NEW YORK, NY - March 6, 2016 Multi-instrumentalist and Drama Desk Award nominated composer Sean Cronin with his band Very Good will showcase pieces from his nonsensical rock-opera at a Sunday Night Ace Hotel residency in March. The new large-scale work is loosely themed around the three books of Dante's Divine Comedy: Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. The 8-piece ensemble will use the space in unconventional ways, mobilizing the band around the vast lobby, and will use uniformity and contrast within the costumes of the members.

Far from a typical rock band, Sean Cronin's Very Good is an eclectic and dynamic juggernaut. In addition to its avant-pop sensibilities, the band draws on influences from theatre and absurdist literature. Instrumentation includes clarinet, fiddle, resonator guitar, snare drum, bass drum, cello, electric bass, electric guitar, voices and more. The result is an experience that must be seen to be understood, although Cronin doesn't necessarily want you to understand it.

Very Good’s music is essentially a type of chamber music, with dynamics that range from completely acoustic to full-on rock. Listeners may hear similarities to experimental rock bands like Animal Collective and Deerhoof, or predecessors like The Beatles and Neil Young but the band’s genre is as wide as Cronin’s taste: "I listen to a lot of classical music and early jazz, as well as great contemporary song writers like Jeff Tweedy and Bjork. On top of this, I'm really interested in theatre and performance art and their relationship with a musical performance. But deep down, I feel like what we do is essentially rooted in the folk music tradition: just kind of doing what we can with the limitations that our instruments, personalities, and the space around us provide. It's just folk music from a country that doesn't exist.”

In Cronin’s initial writings for this work, he found each piece could be characterized in one of three ways: chaotic, absurd, or dream-like. “It occurred to me that these three styles could be represented by the conventional states of hell (chaos), purgatory (suspension), and heaven (beauty)…After I described the thought of taking a character through hell to get to heaven, a friend slapped down Dante's epic work and told me I had to read it. And it's been feeding the project quite nicely.”

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“It will basically be an insane trip through various mental states, which is kind of what the band does already, but within a larger, more theatrical framework.”

The fourth concert, March 27, will be dedicated to some of the greatest influences on Very Good, which include Duke Ellington, Bob Dylan, Dimitri Shostakovich, and Charles Mingus.

Absurd EPK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3W72-RpzWQ&feature=youtu.be

Streaming Album https://seancroninsverygood.bandcamp.com/track/beat-each-day

WHAT: Sean Cronin’s Very Good

WHEN: March 6 (Hell),13 (Purgatory), 20 (Heaven), 27 (Covers), 9pm

WHERE: ACE Hotel Lobby 20 W 29th Street, New York City, NY
DETAILS: FREE

For more information visit

http://www.nobilismusic.com/very-good

https://www.facebook.com/SeanCroninsVeryGood/

Contact Emily Asher - [email protected] - (206)999.6955

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Nobilis Music Group is a boutique booking and PR agency in NYC and Seattle dedicated to representing distinctive musical voices.