Natural Information Society
Perseverance Flow
Music
Natural Information Society (NIS) is a band led by composer and multi-instrumentalist Joshua Abrams. The group’s music is grounded in Abrams’ hypnotic and interwoven writing.
Performing with Lisa Alvarado’s free hanging paintings as mobile sets, NIS creates environments at once meditative and propulsive, which navigate forms that emphasize simultaneous differences, rhythm, and collective listening. NIS tours as a quartet with Abrams on guimbri, Alvarado on harmonium, Mikel Patrick Avery on drums, and Jason Stein on bass clarinet.
They will perform music from their recent album Perseverance Flow, which refracts the band’s signature mesmerizing chains of overlapping rhythmic patterns through the sonic funhouse of dub.
The Dark: PS21’s fearless winter festival of live performance radiating across Columbia County
The Dark is a new annual festival from PS21 : Center for Contemporary Performance that celebrates and elevates the depths of winter. Taking place February 16–22, 2026, the festival will unfold at PS21 and across Columbia County—in theatres, restaurants, libraries, saunas, and outdoor public spaces. Featuring more than 60 international artists and over 80 performances, The Dark offers a packed week of world-class contemporary performance, installation, music, dance, and theatre—all exploring winter as a time of community and solitude, fire and ice, darkness and light. A major new attraction for the region, the festival positions Columbia County as a year-round cultural destination—not just a summer one.
It is a light in the dark—and The Dark is the light.
Secure your Festival Pass to The Dark now which includes tickets to every performance along with a complimentary sauna and ice skating session!
This engagement of Natural Information Society is made possible in part through the ArtsCONNECT program of Mid-Atlantic Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Natural Information Society (NIS) represents a convergence of musicians & artists to create sonic harbor, meditative space & kinetic momentum music. Realizing compositions by composer Joshua Abrams, the group’s core quartet includes Abrams, Lisa Alvarado, Mikel Patrick Avery & Jason Stein. Working the seams between minimalism, jazz & experimental practice, the band has become a reference for contemporary non-idiomatic creative music. They have recorded 7 albums for eremite records & 2 collaborations with Bitchin Bajas for Drag City Records. The group has toured extensively in North America, Europe & Brazil using Alvarado’s free hanging paintings as stage settings in concert. In 2021 Abrams formed an expanded version of NIS called the Natural Information Society Community Ensemble, adding winds & Chicago tenor saxophone legend Ari Brown to the group as heard on 2023’s Since Time Is Gravity. Mandatory Reality as part of Lisa Alvarado’s exhibition at The Kitchen, NYC. Their latest record for eremite records was released in fall 2025.
“Patient, layered music that’s always heading somewhere, sometimes spare and sometimes complex and shimmering.” —The New York Times
“Abrams discovers new levels of mood and tone; his pieces seem to escape time completely. “ —Pitchfork
“A driving force in Chicago’s vibrant jazz, post-rock, indie, and creative music scene.” —NPR Music
“It feels startlingly new, in terms of how the music is extrapolated, how the players relate, even as it feels like an ur-music, primal, body-centered, essential.”—The Wire
“Funky minimalist jam-rambles somewhere between Terry Riley, Fela Kuti, Can and Battles…has the tumbling appeal of krautrock but the complex melodic/textural overload of minimalist classics.” —Rolling Stone
While this performance does not have reserved seating, we are happy to accommodate any specific accessibility needs.
Please reach out to Adriana at boxoffice@ps21chatham.org, and she will coordinate with our front-of-house team to ensure your experience is comfortable and enjoyable.
The Crandell Theatre offers complimentary devices to assist hearing-impaired patrons, including:
Assisted Listening: Hear amplified audio from the house speakers via headset.
Our staff are happy to help you select and set up a device to ensure a more enjoyable movie-going experience.
