Ars Nova Workshop is thrilled to present Flatlands, the new power trio assembled by prolific experimentalist John Zorn, at Solar Myth on Saturday, September 5, 2026.

One of the most exalted names in modern experimental music across a spectrum of styles and genres, John Zorn is an avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist whose output extends to hundreds of albums. His work has touched on a wide range of musical genres, often within a single composition, but he is best-known for his avant-garde, jazz, improvised and contemporary classical music. Zorn has led the punk jazz band Naked City and the klezmer-influenced quartet Masada, and composed the associated ‘Masada Songbooks’, written concert music for classical ensembles, and produced music for film and documentary.  Zorn established himself within the New York City downtown music movement in the early 1980s but has since composed and performed with a wide range of musicians working in diverse musical areas.

Zorn’s latest project, Flatlands, is an explosive power trio in the mold of his ferocious bands Simulacrum and Insurrection. The new supergroup brings together guitarist Matt Hollenberg of the aforementioned Simulacrum as well as Cleric and Secret Chiefs 3; bassist Simon Hanes, who blended Italian soundtrack sounds with jazz in Tredici Bacci and whose mammoth project Gargantua the New York Times called a “masterpiece… an album of bombarding and demonic, but at times fragile and beautiful music”; and drummer Ches Smith, well known to Solar Myth audiences for his work with Tim Berne as well as his own projects Clone Row, We All Break, and Laugh Ash. Zorn’s music for the band is intense, quirky, and wildly ecstatic – kaleidoscopic compositions filled with virtuosic solos, infectious riffs, atonal melodies, advanced harmonies, complex rhythms, and plenty of the ever surprising structural innovations that has made Zorn one of the most continually fascinating composers of the past fifty years.