CUP in Concert: Nels Cline and Yuka C. Honda

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC | CUP represents the confluence of post-jazz improvisational sensibilities, songs, electronics, and the GROOVE. Utilizing loosely structured pieces, songs with words (yes - some singing!), electric guitar/effects, Tenorion, keyboards, samples, tracks, compositions and totally spontaneous sonic creations, Yuka C. Honda and Nels Cline—a.k.a. CUP—use their combined histories in the realms of popular and avant-garde musical endeavor to create a musical language that is both intimately personal and wild, free, even sweepingly epic.

Yuka C. Honda (the C is for Cline) is a musician/producer/composer/performer best known for the band Cibo Matto, which she co-founded with Miho Hatori in 1994. Born in Tokyo, Honda spent part of her childhood in Dusseldorf, Germany and in a small village in Denmark. She feels that having lived in different countries and learned different languages before her foundation was formed had a great influence on her music, in which her major interest is in the integration of elements that may initially seem foreign. As such, her work naturally defies the concepts of genres and borders. She has recorded and performed with a wide range of musicians such as Yoko Ono, Esperanza Spaulding, Susie Ibarra, Cornelius, Bernie Worrell, Marc Ribot, Laurie Anderson, Sean Lennon, YoshimO (of The Boredoms), Thomas Bartlett, and Nels Cline, among others.

Nels Cline (born 1956 in Los Angeles) is a guitarist and composer/improviser and leader of The Nels Cline Singers and The Nels Cline 4. Perhaps best known as the lead guitarist in the band Wilco, Nels has played on over 200 recordings and collaborated with dozens of artists in the realms of jazz, avant-garde, rock, and fusion-related music. Besides his own groups and Wilco, he is one half of CUP - a duo with Yuka C Honda - and has worked with/is currently collaborating with artists such as Julian Lage, Zeena Parkins, Mike Watt, Scott Amendola, Thurston Moore, Vinny Golia, Carla Bozulich, Elliott Sharp, Yoko Ono, Michael Leonhart, Charlie Haden, Thollem McDonas/Radical Empathy Trio, Julius Hemphill, and Lee Ranaldo, among many others.

Nels and Yuka live in Brooklyn with their dog Buttercup.

Photo credit: Olivia Locher

Please note:

CUP in Conversation
Nels Cline and Yuka Honda will be speaking in the CAPA Faculty Lounge on Wednesday, October 10 from 1:30 - 2:30pm. Please arrive on time. Doors will be closed after the start of the interviews. More information.