Formations is a monthly music series curated by Jay Mollerskov and dedicated to fostering the growth of new and improvised music in Milwaukee.

Mark Mantel and Wilhelm Matthies will perform improvisations. Mark will play a variety of percussion instruments, and Wilhelm will play his invented instrument, the mosesa.

(The mosesa is a bowed and pluckable 4-stringed instrument played horizontally. It uses acoustic and electronic inputs/outputs for sound generation. The mosesa5  debuted at the Formations Series in 2015, and in 2023, Wilhelm will play his 15th model.) Mark and Wilhelm have played together a number of times at the Formations Series, as well as with Jason Wietlispach in his studio in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Both share a very intuitive sense of crescendo and decrescendos when blending and contrasting percussion and string sounds.

Jack Grassel and Steve Nelson-Raney have been playing improvised music together for over forty years. The music has evolved from the early days of guitar and piano duets to more multi dimensional/multi instrumental directions. This performance will reflect the current enthusiasms of the two players.

Formations Series for New & Improvised Music—April 20, 2023