Join us for workshop 8 at Performance Works NW featuring new and in-process sound and music by Brent Carmer/Jake Soffer, Emily Jones/Sam Applebaum, and Francisco Botello.
Saturday, May 9th, 2026
Doors 7pm, Show 7:30pm
$10-15 sliding scale
$5 Arts for All
Join us for workshop 8 at Performance Works NW featuring new and in-process sound and music by Brent Carmer/Jake Soffer, Emily Jones/Sam Applebaum and Francisco Botello.
Saturday, May 9th, 2026
doors 7pm, show 7:30pm
$10-15 sliding scale
$5 Arts for All
workshop is a series for musicians and artists working in sound to present new and in-progress works and compositions. workshop supports experimentation, improvisation and composed sound and noise, maybe even “songs”. it is an informal showing, a moment to work through new ideas, or old ideas in a new way.
curated by stephanie lavon trotter and presented by PWNW, the space supports acoustic and electronic works, as well as work that includes projection, lighting and movement.
About the Artists:
Portland Oregon-based Jake Soffer (baritone electric guitar) and Brent Carmer (upright bass) invoke images of confined spaces real and fictional: rooms intertwined with nostalgia, loss, love, and desire. The duo coalesce deep frequencies to create a tapestry as dark and melancholic as it is shimmery and hopeful. Fragments of textured loops sparkle atop the bellowing bows of bass strings. Their works are keys to miniature doors. Some are lost lullabies, others are snapshots from a dream one can’t quite remember, some compound in energy before suddenly freezing in time as they scatter into particles of afterthought. The moments of music and memory unfold in real time, revealing a spaciousness that’s meditative, spacey, dark and brooding. The duo collectively pushes towards the indefinite edges of sound, ascending into a dreamlike realm.
Emily Jones and Sam Appelbaum collaborate on many things; this is their first time collaborating on a performance. Sam is a percussionist interested in movement and the shape of rhythms. Emily is a dancer and choreographer, learning a little more about percussion in recent months. Their performance weaves shared practices and musings on the questions: how do you see sound, and how do you hear movement?
Francisco Botello is a Mexican/American sound artist, composer, and educator from Chula Vista, California. Growing up as a dual citizen on the dividing line between the United States and Mexico, their work reflects on the nature of place and belonging. Gathering and composing with field recordings, alongside electronics and computer music tools, they explore questions of identity, ancestry, geography, change, and loss.
In recent projects, they have been experimenting with gestural control and immersive, multi-channel sound systems as ways to connect their work more intimately with the body and audience. Their recent threshold works focus on the fragile boundary between silence and sound, inviting performers and listeners to attend closely to moments where sound emerges, fades, or hovers at the edge of perception. Their compositions and installations have been presented at the Oregon Center for Contemporary Art, PNCA, the Portland Art Museum as well as a variety of community spaces.
Performance Works NW || Linda Austin Dance 