Writing about music is like dancing about architecture, as the saying occasionally attributed to visionary artist Brian Eno goes. But what about a performance that centers the venue itself almost as much as the sounds?
That’s half the fun of the concert series called Ambient Church. The shows blend live audio with highly ornate lighting presentations and take place inside sacred spaces around the Northeast.
One of them is Asbury First United Methodist Church on East Avenue, which will host the “celestial music pioneer” Laraaji for an event on November 23. Ambient Church founder Brian Sweeny said Laraaji occupies an interesting place in culture.
“He’s a crossover between the wellness world and the music world,” Sweeny said, calling him “a cross-section of a lot of different seemingly disparate threads.”
Laraaji is best known for collaborating with Eno on 1980’s “Ambient 3: Day of Radiance,” a landmark ambient and new age recording. The artist, known in full as Laraaji Venus Nadabrahmananda, performs his zither and hammered dulcimer instruments with subtle electronic enhancements.
Even 45 years later, Laraaji’s recordings remain stunning and euphoric, like being caught in a magical rainstorm.
“He kind of grounded new age music into something more intellectual,” said musician David Stith, who is also Asbury First’s director of communications. “It doesn’t sound interrupted or converted into some other thing by technology. It just feels natural.”
Laraaji recently collaborated with celebrated indie rock band Big Thief, even performing with the group on “The Tonight Show” in October. This lends his tour with Ambient Church — which also hits Buffalo, the Hudson Valley, Philadelphia and more cities — a larger spotlight. But Laraaji, much like ambient music as a discipline, has never been concerned with mass appeal.
Previous Ambient Church shows in New York City have featured the deep loops of Julianna Barwick and the rich textures of Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. The music works in tandem with light shows customized for each venue, allowing for immersive experiences that help foster both community and an appreciation of local structures.
“A lot of people that come are not religious, so they don’t have the chance, or don’t feel invited, necessarily, to come inside these amazing gems,” Sweeny said. “I really hope that it brings people together that wouldn’t normally meet each other.”
In the 2010s, Sweeny ran a DIY wellness and music space in Brooklyn that eventually shuttered. His next project aimed to combine art, architecture and community — and Ambient Church was born. Since 2016, the series has highlighted spaces like Bushwick Methodist Church in Brooklyn and, 100 miles north, Old Dutch Church in Kingston.
Sweeny’s team maps every space, meaning the visual component of each Ambient Church performance is different, even the ones featuring the same performers.
“It’s definitely in the lineage of what Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead and Jimi Hendrix were doing in the ‘60s with the oil visuals,” he said. “It’s just now updated. It’s all inspired by that abstract expression.”
This also breaks down the barrier between the sacred space and the sounds, which are not designed as worship music. For Stith, this blend creates exciting possibilities.
“I’ve always struggled to draw a line between sacred music and the stuff that I’m interested in,” he said. “Ambient Church does a really good job of sitting comfortably between [the two]. There’s this pocket where ambient music lives. It’s this other thing: it’s comfortable but revelational.”
In a more tangible way, shows like Ambient Church help get people physically inside Asbury First and thus more aware of its community outreach efforts. The government shutdown’s strain on SNAP benefits has created a dire situation, and Stith said the church aims to quadruple its assistance for meals, groceries, medical care, clothing and home goods.
Asbury First’s ecumenical mission also means it transcends divisions among belief systems and politics.
“It’s so easy to drive past all of these churches on East Ave. and not know what they’re doing,” Stith said. “Rather than thinking of us as a political entity, think of us as, like, we are just trying to help people. Our doors are open.”
Mere hours before the show, Asbury First holds its Thanksgiving in-gathering, a worship service and donation drive to help community members. And just a few days after, the church will host the 150th annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Day Service, the longest running event of its kind in the country.
In a way, the Laraaji show also feels seasonal.
“It reminds me of holiday music, like Christmas music. It’s almost, like, bells, you know?” Stith said. “It’s this kind of sound that you’ve heard your whole life.”
Laraaji performs as part of Ambient Church at Asbury First United Methodist Church on November 23 at 8 p.m. Tickets and more information available here.
