Lane + R34L: The Infinite Instrument
As vastly popular as electronic music is today, when many people spot a laptop on stage they also see a huge red flag. But some artists are making the case for electronic music that should even make skeptics stop and listen. R34L, the music and art project of Sarah Hartman and Cason…
Girl Named Nino + Ana Munteanu: Living your personal legend
What is it that drives people to create? Of course it's never just one thing, but the journeys of two artists from the other side of the Atlantic help shed light on the forces that can drive us to not only make music, but also cross oceans in pursuit of…
Juan Pastor + Dried Spider: Common echoes across continents
When we listen closely to a song, sometimes it’s the sounds themselves, not just the lyrics, that tell a story. The sounds and rhythms artists bring on stage with them echo the places they’ve been. To Moon Dekker, growing up in rural Australia meant living in a land of borrowed…
Kmang Kmang + Open Source String Quartet: Breaking Classical conventions
For many of us, the only time we listen to classical music is when we're on hold or maybe trying to study for something. I think that's partially because we tend to think of classical music in the past tense, of composers who are long-since dead. But there are some…
Macie Stewart + Sun Speak: Going ‘unusual’ places — together
Even though we like to play musical matchmaker, sometimes letting old friends share the stage leads to its own unique kind of magic. For this Stars Align, Vocalist/keyboardist Macie Stewart (Marrow, Homme) teams up with Matt Gold (guitar) and Nathan Friedman (drums and percussion)of Sun Speak for a one-of-a-kind improvised collaboration.…
Charlie Coffeen + Nika Nemirovsky + Nate Lepine: They all died in the fire
At Stars Align we love playing musical matchmaker. And the key to any good match is making sure the people you bring together have enough in common for easy conversation and a true connection. The roots of jazz are common threads that bind many contemporary musicians, whether they realize it…
ShowYouSuck + Todays Hits: Cool is universal
While rap-rock bawitabad its way to the top of the charts in the ‘90s, today the genre is relatively obscure and widely maligned. Not long after Run DMC and Aerosmith left the stage together, the genre was dominated and destroyed by legions of bros with backwards caps. But our latest…
Quinn Tsan + Bill MacKay + Michael Golas: When sound inspires silence
Have you ever heard a crowded room suddenly go silent? It can be ominous. Or awesome. Stars Align takes place in a bar. Between the cocktail shakers and the talkers it can get loud. But when singer-songwriter Quinn Tsan and Michael Golas joined guitarist Bill MacKay on stage, they…
Nick Dellacroce + Omar Gonzalez: Feeling the noise
One of the best things about Stars Align is you never know what will happen when artists team up. We’ve had everything from classic covers to completely improvised sets. This session from Nick Dellacroce (Bongripper) and Omar Gonzalez (Rectal Hygenics) is definitely something completely different. While both Nick and Omar…
Courtesy + She Speaks in Tongues: Rock and the politics of sampling
Singer Kate McCandless (She Speaks in Tongues) joined with Kirk Rawlings, Drew Ryan, and Doug Malone of the band Courtesy for a unique collaborative performance bridging lo-fi electronic and rock music. Both She Speaks in Tongues and Courtesy create big, atmospheric pieces through the use of samples or looping. In this collaboration, the members of Courtesy provided a…