Paul Metzger & John Saint Pelvyn encompass a range of styles, drawing on Americana, Hindustani, and experimental musics to breathe new life into their work with the guitar and banjo. Both work with long-form, multi-part improvisations that unwind into complex forms punctuated by ecstatic moments. Opening the concert, Maidens of Delos (Santa Cruz / Los Angeles) bring together the sounds of mythology, lamentation, improvisation and medieval dance music.

Note: Because of extremely limited parking and capacity at Wind River studios, we highly recommend purchasing tickets in advance, and carpooling whenever possible. Advance tickets are discounted to account for the online service charge.

Paul Metzger

A virtuoso on a 23 string banjo he built himself, Metzger’s idiosyncratic & deeply original long form improvisations at times bring to mind American primitive guitar, the sarod of Hindustani music, or the Chinese Erhu. Though refracted through his singular musical mind he creates a sonic universe all his own. Metzger’s “home made” aesthetic puts him alongside DIY mavericks like Eugene Chadbourne and his electric rake, and Charlie Nothing and his dingulators, but Metzger also posses a penchant to extract every possible sound out of an instrument that is reminiscent of the exhaustive instrumental explorations of Derek Baily. His many releases over the years have garnered high praise and helped establish him as a central voice in the world of Avant Garde & Experimental Folk. Metzger creates a unique music evocative of some magical forgotten age, but simultaneously one deeply rooted in the eternal present when fingers touch strings.

“…Metzger’s banjo and guitar contain multitudes. Suspended between past and future, honouring the tradition while hijacking it, listening for its voice while revelling in its inarticulacies; this is how the thing sings. And the song, in the obsessive extensions of Metzger’s instruments, truly has no ending.” - The Wire

John Saint Pelvyn

Guitarist, thereminist, singer, and player of some species of dismantled electrified folk, John Saint Pelvyn is on tour this fall with his new solo release A Clerical Error in Shasta County Shouldn’t have to Ruin a Saturday Night from Seeland/Electro Motive Records. An affinity for the likes of John Fahey, Loren Mazzacane-Connors, and Sandy Bull can be heard here, but the comparisons quickly fall away as one takes in this ambidextrous musical sensibility. He will sing otherworldly vocal duets with his theremin while simultaneously accompanying himself fingerpicking, or will throw modulated feedback tones across otherwise inviting harmonic landscapes based on blues & folk motifs, overshadowing them with clouds of squelch that loom like an approaching post-noise squall, but that ultimately swell and punctuate more like the tone clusters of Henry Cowell or the lyrical saxophone of Frank Lowe.

“When wandering the stage singing into the F-holes of his electric arch top bringing forth arpeggios of feedback, or waving the neck of his guitar in the vicinity of a howling theremin, indeed, he seems to be playing the very air itself.” - Electro Motive

Maidens of Delos

Maidens of Delos is Laura Steenberge (viola da gamba and voice) and Mustafa Walker (hurdy gurdy and voice), who bring together the sounds of mythology, lamentation, improvisation and medieval dance music. The name refers to the Delian maidens of Greek lore who mimic the voices of all people, so that anyone who hears them would think that they themself was the speaker. Laura received a DMA from Stanford in 2016 and now teaches experimental sound practices at Calarts. Mustafa is a working toward a DMA at the University of California Santa Cruz where he studies ceremonial magic and the instrument building technology of the Renaissance.

Indexical’s concerts in Santa Cruz are supported in part by the Arts Council of Santa Cruz County.