Babatunji - Dennis Aman - Andy Meyerson - Travis Andrews
Koollooꓘ is a multidisciplinary collective exploring the boundaries of sound, movement, theater, and performance. Koollooꓘ has built a site-specific work for The Roar Shack, using physical space as a character for choreography and movement, new music and sounds, and the shared exploration of the boundaries of what live performance can do.
Who we are
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Babatunji began as a self-taught street performer, developing a unique approach to various styles of hip hop such as breakdance, popping, and krump. He has danced professionally with, Post:ballet, SFDanceworks, SFJazz, Ballare Carmel, ZiRu Dance, Maurya Kerr’s tinypistol, and Dawson|Wallace Dance Project among others. Babatunji's choreography has been performed by Berkeley Ballet Theater, Boston Dance Theater, Trolley Dance, SFDanceworks, ZiRu Dance, as well as Joseph Walsh and Sarah Van Patten of San Francisco Ballet for København Danser. He is a Princess Grace Award and Chris Hellman Award recipient. He is currently a member of Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet.
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A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Dennis Aman is a renowned composer, instrument builder, vocalist, and performer.
Aman studied electronic music with Richard Festinger at San Francisco State University, followed by private instruction in composition with Dan Becker. Aman was a chorister with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, and is currently a member of the Cornelius Cardew Choir. His compositions have been performed in Lithuania, Ukraine, and Japan. In 2018 Electric Guitar and Percussion duo The Living Earth Show premiered his "24 Preludes and Fugues (Equal Divisions Of The Octave 1-24)," The piece is performed a set of 26 microtonal instruments built for the production by Aman himself, including a microtonal go-kart, a 23 note-to-the-octave washing machine, and amplified Jell-O.
In addition to writing and performing, Aman was the host and producer of KALW 91.7 FM's ‘Music From Other Minds’, and currently produces live shows at The Roar Shack, an experimental performance venue in San Francisco.
Upcoming projects include "The Sacred Harp of New Hamburg," a multigenerational collaboration with artist Hex Aman and researcher Floyd Aman to create a genealogy graphic novel, and continued performances alongside The Living Earth Show and movement artist Babatunji as part of the experimental movement and sound collective Koollooꓘ.
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Andy Meyerson is a drummer and percussionist based in San Francisco, California. He is the Artistic Director, co-founder, and percussionist of The Living Earth Show, one of the premiere experimental classical ensembles in the United States.
He is also the drummer and co-founder of queer nü metal collective COMMANDO, music director of renegade dance company Post:ballet, drummer for Russian feminist protest and performance art group Pussy Riot, the artistic director and CEO of uncompromising experimental chamber music record label Earthy Records, and a renowned solo artist.
Andy Meyerson has released two solo percussion recordings: “My Side of the Story,” a collection of percussion solos written for him by Adrian Knight, Jude Traxler, Brendon Randall-Myers, Samuel Adams, and Danny Clay on slash/sound recordings, and “Extra Time,” an album of percussion solos written for him by Sarah Hennies on Hasana Editions.
He is an endorsing artist for Spaun Drums, Innovative Percussion, and Marimba One.
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Travis Andrews is the co-founder, executive director, and electric guitarist in The Living Earth Show. In that capacity, Andrews' performances have been praised as “mind-blowing” and "a vanguard effort of new chamber music" by the San Francisco Examiner and "emotional, transcendent, and at times bursting with raw post-rock power" by the Charleston City Paper. In his work, he strives to use the tools of classical and contemporary music to foreground the voices and perspectives often marginalized by the tradition and its presentation.
Highly in demand as a solo artist, Andrews has been a featured soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Eco Ensemble, and the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble.
He has performed with John Doe of X, Bryce Dessner of The National, Terry Riley, & Kronos Quartet. A musical omnivore, Andrews also performs with avant-thrash trio Freighter, chambercore band miRthkon, and queer nü metal band COMMANDO.
Andrews has authored articles and books for String Letter Publishing and has been an artist in residence at universities and conservatories around the country. He is an endorsing artist for Fishman Transducers.
Photos by George Rosenthal