Henna Chou is a sound artist whose work explores the confluence of environmental listening, experimental practice, and socio-political inquiry. Drawing from the textures and rhythms of the natural and industrial world, their work engages with sound as both material and message—foregrounding issues of ecology, displacement, and collective memory.
Joshua Thomson is an alto saxophonist, composer, and bandleader and founder of Atlas Maior, originally from the Dearborn/Detroit area and based in Austin, Texas. His work blends experimental jazz, global modal traditions, and free improvisation, creating a cinematic and highly exploratory sound described as possessing a “mystic, noir quality” and “fearless improvisational clarity.”
He has collaborated with artists including Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Lisa Cameron, Jonathan Horne, Karen Ng, Stefan Gonzalez, Aaron Gonzalez, Thomas Helton, Chris Cogburn, Adam Rudolph, Mike Khoury, Abdullah Kaymak, Henna Chou, Gary Calhoun James, and Alan Chehab, with project work including THC Trio, Clandestine Flower, Break/Fix, The Hatch Expansion Ensemble, and the Viva Palestina Orchestra. Thomson has developed international collaborations in Morocco with Gnawa musicians Maalem Abdelmalek Kadir and Maalem Azouz Soudani, as well as in Mexico City with Remi Álvarez, Arturo Báez, and Gibrán Andrade.
His work has been presented at venues and festivals including the Krannert Center, Rothko Chapel, Elastic Arts (Chicago), Dissonant Works (St. Louis), EMAS (Kansas City), and Sonic Transmissions Festival, with touring across the U.S., Europe, North Africa, and Mexico.
Henna and Joshua have collaborated in many capacities over the past 15 years via experimental sound, improvisation, world music and art installation formats. They will be performing using cello, electronics and saxophone to further develop their improvisation practices as a duo.
