somesurprises (Seattle) / Jessika Kenney / Jesse Quebbeman Turley
Doors 8pm, Music 9pm
$10-15 suggested donation
Advance tickets available here:
https://withfriends.co/Event/2681113/somesurprises_Jessika_Kenney_Jesse_Quebbeman_Turley

somesurprises is the moniker of Seattle singer/songwriter Natasha El-Sergany. What once was a solo project focusing on spectral balladry and late night exploration, somesurprises has since formed into a dynamic four-piece live band. Motorik beats, reverb-drenched vocals, washes of fingerpicked guitars, and hazy synths expand El-Sergany’s delicate and blissful songwriting.

Starting with a solo tape release of cell phone recordings on 2016’s Voice Memos, El-Sergany then collaborated with guitarist Josh Medina (Debacle Records) for duo debut ambient album, Serious Dreams, released on Eiderdown Records in 2017. Serious Dreams was described by The Quietus as “a thoroughly cosmic outing. Everything is lush and smooth enough to describe as ambient music as much as folk, almost seeming too dreamy to have ever been real.” The release also received kind reviews from Bandcamp, The Stranger, Seattle Weekly, and Tiny Mixtapes.

Next, somesurprises took to recording as a full band with drummer Nico Sophiea (MX-80 Sound) and bassist Emma Danner (Red Ribbon), releasing Alt, on LA’s Doom Trip Records in 2018. Aquarium Drunkard compared the three-song “krautpop” EP to an imaginary collaboration between Grouper and Spiritualized. In early 2019, somesurprises put out a collaborative split tape with Seattle’s Supercandy (some candy, released by Crash Symbols), with guest musicians Brenan Chambers, Lori Goldston, Monika Khot, and Ambrosia Bardos weaving layers of soaring guitar effects, cello, vocals, and trumpet into the mix.

Over the years, somesurprises has built a strong presence in the Seattle music scene, and toured the west coast. In Seattle, they have opened for touring artists such as Circuit Des Yeux, Carla dal Forno, A Place to Bury Strangers, and the Cave Singers. This year finds somesurprises set to release their self-titled, full-length LP on Drawing Room Records, an exciting milestone for this aptly named, shapeshifting project.

somesurprises.bandcamp.com

Jessika Kenney is a vocalist, composer, and teacher whose work extends the vocal traditions of Indonesian sindhenan and Persian radif into new realms by way of contemporary composition and improvisation. Internationally regarded for the elegiac timbral quality of her voice, her practice of sphygmoresonance, or resonance of pulse, entails ritualistic focus and reverence for inner architecture that emanates a palpable sense of stillness. Kenney’s interest in the full spectrum experience of sound has led to collaboration with a wide range of experimentalists, while her partnership with composer/violist Eyvind Kang has yielded five spellbinding albums of minimal, delicate beauty. A student of radif with Ostad Hossein Omoumi, Kenney’s music is timeless, yet steeped in textual research, respectful of its spiritual roots while invoking unknown futures.