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The Hay/Klimchak Duo in Experimental Concert at Flood Gallery
Plus Special performances by Mongo Sondo and Counterfeit Circus!
Join us for an evening of exploratory music! This concert is a prelude to the experimental program of the Twin Rivers Media Festival coming to Flood Gallery in September.
Donation-based admission. Light refreshments available.
The Hay/Klimchak Duo create spontaneous, experimental performances that blend unconventional sounds, electronics, and vocal techniques into unpredictable sonic landscapes. Flutist Emily Hay explores unusual tones, rhythms, and expressive vocals, while percussionist Klimchak uses handmade instruments, throat singing, and electronics to push beyond traditional musical boundaries. Together, they craft evolving, immersive soundscapes that are both dynamic and avant-garde.
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Emily Hay is a flutist (C flute, alto flute, bass flute and piccolo) and a vocalist (soprano and extended techniques) whose musical language reaches beyond the traditional roles and capabilities of her instruments by combining the complexity of contemporary electronics with the spontaneity of free improvisation. The result is startling interpretations of sound and intense ensemble interaction. Her vibrant musical explorations embody unusual tone colors and soaring rhythmic structures, often augmented by electronically generated effects and overlapped by unusual vocalizations ranging from the primal to operatic, exploding with humorous stories, disturbing lyrics, harsh vamps and shocking noises that arise from the stream of consciousness.
Recently relocated from So. California to the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina (USA), Hay remains an active member of the ‘experimental left’ music communities and has performed in avant garde, art rock, free improvisation, electro-acoustical and contemporary ensembles such as HayFever, Polarity Taskmasters, U Totem, The Motor Totemist Guild, The 5 UU’s , Otherparts, I Am Umbrella, Adam Rudolph’s Go Organic Orchestra, The Emily Hay Collective, The Rich West Ensemble, The Jeff Kaiser Okodektet and The Vinny Golia Large Ensemble. Recordings of her work have been released independently as well as by Cuneiform Records, Recommended Records, Nine Winds, Meta, pfMentum, Public Eyesore and Dragnet Records. She has toured and performed extensively with concert highlights at the Bimhuis/Amsterdam, the Stone/NYC, the Ottomat/Italy, Rhizome/Washington D.C., New Music America Festival/Montreal, Timucua Arts Foundation/Orlando, Art Rock Festival/Frankfurt, Open Gate Music Series/Los Angeles, Static Age Records/Asheville, Kulturni Dom/Yugoslavia, the Pilot Light/Knoxville, TN, Staion de Art Sankt Peter/Cologne, Germany, Art Rat Studio/Roanoke and the Reithalle/Switzerland.
Emily Hay co-hosted the radio show, “Trilogy”, on KXLU 88.9FM Los Angeles (and at [http://www.kxlu.com)]www.kxlu.com) for decades, producing live performances and guest interviews by musicians and composers of the avant-garde, free jazz, improvisation, contemporary classical, experimental and electronic music genres. Formerly the Music Director for the Beyond Baroque Foundation in Venice, CA, Hay curated and promoted live experimental music events in Los Angeles by a stream of renowned performers such as Fred Frith, Tom Cora, John Adams and David Moss.
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Klimchak is a composer, performer, multi-instrumentalist and improvisor creating electro-acoustic music for film, theater, dance and live performance. His work focuses on the intersection of chaos and order. His composer side builds elaborate structures of interlocking melody & rhythm. Then his performer side takes over and obliterates those structures with bursts of noise, random drones and slabs of spontaneous improvised sound. While trained as a percussionist, Klimchak employs hand-built instruments, Tuvan throat singing, theremin, daxophone, electronics, and any number of peripheral objects to sculpt a soundscape that wanders farther and farther from the confines and timbres of the drum as the set lurches, evolves, and transforms.
For the past year, klimchak has been in residence at the Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center performing a series of improvised duets as part of his Ear Pollen Experimental Music Series. His duet partners included multi-instrumentalist Elliot Sharp, mandolinist Majid Araim, pianist and modular synthesist Ipek Eginli, violist LaDonna Smith, guitarists Shane Parish, Killick Hinds and Shaking Ray Levis percussionist Bob Stagner.
Recent compositions and performances include a live score for Peter Brooks Conference of the Birds at the Winnipesaukee Playhouse in New Hampshire (2022), playing live music on a theremin bike for the solo piece, Pied Pipers Payback for Art in Odd Places Orlando (2016), and LeBeato Lounge: Water Wonderland, a concert for homebuilt instruments that use water as part of their design for Art on the Atlanta Beltline (2022).
In March, 2015, Klimchak premiered his solo show, CooksNotes, in which he makes music on kitchen implements while cooking dinner for the audience. Favorite dance commissions include we are democracy….we the people choreographed by Jawole Jo Willa Zollar and Urban Bush Women at Emory University, and Three Bagatelles for the Righteous performed at NYC’s Joyce Theater by Jane Comfort and Co. Favorite theater work includes The Navigator at the Goat Farm & Titus Andronicus at Georgia Shakespeare (both of which were winners of Atlanta’s Suzi Bass awards for best sound design).
Photo by Shay Aelious EP dec show
Mongo Sondo / Zen Sutherland
Zen Sutherland is Mongo Sondo. Asheville’s own experimental sound and music from circuit-bent toys and hand-made instruments. His multidisciplinary work blends improvised sound, spoken word, and visual art in a playful, handcrafted, but sometimes edgy, style.
Mongo Sondo has played at Bent/Broken Fest (Online, worldwide)- 2023, 2024 and 2025, Cesspool of Synth – 2023, Nightmare of Noise – 2022, 2023, 2024, Bank of Christ – 2022 and many open mics.
Counterfeit Circus / Carlos Steward
Carlos Steward, along with dozens of musicians and pantomime performers, founded the Counterfeit Circus in 1972 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, as a way to raise funds to feed orphans. Known for its quirky blend of electronic and experimental theatre, the group has performed across Latin America. Today, Carlos brings that same spirit to his performances, weaving together film, spoken word poetry, and storytelling with an array of synthesizers and unusual instruments—channeling the energy of his traveling circus.
Flood Gallery Fine Art Center
802 Fairview Rd. Suite 1200, Asheville, NC 28803
Centrally located just off I-240 Exit 8, we have plenty of space for events, exhibits, & parking! River Ridge Business Center, Suite 1200, 802 Fairview Rd, Asheville 28803 (behind Hamrick’s and Sun Soo Martial Arts, next to Hot Yoga Asheville and Asheville Dance Theater)