PORTLAND
LARAAJI + Sam Prekop
A visionary collaboration between two icons of ambient sound
Friday, May 17, 2024
First Congregational Church of Portland
7pm (doors) 8pm (performance)
All ages
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Join Reflections for Solar Reunion: a transcendent evening with new age legend LARAAJI on amplified zither and voice and Sam Prekop (of The Sea & Cake) on live analog electronics, performing together for the first time as a duo.
Sam and LARAAJI will each share solo sets, followed by an improvised collaboration. It’s a celestial segue – between earth and sky, organic and electronic, pulse and drone – bathed in an immersive light show at this gorgeous church.
LARAAJI
Ambient pioneer, new age trailblazer, street musician, zither-player extraordinaire, sound healer and teacher of laughter meditation – it can be only LARAAJI. His uniquely spiritual music has been soothing, entrancing and transporting his listeners to another place for more than 40 years.
In 1978, he was busking in Washington Square Park when Brian Eno chanced upon his performance and dropped a note into his zither case. They went on to record 1980’s Ambient 3: Day of Radiance, an album that established LARAAJI as an inimitable figure in the New Age landscape and remains a classic of its titular genre. Though Ambient 3 exposed his mesmerizing work to a new audience, LARAAJI continued self-releasing experimental cassettes into the 2000s. In the last decade, albums on labels like Light in the Attic, RVNG, and Leaving Records have caught the attention of another new generation of listeners. His latest release is Segue To Infinity, a 4-disc collection on Numero Group.
Sam Prekop
A longtime pillar of the Chicago underground community, Sam Prekop was best known for his work creating the post-rock sound with The Sea and Cake before he began crafting adventurous solo albums. Beginning with his self-titled LP in 1999, Prekop gradually shifted his sound from breezy post-rock not dissimilar from his main band into explorations of modular synthesis and ambient sound design.
First Congregational Church of Portland
A rare American example of the Venetian Gothic style, the First Congregational Church was designed by Swiss architect Henry J. Hefty, with construction completed in 1895. Its 175-foot-high bell tower stood as the tallest structure in Portland for 60 years. The church organ incorporates the wind chests and bellow system from an original organ built in 1877. The building is an ADA accessible space.
1126 SW Park Ave, Portland, OR 97205
© Reflections 2024. In time, out of time ☀︎