Francesca Bono is a performer, musician and singer-songwriter from Bologna, founder of the band Ofeliadorme and the experimental duo Bono / Burattini, whose 2023 debut album (out on Maple Death Records) received interest from BBC6, The Wire, Internazionale, Radio Rai 3, Brooklyn Vegan, TAZ and Il Manifesto. She played in Europe, UK, USA and China, and in international festivals such as WOMAD, SXSW, San Francisco Music Festival and Homemade. A member of the feminist collective DonnaCirco, over the years she has collaborated with Mick Harvey, Howie B, Massimo Volume, Jonathan Clancy, Stefano Pilia, Massimo Carozzi and Muna Mussie, Gianni Maroccolo, Angela Baraldi, Emidio Clementi and Corrado Nuccini, the playwright and actor Oscar Da Summa, the artist Susana Ljuljanovic and shared the stage with Beak, Jon Hopkins, The Bug, Rival Consoles. In 2023 she illustrated La Settimana della Banana, a children’s book about Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground written by Elisa De Munari. The first album under her name, Crumpled Canvas, was co-produced by Mick Harvey (The Birthday Party, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds), who also played in it, and is part of an ongoing exploration on sound and a variety of musical genres and influences, with a focus on the use of voice and its therapeutic power. In her own words, it is just “one of my possible solo debuts”.

Sima Cunningham is a Chicago-based musician, songwriter, producer, presenter, and a founding member of Chicago’s art-rock band, Finom. Over the past 15 years she has worked as a recording and touring musician with Jeff Tweedy, Richard Thompson, Iron & Wine, Edith Frost, Chance the Rapper, Twin Peaks, and been featured on multitudes of records. She co-owns a recording studio in Chicago, Fox Hall, where she produces records for her own projects and other artists. In 2015 she formed Finom (fka OHMME) which has been her primary project for the past decade. They have released three records: Parts (2018), Fantasize Your Ghost (2020), and Not God (2024) with Joyful Noise Recordings. The band was recently commissioned to write and perform a piece with the Pacific Northwest Ballet and Orchestra in Seattle. An Armenian-American artist and descendent of genocide survivors she has focused much of her work on building connections and healing divides through music. Over the last ten years, she has traveled to Armenia and the Caucasus to perform, participate in workshops, and foster creative cross-cultural opportunities between artists in Armenia and the United States. Her work as an artist-presenter includes founding a small music festival, Postock, that will celebrate its 16th year in 2024; curating and hosting the I Hear Voices series in Chicago at Constellation; and working as a lead organizer for the Pitchfork Music Festival. Her debut solo record, High Roller, was released on August 30th on Ruination Records.

Eamon Fogarty is a composer, songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist and audio archivist who was born in the state of New Hampshire. He has written for, recorded, and performed in a broad range of capacities and contexts, including numerous folk and rock bands, (Alex Dupree, Psychic Temple, Matt Kivel) choral groups, free improvisatory ensembles, puppet theater productions, and even a surf video or two. His first solo record, Progressive Bedroom, was out on Joyful Noise in 2017, while Blue Values, out in 2019, was released on Jealous Butcher Records. His new LP titled I’m An Animal Now came out in June. It’s a gem of a collection of songs features percussion by Ryan Jewell and bass clarinet by Jeff Tobias of Sunwatchers and Modern Nature. It was mixed by Chris Schlarb of Psychic Temple. It also features vocal haromies by Will Stratton and Hannah Frances and additonal bass contributions by Nora Predey. “For the last decade or so, Eamon Fogarty has been quietly rearranging the singer-songwriter idiom to suit his singular vision” (Andy Cush). The instrumentation on the record has nearly as much to do with chamber music as folk or rock and Fogarty’s voice is full and resonant.

 Little Mystery is the project of soulful NYC singer-songwriter Ivy Meissner. She sublimates elements of folk, ‘60s pop, early R&B, ’70s rock, grunge, and more into a timeless-sounding, commanding musical vision. Her resonant, blues-inflected singing is always at the center of the action, deriving its power from alluring contrasts—smoky and crystalline, inviting and defiant, wry and vulnerable. It is invested with the same warmth and grit as her songwriting, which combines the erudition of Tom Waits and Joni Mitchell and the unrepentant attitude of Bonnie Raitt and Chrissie Hynde. She has been recording and performing original music for most of her life. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Meissner began her cultural education at an early age, absorbing classic rock and Motown before she was a teenager and eventually performing her own songs as part of a duo with her sister. At the turn of her twenties, she began carving out a niche in the NYC indie scene, playing under her own name and broadening her musical horizons through collaboration. Upon meeting Julian Cubillos in the mid-2010s, Meissner found clear kinship in terms of taste and approach—a confidant who encouraged her to follow musical instincts that were outside of the norm. Her debut album, Little Mystery, was out on June 26 on Ruination Records Co.. Little Mystery was tracked at Meissner’s apartment, with a backing band featuring Brooklyn ringers Adam Brisbin (Buck Meek, Cassandra Jenkins, Indigo Sparke) on guitar, Connor Parks (Cafuné) on drums, Ian Davis (Relatives) on bass, and co-producer Julian Cubillos (Julian Cubillos, Alena Spanger) as multi-instrumentalist and arranger.