Ahleuchatistas (USA)

Ahleuchatistas

Ahleuchatistas is guitarist Shane Perlowin and drummer Ryan Oslance on a musical odyssey of pure imagination, limitless in influences, combining tight-knit composition with improvisation, and delivering powerful live shows. The project was founded in 2002 and has evolved organically in its near-decade long history as the muse leads through the creative sonic continuum... About the name, two words were once married to give an identity and conceptual continuity to a musical enterprise without limits. Ah-leu-cha & Zapatistas. The first is the title of a Charlie Parker song, the second that of a revolutionary movement which began in Chiapas, Mexico in 1994. Musical revolution and social revolution combined into a single coinage. Movement and the constant outstripping of itself are what unifies all the sounds under this single name. In 2010, the musical project known as Ahleuchatistas (AH - LOO - CHA - TEES - TAS) began performing new music for guitar & drums duet. Shane Perlowin plays guitar and Ryan Oslance plays drums. This arrangement of the band officially premiered at the 2010 Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee on March 28th and was followed by 23 concerts in Europe from March 31st to April 25th. They performed at Wire Magazine's Adventures in Modern Music Festival in Chicago in September 2010, and did a three week tour of Europe in December 2010. Two full length albums were produced during this period that will see the light of day in 2011/12. Since its inception in 2002, the music of Ahleuchatistas has always been difficult to pin down with words. The current sound has broadened the bands palette with elements of noise, African music, ambient/drone, Chinese traditional music, minimalism, garage rock, classical music, and electronica. It blends block-form, thru-composition, and improvisational musical strategies. Perlowin and Oslance have a unique psychic interplay that can be incredibly elastic or razor-sharp tight. Ominous walls of sound morph into tight-knight rhythmic figures, haunting melodies float over martial drumming, roaring moments of sustained tension acquiesce into screaming silence, a musical promise is fulfilled. On the earliest recordings an interest in pure sound and texture can be heard on select cuts. This tendency became more prevalent with each successive album. The new music continues to push in this direction, still with the characteristic rhythmic intensity. Rock and roll!