Ava Mendoza and gabby fluke-mogul (US) make power duo electric guitar and violin music at the crossroads of tradition and extremity. Avant jazz, blues, and noise alchemize in their song forms and free improvisations. The duo sometimes honors, sometimes uproots and upends old time tunes, spirituals, and other folk forms as well as playing their own incendiary compositions. From the beaches of Miami and DIY basements in Oakland, to their current home of New York, Mendoza and fluke-mogul carry intersecting lines of experimental music past, present, and future.

"Ava Mendoza and Gabby Fluke-Mogul (their duo cleverly called AM/FM), lit up glowingly in blue and red hues, engaged in one of the most exciting sets of the festival - not because of volume and intensity, but rather of imagery and intimacy. It would seem that Mendoza and Fluke-Mogul's origins, California and Florida, respectively, have somehow led them musically to the austere majesty of Monument Valley and swirling red rock canyons. Starting with a few long tones from the violin, Mendoza dove right in with a gunslinging attitude and a defiant blues. The two engaged in a bristling exchange of musical motives that kicked up the dust on the main street and flung the double swinging saloon doors wide open...Fluke-Mogul slid through double-stops and at times crushed her bow against the strings. Mendoza used loops to create sonic tapestry over which she unraveled a metallic melodic thread. After pieces that evoked crime noir and a bluesy folk tune, the duo ended their set on a sonic journey, shucking off the fetters of melody and harmony, and embracing a soaring abstract expressionism."
— Paul Acquaro, The Free Jazz Collective


BIOGRAPHIES:

GABBY FLUKE-MOGUL is a Brooklyn-based violinist, improviser, composer, educator, organizer, and doula.Weaving within experimental threads of improvised musics, their playing has been described as “embodied, visceral and virtuosic” and “the most striking sound in improvised music in years”. On their 2022 solo release from Relative Pitch Records, Best of Jazz notes, "LOVE SONGS is graspable within its very first seconds of play. It has rare density...infinitely beautiful and magnificently poignant." gabby is humbled to have collaborated with Nava Dunkelman, Joanna Mattrey, Ava Mendoza, Charles Burnham, Fred Frith, Luke Stewart, Zeena Parkins, Tcheser Holmes, Mariá Portugal, Lotte Anker, Paula Sanchez, Susana Santos Silva, Dave Rempis, Lily Finnegan, Nate Wooley, Lester St. Louis, William Parker, Dimos Vryzas and Pauline Oliveros among many other musicians, poets, dancers and visual artists. gabby has toured throughout the U.S. and Europe, with performances at Cafe OTO (London), Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon), Curva Minore (Palermo), Stadtgarten (Cologne), Constellation (Chicago), Schl8hof (Wels), Pulitzer Arts Foundation (St. Louis), Roulette (Brooklyn), The Stone (Manhattan), the Lab (San Francisco), and Temescal Arts Center (Oakland).

AVA MENDOZA is a Brooklyn-based guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer. Born in 1983, she started performing her own music, and as a sidewoman and collaborator in many different projects, as soon as she was legally allowed into venues. As a guitarist, Mendoza has received acclaim for her technique and viscerality. Her most ongoing work is as leader of experimental rock band Unnatural Ways, and as a solo performer. In any context she is committed to bringing expressivity, energy and a wide sonic range to the music. Mendoza has toured throughout the U.S. and Europe and recorded/performed with musicians including Carla Bozulich, Malcolm Mooney (CAN), Steve Shelley, Mike Watt, Adele Bertei, Mick Barr, William Hooker, Nels Cline, Matana Roberts, John Zorn, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Fred Frith, William Parker, Hamid Drake, ROVA, Negativland, the Violent Femmes, and members of Caroliner. Recordings are available on labels Tzadik, Astral Spirits, Weird Forest, Clean Feed, Resipiscent, and New Atlantis. She was featured as one of Guitar World‘s “10 Female Guitarists You Should Know”. “It’s… Ava Mendoza’s deconstructing of blues and punk into brutal shredfests that’s causing a ruckus in NYC’s DIY hubs” (Brad Cohan, Noisey.Vice). “A wizard on a semi-circle of effects pedals, but… equally adept with FX-less technique," (Lars Gotrich, NPR). “A beautiful, powerful and highly original solo electric guitar record – not just another record but a new sound, a new voice”. (Marc Ribot on New Spells, Mendoza's 2022 solo release) "Mendoza plays these songs. She makes them sing. Her technique is impeccable, but her playing is astonishingly expressive. She doesn't just bend blue notes; she wads them up into a ball and throws them up against a wall... Mendoza knows what she does better than almost anyone else on the planet, which is tell stories with her guitar." (Aiding & Abetting).