Public Space One will offer two kinds of feasts this Sunday — the food kind and the music kind. The food-style feast will feature a roasted chicken, roasted vegetables, salad and “maybe” pie. The music-style feast will feature Chris Schlarb, who will play a set of experimental guitar music inside a hand-made PVC temple.
Iowa City musician Curt Oren, who is just wrapping up a lengthy tour, will perform his solo saxophone pieces (in addition to cooking up all that tasty food). Schlarb and Oren will also perform a set together.
Whether he’s working with pop-indebted free jazz songs or solo ambient guitar, Schlarb’s work is notable for how reserved and patient it can be. His latest album, Making the Saint (released on Sufjan Stevens’ Asthmatic Kitty label), consists of four lengthy guitar pieces that reveal their inner-workings over and over again. Schlarb recorded the album in a San Bernardino cabin built in the 1870s, and a sense of solitary contemplation appropriately permeates the record.
That the album is a solo project is notable for Schlarb, whose career has largely been based on ensembles and a series of high profile collaborations, including Dave Longstreth (of the Dirty Projectors), Nels Cline and Sufjan Stevens. Schlarb’s collaborative nature will be on full display on Sunday, as he and Oren will end the night with a improvisational duo set.
This all-ages show starts at 8 p.m. for a cost of just $5 for both the dinner and the show.
