About this Event
Kicking off the 2026 OPTION season, Denton-based Stefan Gonzalez is joined by Chicago’s Ben LaMar Gay and Dave Rempis. Playing together as a trio for the first time, this concert features a mix of free improvisation and original compositions by Gonzalez.
This performance and interview are presented in the ESS garden, and will premiere online on ESS's YouTube.
The OPTION series is curated by Andrew Clinkman, Lily Finnegan, and Dorothy Carlos.
Event Details
Sunday, June 14
Music at 3pm
Experimental Sound Studio Garden
5925 N. Ravenswood Ave., Chicago
About Stefan Gonzalez
Stefan Gonzalez is a drummer, vibraphonist, percussionist, and vocalist originally from Dallas, TX, currently living in Denton. Since the late 1990's they have been on the forefront of many varied underground music scenes on a local, national, and international level.
Gonzalez studied drums with W.A. Richardson, Alvin Fielder, and Ronald Shannon Jackson. They are best known for playing in their defunct family free jazz trio, Yells at Eels, with their late father, the world renowned trumpeter, Dennis Gonzalez, and their older brother Aaron Gonzalez on bass. The trio had a 22 year run. The Gonzalez siblings had a long running grindcore duo known as Akkolyte who formed in 1998 and broke up in 2024. Additionally, Stefan and Aaron have played as the joint rhythm section for many groups including Luis Lopes Humanization 4tet (with Rodrigo Amado), Fire Life Trio (with Danny Kamins), Unconscious Collective (with Gregg Prickett), Curtis Clark Trio, Trio No Mas (with Mars Williams), and The Chadbourne/Gonzalez Collusion (with Eugene Chadbourne).
Other acts worth mentioning are Gonzalez's long running industrial solo project turned duo, Orgullo Primitivo (with Abbas Khorasani), Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten's international supergroup The Young Mothers (with Frank Rosaly, Jonathan Horne, Jawwaad Taylor, and Jason Jackson), Denton psychedelic thrashers Heavy Baby Sea Slugs, the Dennis Gonzalez Legacy Band, a trio with Wendy Eisenberg and Damon Smith, a brutal noisecore duo with Daniel Ryan by the name of Testicular Necrosis, and North Texas avant-garde jazz powerhouse Trio Glossía (with Joshua Cañate and Matthew Frerck). Other collaborators and past groups include Alvin Fielder, Joe McPhee, Joshua Abrams, Ken Vandermark, Mars Williams, Mattie Mystic, Chris Corsano, Maria Valencia, Famoudou Don Moye, German Bringas, Sabir Mateen, Louis Moholo-Moholo, Sarah Ruth, Assif Tsahar, Ed Wilkerson Jr., Akira Sakata, Alex Coke, Tatsuya Nakatani, Remi Alvarez, Mai Sugimoto, Sonia Flores, John Dikeman, Michel Doneda, Rob Mazurek, Aakash Mittal, Mabel Kwan, Jason Adasiewicz, Itzam Cano, Gabriel Lauber, Elliott Levin, Dan Clucas, Jandek, Mike Watt, Asukubus, Imperial Slaughter, Just Another Consumer, Ascites, and many more.
Gonzalez has been on over 30 musical releases and has toured and performed all throughout North America, Mexico, Canada, Croatia, Colombia, Portugal, Switzerland, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Slovenia, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Sardinia, Poland, Russia, France, Denmark, and Austria.
About OPTION
OPTION is an ongoing music salon curated by Chicago musicians Andrew Clinkman, Lily Finnegan, and Dorothy Carlos and presented by Experimental Sound Studio. Its programming explores contemporary perspectives on improvisation and composition in a 'salon' format, enabling local, national, and international artists to publicly discuss their practice and ideas as well as perform. Click here for past OPTION performances.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Experimental Sound Studio, 5925 N. Ravenswood Ave., Chicago, United States
USD 0.00
