Resonancy (Jon Mueller, Bowles/Bowne/Wagg, Elise & Ciera)

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Photo by Chris Rosenau

Jon Mueller

During the last two decades, the drummer Jon Mueller has harnessed a reputation for high volume. You can hear it in his triumphant marches and ecstatic cymbal splashes as the backbone of intricate post-rock explorers Pelé, Collections of Colonies of Bees, or Volcano Choir. You hear it in his solo work for drums, electronics, and voice: Metals, from 2007, reimagined the athletic art of heavy metal drumming as a bleak landscape ravaged by seismic sonics; on the hypnotic Tongues, he spun multi-tracked hums and yelps over relentless pulses. But on the transfixing Canto, due in April, Mueller turns down, moaning through a sustained ripple of gongs and chimes or tapping a bass drum as droning tones slowly accrete around it. Mueller has responded to a world of mounting distraction and noise by diminishing his signal, forcing you to lean toward it. It’s mesmerizing stuff. Mueller headlines the second night of Neptunes’ excellent five-week Resonancy series, with Nathan Bowles and friends opening alongside the Elise Jaffe & Ciera Cipriani Duo. —Grayson Haver Currin