Oslo World: Ava Mendoza - solo

Avant-garde guitarist excavating her American roots. It's almost ten years since Ava Mendoza last played at Victoria, then with the noisy band Unnatural Ways. This time she comes alone with her guitar and the solo album The Circular Train from 2024 under her arm. Mendoza is a distinctive guitarist and undoubtedly one of the most interesting guitarists from the USA in recent decades, moving between jazz and alternative rock and collaborating with other cutting-edge guitarists such as Fred Frith, Bill Orcutt and Nels Cline, as well as renowned avant-gardists like John Zorn and William Parker. On The Circular Train, Mendoza goes back to the roots, both her own and those of the American continent. Based on her family's background from mining communities in Bolivia and Montana, she digs and drills into stories of forced labour, colonialism and cultural loss. But there are also songs about swimming with dolphins in the Amazon and a tribute to her friend jaimie branch. The soundscape is permeated by blues and americana, intimate, stripped down and virtually free of effects beyond a lovely, warm distortion from the Fender amplifier. Ava Mendoza - guitar, vocals. The concert is a collaboration with Oslo World.