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DOORS 7 /MUSIC 8

For just over a decade, EXEK has very quietly become one of the most hypnotic bands on the planet, mutating and growing from record to record, gradually opening themselves up without ever losing that strange, inscrutable, altogether essential quality that’s made them so great—so EXEK-y.

On 27 February, the Melbourne post-punk outfit—vocalist and chief architect Albert Wolski, guitarist Jai Morris-Smith, drummer Chris Stephenson, synth specialist Andrew Brocchi, trumpet-brandishing vocalist Valya YL Hooi, and bassist Ben Hepworth—will release Prove The Mountains Move, their seventh album and first for DFA. It is, as Wolski says, “a bit more 'epic’” than anything he’s recorded to date, a lush and unabashedly melodic set of surrealist pop that luxuriates in contradiction. “This record is experimental in its craft,” Wolski says, “but it may not necessarily sound experimental.”

Over the course of more than two decades, Philadelphia musician Bill Nace (guitar, taishogoto) has carved out unique collaborations across a wide range of contemporary improvisational practices, and though these range from solos to small groups, there’s a keen ear toward the immediate, stark tug of duets. Some of these meetings are one-offs for now (saxophonists Evan Parker and Masayo Koketsu), while others are regular partnerships that have evolved across continual play and refinement. Tonight Bill will be in a duet with French saxophonist Sakina Abdou, whose searing and personally declarative solo CD, Goodbye Ground, was released by Relative Pitch at the close of 2022. From Lille, Abdou has participated in collectives for many years, but recent solo work has garnered her more attention (especially Stateside) and offers a clear and focused explication of her language.