Dialectical Imagination at An Die Musik Live

Following the release of their debut album, The Angel and the Brute Sing Songs of Rapture, Dialectical Imagination now plans to share their work through performances at key venues and festivals. Their album came out in February on the fledgling label Atma Nadi Records. S. Victor Aaron of SomethingELSE! describes the album as “seriously good art” while Karl Ackermann of All About Jazz remarks that it “spikes with energy and intelligence that cannot be overlooked.
Eli Wallace grew up in the hills of El Cerrito, California playing ice hockey and studying music. He earned an M.M. in Jazz Composition at the New England Conservatory in Boston, MA where he studied with Jason Moran and Jerry Bergonzi, to name a couple. Upon the completion of his Master’s, Eli’s interests began to extend into the enigmatic world of free- improvisation. Fascinated with the profound levels of freedom offered in this music, many years of experimentation in ad-hoc groups and improvisation collectives followed. His primary trio project, Cabbages, Captain and King, released an album of original compositions in 2015 and was featured in the 14th annual Outsound New Music Summit. Since 2015, Eli has lived in Brooklyn, NY where he continues to explore improvisation with many like-minded musicians while still finding time to tour internationally with a diverse array of artists from a wide variety of genres....

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Following the release of their debut album, The Angel and the Brute Sing Songs of Rapture, Dialectical Imagination now plans to share their work through performances at key venues and festivals. Their album came out in February on the fledgling label Atma Nadi Records. S. Victor Aaron of SomethingELSE! describes the album as “seriously good art” while Karl Ackermann of All About Jazz remarks that it “spikes with energy and intelligence that cannot be overlooked.
Eli Wallace grew up in the hills of El Cerrito, California playing ice hockey and studying music. He earned an M.M. in Jazz Composition at the New England Conservatory in Boston, MA where he studied with Jason Moran and Jerry Bergonzi, to name a couple. Upon the completion of his Master’s, Eli’s interests began to extend into the enigmatic world of free- improvisation. Fascinated with the profound levels of freedom offered in this music, many years of experimentation in ad-hoc groups and improvisation collectives followed. His primary trio project, Cabbages, Captain and King, released an album of original compositions in 2015 and was featured in the 14th annual Outsound New Music Summit. Since 2015, Eli has lived in Brooklyn, NY where he continues to explore improvisation with many like-minded musicians while still finding time to tour internationally with a diverse array of artists from a wide variety of genres.
Rob Pumpelly grew up in Jesup, a small town in southeast Georgia. He cites thunderstorms and travelling freight trains as his earliest musical interests. Gradually, composition became Rob’s primary focus though he continued to hone his instrumental skills playing bassoon semi-professionally in local orchestras, electric guitar in rock groups (miRthkon, Flying Luttenbachers), and classical guitar both in solo settings and in chamber ensembles. He earned an M.A. in composition at Mills College in Oakland, CA where he studied with Fred Frith, Pauline Oliveros and Alvin Curran. Rob is largely responsible for the compositions, concepts and arrangements heard in Dialectical Imagination, though he vehemently maintains that Dialectical Imagination would not be what it is without Eli’s musical vision and inexorable contribution. Rob has lived in Oakland, CA with his girlfriend Meghan McKearney since 2002, teaching music and developing a poetic system of aesthetics called the Omua Umbrella.

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