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Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society

Booking Agent | Europe + UK:
Nelson Gomes - nelson@filhounico.com

Joshua Abrams developed his voice in the rich ferment of the 1990s Chicago music world, participating heavily across the city’s jazz, experimental & rock scenes. He co-founded the ‘back porch minimalist’ band Town & Country &, with Matana Roberts & Chad Taylor, the trio Sticks & Stones. In a very busy two decades Abrams recorded & toured with a remarkable range of artists including extended engagements with Fred Anderson, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Hamid Drake, Theaster Gates, Neil Michael Hagerty, Nicole Mitchell, Jeff Parker, Mike Reed, Matana Roberts, & The Roots. Abrams appears on over one hundred recordings. A film composer, Abrams has scored the music for five feature length films including the award-winning films Life Itself, The Interrupters and The Trials of Muhammad Ali.
Since 2010 Joshua Abrams has toured North America & Europe with a shifting-line up of musicians as 'Natural Information Society’. The group uses traditional & electric instrumentation to build long-form intricately psychedelic environments, composed & improvised, joining the hypnotic qualities of the Gnawan guimbri to a wide range of contemporary musics & methodologies including jazz, minimalism & krautrock. The band's album, Magnetoception (eremite), was selected by The Wire Magazine as the #3 record of 2015 & by Pitchfork as the #2 experimental record of the year. Current & former band members include Lisa Alvarado, Jason Adasiewicz, Mikel Avery, Ben Boye, Hamid Drake, Ben Lamar Gay, Emmett Kelly, Artur Majewski, Nick Mazzarella, Jeff Parker, Frank Rosaly, Jason Stein, Kuba Suchar, Nori Tanaka & Chad Taylor. In 2015, Natural Information Society & Bitchin Bajas collaborated on ‘Automaginary,’ (Drag City).
Their latest album, 'Simultonality' continues NIS's exploration of stasis, continuity, repetition and layering. 'Simultonality' will be released on April 7, 2017 on eremite records & Glitterbeat/Tak:Til in Europe.

“it’s patient, layered music that’s always heading somewhere, sometimes spare and sometimes complex and shimmering.” - Ben Ratliff, New York Times

“Abrams discovers new levels of mood and tone; his pieces seem to escape time completely.” - Marc Masters, Pitchfork

“It feels startlingly new, in terms of how the music is extrapolated, how the players relate, even as it feels like an ur-music, primal, body-centered, essential.” - David Keenan, The Wire

“Joshua Abrams’s bass and guimbri throb hypnotically over busy 8/8 drums on the opening track, while ancient creatures low piteously as they plod across a parched landscape … A perfect place to kick back or to ship out and explore the heavens. Abrams lets you do both.” The Wire 2017

Personel:
Joshua Abrams - Guimbri and Double Bass
Lisa Alvarado - Harmonium and Gong
Ben Boye - Autoharp
Mikel Avery - Drums

NIS WEBPAGE

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Discography

"Natural Information" (2010)
"Represencing" (2012)
"Magnetoception" (2015)
"Simultonality" (2017)
"Mandatory Reality" (2019)

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Press

The Wire
Pitchfork
Guardian

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Video

"Finite" (Excerpt) from Mandatory Reality

Live at the ICA, Philadelphia, March 2017

"Sideways Fall" from Simultonality

"Translucent" from Magnetoception (Live, Chicago 2015)

"Sound Talisman" (Live, Chicago 2015)

Natural Information Society Sextet (Live at Joe’s Cafe, St. Louis 2014)

Live at Tarcento Jazz, Tarcento, Italy 2015

"Natural Information Society"

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Photos
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Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society