Naima Karlsson

With her piano improvisations, Naima Karlsson imbues minimalism with empyrean tones and colors. Naima’s experiments with playful contrasts of repetition and composition create a music of cosmic changes, constellations, and revelations. Her practice interweaves sonic and visual forms into a dialogue led by interests in repetition, improvisation, and the abstract relationships between language, symbol, image, and sound. With a strong interest in tone and arrangement and an inherently elemental approach to playing, Naima calls on concepts of “Organic Music” proposed independently by two of her major influences: the composer Julius Eastman (1940–90) and her grandfather, the jazz musician Don Cherry (1936–95). At Blank Forms, Naima presents solo improvisations, her own compositions, and interpretations of a piece by Charlie Haden and a collaboration between Cherry and Terry Riley.