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Eli Wallace (pianist/improviser/composer), Kyle Motl (bass), and Nick Neuburg (percussion) formed their trio in 2023 based on a mutual interest in finding new and personalized approaches within the piano/bass/drums trio format. All three members of the group have dedicated a considerable amount of their musical work on an individual level to finding new sonic vocabulary on their instruments and the trio utilizes the collective contributions of each musician to the end of moving freely between musical spaces that deal with exploration of timbre, and also rhythm and harmony freely and in a uniquely personalized manner. Their forthcoming record, Enantiodromias is set to release on Fundacja Słuchaj records in 2026. This School of Music event is free and open to the public. A livestream will be available. (click on the Lloyd Ultan Recital Hall events in the callout box).
Artist Bios
Eli Wallace, pianist/improviser/composer, resides in Brooklyn, NY envisioning his own projects, and collaborating with other like-minded artists. His work as a pianist displays a proclivity to free improvisation, incorporating elaborate piano preparations that John Lewis (The Guardian) says is "...pushing the boundaries of the prepared piano." His compositions employ notational strategies to broaden how musicians produce sound and the ways in which they interact. Over the past decade, he appeared on dozens of albums and performed at venues such as Roulette, Brooklyn, NY, Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago, IL, Bemis Center, Omaha, NE, and Cave 12, Geneva, Switzerland.
Kyle Motl is a “spectacularly adventurous and dynamic” bassist and improviser whose playing is noted for both “iridescent delicacy as well as abrasive force” (The Wire). A frequent soloist, his performances “promise to change us by revealing things we could never have imagined” (Free Jazz Collective).
His music has been praised for its “speculative, many-layered evolution of imagination,” (Free Jazz Collective) and for “constantly confounding expectation” (Jazz da Gama). Kyle makes music in collaborative projects with musicians including Anthony Davis, Kjell Nordeson, Dan Clucas, Nathan Hubbard, Rocío Sánchez, José Fernando Solares, Eli Wallace, Nick Neuberg, and Earl Howard. He regularly performed in the Peter Kuhn Trio and Abbey Rader Quartet.
In the field of contemporary music, Kyle has performed with International Contemporary Ensemble and Ghost Ensemble, among others. His 2022 solo bass record, Hydra Nightingale, features premieres by Caroline Louise Miller, Anqi Liu, Jessie Cox, and Asher Tobin Chodos.
As assistant professor, Kyle teaches bass, improvisation, and contemporary music practices at University of Minnesota. His book, Bells Plucked From Air, sheds light on harmonic techniques for double bass. Kyle holds a DMA from UC San Diego, where he studied with Mark Dresser and Anthony Davis.
Nick Neuburg (b. 1992) is a drummer/percussionist/improviser/composer based in Brooklyn, NY. Nick has been actively involved with the improvised music community in NYC since moving there in 2018 and plays frequently, both as a solo percussionist, and in collaboration with other like-minded musicians. A few musicians with which he has cultivated ongoing musical relationships include Brittany Karlson, Eli Wallace, Drew Wesely, Sam Newsome, Kyle Motl, and many others. Nick released his first solo recording “Cryptic Exaltations” in 2023 on 1039 Records.
Motl and Neuburg photos by Peter Gannushkin
Wallace photo by Meghan Desmond
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Lloyd Ultan Recital Hall, Ferguson Hall U of M,Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
