Exploring familiar and uncharted sonic territory with Adam Schatz

Adam Schatz likes to experience the everyday world in new ways with each project. Sometimes this means tapping into sounds invented by great composers and musicians of the past. Other times, it means pushing the limits of his instruments and tools to find completely new sounds. More often than not, his music fuses the two. With a love of jazz and affinity for tape machines and non-traditional instruments, Schatz was in his zone while crafting this pack.

In addition to Landlady, Father Figures, and his production work, Schatz leads a large ensemble called Civil Engineering. They’re a rotating cast of 13 musicians chasing the energy of Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus’ large ensemble efforts, where vocals and adventurous harmony would swing in and out of improvisations.

In January 2018, he was commissioned by the Ecstatic Music festival to arrange his own music and the music of Xenia Rubinos to be performed with Civil Engineering and Xenia at the Merkin Concert Hall for a one-time-only collaborative performance.

In the fall of 2017, Schatz was awarded a composer/choreographer residency by Exploring The Metropolis, where he and choreographer Laurel Snyder developed their shared language in written and improvised music and movement. This lead to their 2018 performance entitled LOOP, running for three nights at the Footlight in Ridgewood, Queens. In the performance, Schatz captured sounds of objects and movements into his sampling and synthesized effects rig, transforming organic sounds into keyboard patches and pulses in real-time that created a unique score each night.

He has worked as a studio musician with Buke & Gase, Adia Victoria, Binki Shapiro & Adam Green, and many more. He has toured with Sylvan Esso, Man Man, Zongo Junction, This Is The Kit, Those Darlins and more.