The Kraken Quartet at The Bakery, Atlanta, June 10, 2018

Spontaneity!  Several hours before this show started, we hadn't heard about the performance, we hadn't heard of the venue, and we hadn't heard of most of the bands.  So when asked, of course we went.

The nature of the performance will be apparent from our narrative here, so we'll instead describe the venue.  The Bakery, we were told by the staff there, opened in the second half of last year in a repurposed industrial building in a, let's say, challenged, part of the city.  Not the worst neighborhood in Atlanta (but you could walk to that from there), and not a blighted industrial wasteland (but ditto).  Imagine an area on the border of all that and you'll have an idea. 

Anyway, artists and musicians are always the urban pioneers, and some young people have transformed an old bakery in southwest Atlanta into a combination gallery and performance space, with art classes, yoga sessions, etc.   Parking is inside of a fenced yard with a single-car-wide entrance, and if one can brave the drive there (it's not really that bad - we drive through worse everyday for work), it's quite pleasant once inside.

They haven't had any big shows there yet, at least as far as we've heard, but local bands use the place for a chance to perform in front of some of their friends, and some enterprising person got Austin's Kraken Quartet to perform there Sunday night, and invited some of Atlanta's avant-garde to open for them.

The show opened with someone named Majid performing some spare improvisations with an oud (I think) and vocals.  Majid later switched to violin and sat in with what appeared to be an amalgam of two other bands, Flusnoix and Harandir The Grey, for some noise improvisation.     

Upcoming  Atlanta band Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel, who now go just by Dftals, were up next.  We say "upcoming" because they been around for several years now and have toured the country several times, and they recently played their ambient outer-space music at this year's Big Ears Festival and were very well received. Truth in advertising: Dftals are exactly what their name promises - two guys, one on theremin and the other on lap steel, playing music to space-out on, or astral project to, or whatever suits your fancy.  Terrific set on Sunday night.

We finally got to the headliners, The Kraken Quartet. I hate pigeon-holing music, but they defied any categorization.  Math rock?  Post-modern chamber?  Jazz? Prog?  All of the above?  They're all-instrumental (no vocals) and lead by their drummer, who guides them through so many different adventurous time signatures in the course of a single composition that it's quite impossible to keep up with them, at least beat wise.  Adding some Steve Reich-style marimba on top of that and some indie-style tom-drum accompaniment results in a quite accessible avant-garde sound, not so far out to drive you out of the room, not so mundane as to be mood music.

Here's a taste so you can make up your own mind.

They're on tour right now, and if you happen to live near Brooklyn, you can see them tomorrow night (6/14) at Wonders of Nature. 

Overall, a very enjoyable night of discovery - new bands, a new venue, and an unexpected experience.