After moving to Portland in 2020, Brian Heaney set out to create a version of progressive rock rooted in his early influences and the music that continues to inspire, a significant departure from his musical projects with the Seattle-based bands Ask the Ages, Sunship, and Stinkhorn. Earthbound came together after he reconnected with drummer Stuart McLeod, another former Seattle musician, bassist Dan Mowery, who moved to PDX from Austin, and keyboardist Brian Magill, a PDX native. They recently finished recording their debut album, which will be released digitally this month.
The Army of Experimental Children promotional image
James DeJoie has appeared on Seaprog stages more than almost any other individual musician, having played with Moraine, Zhongyu, Zubatto Syndicate, Reaven Trio, and Rik Wright’s Fundamental Forces, among others. The Army of Experimental Children is a project centered around his vocal music, and features an ensemble combining strings, woodwinds, a rhythm section, and electronic manipulation.
An amalgamation of progressive rock, jazz and space rock, the Army of Experimental Children is like nothing you’ve heard. We do original music hell-bent on creating our own sound. Join the Army!
Over the years, we have had the pleasure of presenting a large number of artists, from well-known international groups that have been around for decades to local solo performers who are just getting started.
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Fian is a band based in Seattle, Orcas Island, and LA. From day one, Fian has pursued its chaotic and flagrant vision with an adamantine belligerence. For better or for worse, Fian has never considered any tastes beyond their own. The result is something out of place and time, something that doesn’t make much sense. They tend to create songs in linear structures that twist and convulse their way through polyvalent lyrical narratives, varying time and key signatures, and musical styles.
Low end virtuoso, Harrison Scannell leads the musical side of things on bass, Chapman stick, and Warr guitar with the occasional brass instrument to round it out. Drummer and gear nerd, Christian Rider uses his jazz background and subtle empathic touch to give a soft thrum or resounding thunder to the songs as they require. Robert Keene, lives in the woodshed and applies a dense knowledge of theory along with a demented imagination to give every melody a startling counterpoint. Joshua Nelson takes the sustained tone of Gilmour as his starting point and infuses jazz, metal, world music scales, and pedal alchemy to bind everything together with a beautiful distorted ¼”. Vocalist Jonathan Wilson uses the full breadth of his five octave range to whisper, scream, croon, and bellow his way through dense lyrical passages in lively conversation with existential philosophy, the modernists, the Bible, and of course Dostoevsky. Fian attempts to deftly dodge the various generic manacles that get bandied about but if under duress, they might consent to be under the wide umbrella of the term “progressive” though their lineage stems much more from King Crimson than Genesis or Yes. They are also heavily influenced by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, MewithoutYou, The Mountain Goats, and Sondheim.
Rik Wright’s Fundamental Forces is the Seattle-based flagship ensemble of guitarist and composer Rik Wright, serving as the primary vehicle for his original compositions and long-evolving creative vision. Drawing on jazz, progressive rock, blues, and cross-cultural influences, the group blends a wide-ranging rhythmic and harmonic palette into music that is both structurally nuanced and deeply groove-oriented.
Defined by deep ensemble interplay and rich, layered textures, Fundamental Forces prioritizes collective expression over soloistic flash, shaping a distinctive, genre-fluid voice. Across multiple recordings, the group has earned critical recognition in the contemporary jazz landscape, with strong national support on jazz radio and consistent praise for its originality, cohesion, and genre-defying sensibility
