Ropeadope

In November 2003 the proprietors of RODAN, a trendy nighspot in Chicago's Wicker Park, invited bassist Jason Ajemian to assemble an aggregate of musicians to perform a weekly engagement. Ajemian called in Nori Tanaka (drummer extraordinaire and his partner in the eclectic duo Lay All Over Its), and guitarist Jeff Parker (veteran of Chicago's fertile music community, and most notably, member of Tortoise). A theme of Video Art runs through the atmosphere at RODAN, and the owners' interest in and embrace of the genre led to the addition of the brilliant video artist Selina Trepp to the weekly proceedings. The quartet developed a site-specific and sympathetic way of improvising together - simutaneously ambient and rhythmically inventive, loosely combining elements of jazz improvisation and elements of the trance and noise musics most commonly associated with audiovisual experiments. The trio of musicians sought to compliment the video, as the video sought to compliment the music of the trio - all the while enhancing the atmosphere of the nightspot in non-intrusive fashion.The trio was christened "A CUSHICLE". A CUSHICLE is an "individual mobile housing unit", designed by Michael Webb. The audiovisual aggregate A CUSHICLE has expanded upon its introductory concepts...providing site-specific, adaptable, chameleonic, environment-enhancing audiovisual improvisations.