Alexis Mahler

 

Like a late summer bloom casting shadows in the sunlight, Alexis Mahler’s singular voice creates moments that are precious and delicate; heart-breaking and soul warming. 

Michigan-made, and classically trained, Mahler has made a musical home for herself in Portland, Oregon. Quieting rooms with her intimate blend of classical, jazz, and folk – she has endeared herself to audiences across the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Her music contains thoughtful, elegant strings layered with memorable, and sweetly delivered vocal melodies. In her own words: “Music should be connective, accessible, expressive, expansive, often imperfect, healing – a release”. 

Between teaching private music lessons and performing, Mahler can be found doing session work for songwriters, both local and long-distance. Over the years she has collaborated with Matt Costa, Sleater-Kinney, Mayer Hawthorne, Jacob Miller, Cyrus Nabipoor, Integer, Whitney, Erisy Watt, Hanna Haas, and many others. 

alexismahler.bandcamp.com 

alexismahler.com 

insta: @alexismahler 

String Features & Contributions Playlist

BIO

Mike Gamble is an adventurous guitarist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist whose work with improvisation and new technology predominantly inform his practice.  Gamble has spent the last 20 years immersed in the creative jazz, experimental rock and improvised music scene primarily in NYC, with close ties to New Orleans, Burlington, Boston, San Francisco and now the Pacific Northwest. He has had the pleasure of recording over 50 albums and has been touring the states, Canada, and Europe with his critically-acclaimed guitar trio The Inbetweens, Mike Gamble Solo, and alongside doom-metal originators Earth. His more recent collaborators include Bobby Previte, Todd Sickafoose, Nels Cline, Wayne Horvitz, Matt Chamberlain and Lori Goldston. 

Since relocating to Portland,  Mike Gamble has dived into the jazz and experimental, Pop, Indie Rock, and electronic/modular scene and gigs 4-7 times a week. He currently holds a position as a Contemporary Music Industry instructor at Oregon State University, and as a guitar teacher at Reed College. He has been the Artistic Director of Portland’s long standing experimental music organization, The Creative Music Guild since 2016.

Quotes

“He has a brain that seems to work faster than other human brains – maybe more like a hummingbird or a spider. Music comes flying out. You just sit and listen to what he thinks of next” Todd Sickafoose

“Mike Gamble is dangerous in the best way”  Nels Cline

“Mr. Gamble knows his way around a drone, but he also puts a lot of shifting harmony and texture in his one-man sketches, some of which —  like “I’m on Your Side,” with its abstracted trip-hop beat —  come across as thoughtfully developed compositions” Nate Chinen NY TIMES

Cecille Elliott

Cecille is a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter/composer currently based in Portland, Oregon. Her passion lies in the diversity of music, and how her instruments find voices around the world and in various genres. 

As a performer, Cecille is a member of Lyyra, a professional vocal ensemble made up of six women, performing and leading educational workshops across the US and abroad. Locally, she is a rostered vocalist with Resonance Ensemble, singing as well as being a two-time commissioned composer for the group. As a freelancing performer and creator, she lends her voice and string-playing for various artists across the city and the country to bring their projects to life. Creative writing is one of the main 

passions of her life, and drivers of her career, having written many of her first compositions and songs as personal or school projects beginning as early as elementary school. She currently has a catalogue of over 250 songs and compositions. Through her career, songwriting has remained one of her favorite music outlets for expression. 

She spends much of her free time buried in various forms of creative writing, and building her skills as a visual artist, with film, photography, drawing, and painting as her mediums of choice.