The next in our Seaprog Presents series events will take place on September 21 at the Royal Room. This show will feature Guitar Cult, a collection of guitarists assembled by composer Ben McAllister to play his multi-guitar pieces. Also on the bill is the Seattle Guitar Circle, a long-running project of flexible membership coordinated by Steve Ball.
Seattle composer / guitarist Ben McAllister (Degenerate Art Ensemble, Wizard Prison, Tuktu, Medicine Hat) has been growing the Guitar Cult over the last 6 years — first as an 11-piece Ebow choir in 2017 for a one-off show at UW’s Meany Theater, evolving into a tight unit of six electric guitars. At last, they rise from the pandemic ashes, playing their first show together since 2020. Honing McAllister’s interlocking communal guitar excursions and adding drummer Neil Wilson has sharpened the work into precise hypnotic windows, which may call to mind the early phase musics of Steve Reich or Louis Andriessen but with a rock vocabulary.
Seattle Guitar Circle was founded in 1993 by Steve Ball, Bill Rieflin and Bill Van Buren. For 30 years, they have been playing eclectic, polyrhythmic prog chamber music arranged for large acoustic guitar ensemble all over the Seattle area. Seattle Guitar Circle has many related sub-groups such as Tuning the Air (seven years of weekly shows at Freemont Abby), Tiny Orchestral Moments (7+ years of workshops and live shows), and Argentina’s Electric Gauchos, recording and performing in Seattle since 1997.
This international community was initially born via Robert Fripp’s ‘Guitar Craft’ workshops that began in 1985. Each SGC performance is a combination of tightly-arranged chaos, layered guitars, ‘circulations’ — where each guitarist plays one note at a time in evolving melodies — and more.
SGC performs collaborative repertoire for layered guitars and voices including structured improvisation that sounds composed and composed collaboration that sounds improvised. This 2023 ‘Simple Songs’ performance brings to life new arrangements of pieces by Charles Ives, Chick Corea, Erik Satie, Hanai Rani, John Coltrane, Jon Brion, Jonny Greenwood, Leo Brouwer, Meredith Monk, Robert Fripp, Ryuichi Sakamoto — as well as new work from composers within the core SGC team.
Doors at 6:30, music begins at 7:30. Tickets $15 advance, $20 at the door.