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 art rock band Unnatural Ways, and as a solo performer of her own music and works by contemporary composers. 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, Object Collection (Travis Just), ROVA, Negativland, the Violent Femmes, and members of Caroliner. She has received composition commissions from film distributor Kino Lorber, new music duo The Living Earth Show, the Jazz Coalition, and John Zorn’s Stone Commissioning Series at National Sawdust. Recordings are available on labels Tzadik, Astral Spirits, SGG, Pyroclastic, Clean Feed, Resipiscent, and New Atlantis.
New Spells by Ava Mendoza, Relative Pitch Records, 2021 on #neuguitars #blog
▶︎ New Spells | Ava Mendoza | Relative Pitch Records (bandcamp.com)
Ava 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. She manipulates raw lightning, giving us a sound that is fluorescent and powerful enough to leave a trace of ozone in the air. Mendoza knows what she does better than almost anyone else on the planet, which is tell stories with her guitar.
A split release with Astral Spirits. Purchase the cassette version HERE:
New Spells | Ava Mendoza (bandcamp.com)
releases November 26, 2021
Ava Mendoza – guitar
Artwork © 2021 by Dylan Marcus McConnell / Tiny Little Hammers
Recorded by Ava Mendoza
Mixed by Eli Crews and Ava Mendoza
Mastered by Mikey Young
Tracks 1 and 2 composed by Ava Mendoza (BMI)
Track 3 composed by Trevor Dunn (published by Convulsive Beauty Music, ASCAP)
Track 4 composed by Devin Hoff (Jessie the Dog Songs, ASCAP)
Track 5 composed by John Dikeman (Buma Stemra)
All tracks © 2021, Ava Mendoza
All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws.
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