits Ensemble featuring Famoudou Don Moye, Aram Shelton, Damon Smith, Tom Carter, Louis Moholo-Moholo, German Bringas, Remi Alvarez, Arturo Baez, Cojoba and many more.

Host or Publisher The Wild Detectives