Small Room Variations: Session 01

Carl Weingarten + Michael Hunt | STOMACHS

Sponsored by Dead Wax

8:00 PM | $20

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Small Room Variations begin with an evening bringing together the work of Carl Weingarten and Michael Hunt with Chicago improvising quartet STOMACHS.

 

Carl Weingarten is an American guitarist, composer, photographer, filmmaker, and founder of Multiphase Records. Known for his atmospheric instrumental music and innovative use of slide guitar and Dobro, Weingarten has been an influential figure in independent and experimental music since the early 1980s. His work moves between jazz, ambient music, blues, electronic music, experimental sound, and film music, often carrying a distinctly cinematic quality. His recordings and collaborations have received recognition from Billboard, Guitar Player, All About Jazz, AllMusic, and Echoes, among others.

 

Michael F. Hunt is an American composer whose work occupies a distinctive space between minimalism, electronic music, large ensemble composition, and the expansive listening associated with early New Age music. Deeply influenced by Daoist philosophy, his compositions balance silence and spaciousness with layered harmonic structures, repetition, and richly orchestrated sound. Hunt studied composition at the St. Louis Institute of Music and earned his PhD from Washington University in St. Louis. His works have been performed internationally, though much of his extensive compositional catalogue remained unrecorded for decades.

 

STOMACHS squeak, honk, clank, clunk, buzz, rattle, drone, groan, bellow, and befriend. Drawing from free jazz, improvisation, heavy music, and noise, the Chicago quartet creates freely improvised music that moves between massive drones, delicate percussive gestures, and luminous, slippery sound.

 

STOMACHS is Mabel Kwan on synth, Carol Genetti on voice and electronics, Bill Harris on drums, and Nick Meryhew on trombone and no-input mixer. Their work has been presented at Elastic Arts, Compound Yellow, Marmalade, and the 2025 Chicago Jazz Festival.