SOU’WESTER EVENTS!
See what’s happening during your next stay or plan a visit around our free live music, workshops, wellness offerings and more!
Noah Kite : Presented by Sou’wester Arts
The son of an acting coach and a therapist, Kite seems to have it in his DNA to blend the dramatic and analytic. Each musical wave crest and fall mirrors a turn in the story. Instruments rest for minutes before suddenly emerging. Emotions and motifs sustain and then drop into oblivion. The tone switches suddenly from accusation to epiphany. It is the sound of someone going through it.
Alongside the the musical tumult, the steady voice of Kite never loses his cool despite the searing intimacy of the song’s content. He thoughtfully guides us through the story of his relationship, in as well as struggles with friends, substances, sex and codependency. He has been clearly affected by the proceedings, but is determined to stare into them without blinking.
Lindsay Clark : Presented by Sou’wester Arts
“A rare exhibition of the weight that minimalism can bear in contemporary, reflective folk music. ”
Lindsay Clark finds balance between traditional and english folk, country, and her own version of experimental folk that seems to come from within. Exquisite and pitch perfect, her music speaks of quiet revelation, with a background of (usually her own) multi-tracked vocal arrangements. With influences ranging from the Beach Boys, Elizabeth Cotton, Joni Mitchell, Appalachian folk, her classical upbringing, and her father’s record collection, she blends many worlds into a uniquely warm sound. She has carved out a vibrant place as an artist with a penchant for poetry, rich harmony, and a style of self-taught fingerpicking influenced by Nick Drake, John Fahey, and others.
Originally from the small gold rush town of Nevada City, CA, she now resides in Portland, OR. Her sound has been described as “folk with angelic vocals washing over smooth edges” (1859 Magazine). She has shared the stage with musicians such as Alela Diane, Adam Torres, Nat Baldwin (Dirty Projectors), Ryan Francesconi (Joanna Newsom), Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Michael Hurley. “Crystalline” was released in 2018 via boutique German label Oscarson.
Her forthcoming full-length album (which she wrote, produced and co-arranged), Carpe Noctem, features guitarist William Tyler, Alela Diane, Sage Fisher (Dolphin Midwives), Alexis Mahler (Shook Twins) & Andy Rayborn (Paper Gates). It was engineered and arranged with Jeremy Harris (Vetiver, Adrienne Lenker, Hand Habits), and is out 6/24/22 with Audiosport Records (NL). She has also recently collaborated on Michael Hurley’s latest release, Time of the Foxgloves (No Quarter Records). She is currently at work on her first collection of lyric memoir-in-essays. PRE-ORDER CARPE NOCTEM
Peter Donovan : Presented by Sou’wester Arts
Peter Donovan is an astute musical storyteller. His perceptive songs span genres and feature narratives based on both real-life and fictitious characters, written with a contemplative heart. After finding success and a dedicated fanbase with Seattle’s All The Real Girls and his side project The Rose Petals (alongside Elijah Ocean), Donovan returns in 2022 with his first proper solo album, This Better Be Good.
His previous releases spun expertly-crafted character sketches that earned plaudits from Paste Magazine, Consequence of Sound, American Songwriter, and more. With This Better Be Good, Donovan spreads his wings, combining the plaintive soul of indie rock, the heartfelt sincerity of Americana, and the stirring studio pageantry of ‘70s singer-songwriters, drawing them together to explore more intimate depths.
This Better Be Good is Donovan’s most personal effort yet; a loose concept record about the ups and downs of an ultimately doomed romance between two people. The songs are more reflective than bitter; more nostalgic than sad. It’s an album about learning and growing from lived experiences and reflecting on past failures in the interest of future successes. Donovan has managed to create an album that is sonically nostalgic and modern at once, both soul-stirring and dripping with heartache. It’s a roadmap of his past seen through fresh eyes, and a triumphant first step in this new chapter.
LAITH : Presented by Sou’wester Arts
Laith, known by some as Hutch Hartford, hails from the suburban hurricane of Houston, Texas. Laith’s music is soaked withmemories of Grandma and Grandpa’s bayou house, rides on a red vintage lawn mower packed with cousins, and smoky, music filled bars
New Victorian : Presented by Sou’wester Arts
New Victorian is the ethereal, small-rock project from Portlander Scott Taylor.
Hanna Haas : Presented by Sou’wester Arts
Hanna Haas is a folk singer-songwriter based in Portland whose warm guitar and soft vocals carry songs that speak to the constant rising and falling of life and the eternal beauty of it all.
DJ Papi Fimbres : Presented by Sou’wester Arts
David “Papi” Fimbres creates sound out of thin air that feels familiar at first, but at a second thought, is nothing you’ve ever heard before. As a percussionist and multi-instrumen
Sunbathe is the devastatingly catchy, fuzzed-out pop band brought to you by songwriter Maggie Morris. Suffused with lyrical honesty and a raw performance style, Morris can command the stage coasting along on an abundance of hooks and lighthearted guitar. Sunbathe has quickly gained notoriety for their captivating live performances, touring with the likes of Typhoon and Built to Spill, all the while living and breathing a DIY ethos. Referring to themselves as the most punk pop band in Portland, Oregon– Sunbathe cites ABBA and The Ramones as two of their biggest influences yet they will remind you of neither. Their songs will leave you feeling nostalgic for something that you probably only experienced in a dream.
This exhibition is based on studying sand under a microscope and is a
continuation of our project for The Sou’wester’s Arts Week 2022. We
collected sand submissions from volunteers from from January-March
2022, with samples coming from as far away as India and Egypt.
All of the audio was made onsite during our stays at The Sou’wester and
features various field recordings. Photographs of the sand were taken
with a camera phone through a microscope lens. You can view all of our
sand photographs on Instagram: @damaged.antennae
Sand submissions by: Rebecca Rassmussen, Sierra Handley-Merk, Ali
Kestel, Nancy Kunce, Dar Horenblas, Lindsay King, Dawn Stetzel, Kim
Slate, Neisha D’Souza, Meagan Hardy, Sarah Farahat, Andie Sterling,
Nicky Kriara, & Cory Gray.
she worked in stop-motion animation on feature films and commercials. She now runs
a ceramic design company called Niko Far West and paints large scale murals. Her
work is often experimental and graphic with references to the natural world and the
history of place. www.nickykriara.com
Cory Cray is composer and performer in Portland OR. He leads a group called Old
Unconscious that plays experimental instrumental music, and he records and tours
internationally with The Delines. He frequently produces and arranges for other
recording artists, composes for movies and television, and creates sound installations
for multimedia art pieces.
Chitra Subrahmanyam loved Portland well before they moved here. As a youngster in the East Bay with a cool older sister, they were handed down a mix CD that included some material by the late Elliott Smith. Hearing “Between The Bars” opened the door to other Portland acts like Smith’s former band Heatmiser and Sleater-Kinney. The allure was immediate.
“When you’re going through something, especially as an angsty teenager, it’s not really hard to find something that speaks to you in music from people like Elliott,” Subrahmanyam said. “And when I was starting to drum, finding bands that were so dynamic —that had this balance between quiet and loud, and this seething undertone that ran through even the quieter parts — appealed to me as someone that feels like people think I had nothing to say or offer but at home, I got to bang on shit and let that out.”
Moving to Portland felt, in some ways, inevitable, drawn here as Subrahmanyam was by the music and a promising post-graduate program in speech pathology. Since arriving, they have slowly worked their way into the artistic community, starting their journey drumming for artists like Mo Troper and Balloon Club.
But after taking a few introductory guitar lessons, Subrahmanyam began to write their own songs, amassing a collection of lowkey but powerful material that they have recorded and performed under the name Phone Voice.
Their debut release, 2021’s cradle tape, is a perfect blending of the confessional and the metaphorical, as Subrahmanyam unpacks broken relationships and inner torment. “I am the air that surrounds you,” they sing over agitated waves of distorted guitar on “river.” “River of shame, you flow within me / yet you are nowhere / not around me anymore.”