SMOOTAPHILIA: ENSEMBLE EROTIC

The most thrilling sensual experiences are primarily improvised. We can enjoy listening to the same song countless times, but when it comes to physical pleasure the key to maximum sensation is the unpredictable — improvising intimately  in the moment with a partner or partners.

Smootaphilia: Ensemble Erotic embraces this idea in the pursuit of sensual music. What if Miles Davis’ 1972 electric band scored Deep Throat? What if Can composed the soundtrack to The Devil in Miss Jones?  What is the connection between music, spontaneity, desire, and performance?

Smootaphilia’s origins are innocent enough: Dave Smoota Smith first met vocalist Ann Courtney in the shallow end of a swimming pool in Brooklyn. They became fast friends and discovered a shared taste for boundary-pushing music: Courtney is revered as the fearless and awe-inspiring leader and singer of renowned rock dynamo Mother Feather. Smoota has worked  as a trombone player with cutting-edge bands such as TV On The Radio, Run The Jewels, Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber, Sufjan Stevens, and Rev. Vince Anderson & The Love Choir. Smoota has also released two solo R&B albums exploring sexual themes (Fetishes + Pheromones) and leads the exploratory instrumental groups Smoota & The Beast and The Smoota Tête-a-Tête. 

When a friend asked Smoota to perform at a live music & pole dancing party, he seized it as an opportunity to both share a stage with Courtney and to attempt to create truly sensual music through structured improvisation. And thus Smootaphilia was born, from pool to pole dance, with Courtney’s endlessly adventurous vocalizations laying on a bed of Smoota’s slinky 69bpm erotic funk.

Supported by a shifting crew of NYC’s grooviest musicians, Smootaphilia’s sound is something like a Lee Scratch Perry mash-up of Meredith Monk and Isaac Hayes’ Hot Buttered Soul. The group continues to explore its potential as it performs shows and conceives its debut album (coming in 2024). This summer the ensemble will perform a live score to the 1971 cult sex classic film Vampyros Lesbos at Nighthawk Cinema in Brooklyn. 

HEIDEMANN

Monika Heidemann is a singer and synth wizard who has collaborated with a slew of the coolest Brooklyn bands of recent years including The Phenomenal Handclap Band, The Juan MacLean, Holy Ghost!, Hess Is More, and !!!. Tonight she’ll massage our ears with a set of sensual synthesizer fantasia.