MANAS was formed in 2012 in Asheville, NC by guitarist Tashi Dorji and drummer Thom Nguyen. The intensity of their live shows, characterized by Dorji’s angular guitar preparations and Nguyen’s multi-limbed maelstroms exploding outwards in parallel, immediately caught the ear of the sub-underground. Originally from Bhutan, where he absorbed American and UK hard rock and heavy metal via bootleg cassettes while surrounded by a family full of folk musicians, Dorji arrived stateside for college and immersed himself in Asheville’s DIY punk scene and formative listening sessions with records by Albert Ayler, John Coltrane and Derek Bailey. It was there that he met Nguyen, a Vietnamese-Mississippian transplant who had been playing in local free rock outfits Nest Egg and Mendocino. The two hit the ground running, funneling their love of grindcore, black metal, free jazz, noise and other extreme sonics, and burgeoning anarchist/mutual-aid politics into their newfound freedom in improvisation. Relentless woodshedding and touring on both sides of the Atlantic has long since solidified their reputation as an undeniable live act, and their post-hardcore take on improvised music has found them space on bills and collabs with Nepali grindcore band Chepang, heavy music headliners SUMAC and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and free improv luminaries like Joe McPhee, Susie Ibarra, Zoh Amba, Audrey Chen, Michael Zerang and countless others. Multi-instrumentalist Che Chen (of 75 Dollar Bill) has been a longtime friend of the band and frequent collaborator over the years, and now joins MANAS as second guitarist/aux percussionist. His guitar can be foil or twin to Dorji’s, while his battery of small percussion and homemade instruments may refract Nguyen's multi-directional rhythms or create wholly other textures. For this special show at AAI, MANAS expands further into a quartet (or “double duo”?) with the addition of drummer Lesley Mok. Based in New York, Mok’s rhythmic language is inspired by Afro-Cuban folkloric music, subtle textural percussion, Free Jazz, ambient, and electronic music. They lead the large ensemble The Living Collection and are part of the collaborative group History Dog with Shara Lunon, Chris Williams and Luke Stewart.
