Weston Olencki reads from their new essay, for instruments, published by Lampo. 

Throughout, Olencki illuminates a distinctive practice—one that treats instruments not merely as tools for making music, but as repositories of cultural memory and historical meaning. 

Jennifer Torrence joins the discussion on BATTERY, detailing its ambivalent relationship with virtuosity, autobiographical source materials, and the imperial vestiges of marching music.

Weston and Jen perform BATTERY on Saturday, March 22, presented in partnership with the Graham Foundation. 

The setup assembles the component parts of a traditional drumline, including a large collection of snares, tenors, and bass drums, two pairs of feedback-induced crash cymbals, and an array of robotic woodblocks.

Weston Olencki (b.1992; Spartanburg, S.C.) is a musician, composer, and sound artist based in Berlin, Germany. Their recent music deals with the nonlinear relationships between experimental sound, geography, historicity, and (mostly American) musical traditions.

Jennifer Torrence (b.1986; Dalton, Ga.) is a percussionist and performer, curator, and artistic researcher based in Oslo, Norway. Much of her work is built upon extended collaborative processes with composers and artists from various experimental practices.

Support provided by the American-Scandinavian Foundation