Time has only deepened the music community’s affection for Mort Garson’s 1976 flora-themed synth spectacular, Mother Earth’s Plantasia. In celebration of Garson’s enduring legacy, Empty Bottle Presents and Brooklyn label Sacred Bones have created a festival of lush sights and sounds at Garfield Park Conservatory. For the event’s fourth iteration, they’ve expanded Plantasia into a two-night affair in Chicago, followed by an auxiliary event at Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery on September 14.
The big draws at Plantasia’s local installment include headlining sets from new-age pioneer Laraaji (night one) and transcendent Chicago minimalists Natural Information Society (night two). But the artist I’m looking forward to most is Alex Zhang Hungtai, perhaps best known for the greasy grooves he made under the name Dirty Beaches. Since dissolving that project in 2014, Hungtai has shifted his focus to experimental music for voice and saxophone, though he’s made detours to appear in the relaunched Twin Peaks (where he was cast as a member of roadhouse band Trouble—not to be confused with the Chicago doom-metal legends) and play in cinematic drone trio Love Theme. According to EBP cofounder Brent Heyl, Hungtai’s set will be inspired by his current Montreal residency with Jerusalem in My Heart’s Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, during which he’s explored the spiritual subconscious with saxophone and keyboard.
The weekend’s bounty of performances will also recontextualize Garson’s work within Chicago’s improvisational music contingent, including radically diverse sets from Black Duck, Daoui (Angel Bat Dawid and Oui Ennui), and Isaiah Collier & the Chosen Few. While each artist will leave their own imprint on Garson’s work—Natural Information Society will offer rapturous repetition, Desert Liminal will weave a celestial haze, Surgery Boys will chop and screw MIDI patches into blissful oblivion—the sets will be unified by a reverence for his indelible impact on ambient music. Making this year’s Plantasia lineup extra special is the sharing of artists by the New York City and Chicago events: Hungtai, Daoui, and others will perform in both cities. In the near half century since its release, Plantasia has become a testament to the fact that art does not cease to grow after its creation—its listeners continue to germinate its seeds, breeding new life for years to come.
Plantasia day one Laraaji headlines. Jeremiah Chiu, Alex Zhang Hungtai, Black Duck, Desert Liminal, .temp, and Isaiah Collier & the Chosen Few. Sun 9/3, 5:30 PM, Garfield Park Conservatory, 300 N. Central Park, $45, 18+
Plantasia night two Natural Information Society headline; North Americans, Daoui (Angel Bat Dawid and Oui Ennui), Quin Kirchner, Jason Letkiewicz, Dustin Laurenzi, and Surgery Boys open. 5:30 PM, Garfield Park Conservatory, 300 N. Central Park, $45 per day, two-day passes sold out, 18+
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