Brutal Bedtime and Jacob Trombetta

Saturday, April 18, 8:00 pm
Rubicon Cinema at Blue Sky Studio
943 Dopler Street, Akron, OH 44303

We are excited to collaborate with Akron Soul Train, an artist-in-residence program, in hosting an evening of video and sound art by Akron-based artist Jeff France. Along France’s musique concrète piece, a video work by Juice McKenna and a performance by Brutal Bedtime (an electronic jazz band where Jeff France is a member) will be featured.

Come to Rubicon, enjoy the show, and chat with the artists and musicians on April 18!

Program:

Juice McKenna, They Said, approx. 17 min, video, 2026

They Said is a video project that explores dream scenarios and curated environments in reproductive storytelling. How do we respond to reproductive stories and regulate our own emotions to be completely present for another person? It is impossible to know how others might want to be listened to and seen. How would you like to be perceived while sharing and what would the space around you look like? Juice McKenna asks nine participants these questions in a field study around the curation of the reproductive storytelling experience. Voices were recorded and edited using their words to compose music. McKenna created a sound landscape that conveys the wants and desires of the participants who shared them.

Jeff France, An Attempt at Three Things with Four People, duration variable, ambient musique concrète and video performance, 2026

First performed in CapSoul Gallery at Akron Soul Train, An Attempt at Three Things with Four People is a multi-projector musical and film installation. With musical influences including turntablism, neoclassical, and the natural and manipulated acousmatic sounds of the Musique Concrète genre, Jeff France’s performance attempts to deconstruct the nature of classical rhythm structure in music. Video projections will play simultaneously, featuring France with other players Juice McKenna, James Matthew Haas, and Jacob Trombetta. Ambient, hypnotic, and sometimes disorienting, An Attempt at Three Things with Four People offers a minimalistic film approach to an evolving and experimental composition. 

Brutal Bedtime with Jacob Trombetta, approx. 18 minutes, sound and video performance

Brutal Bedtime is an electronic jazz trio consisting of Juice McKenna, Jeff France, and James Matthew Haas. The music is sometimes dark, sometimes filled with doom, sometimes light and easygoing. In this show, they are performing as a quartet with the help of pedal steel player Jacob Trombetta. 

Admission: Free (suggested $10 donation)
BYO beverages and snacks