Rhys Chatham & Nico Guerrero : Athanor

Mengi presents the Icelandic premiere of Athanor, the collaborative duo project of legendary American composer, guitarist and trumpet player Rhys Chatham and French guitarist and experimental composer Nico Guerrero. Marking Chatham’s first ever performance in Iceland, the concert will feature the duo performing material from their album Athanor, released in early 2026 on Erototox Decodings. A major figure of the New York downtown and No Wave scene since the 1970s, Rhys Chatham pioneered a radical meeting point between minimalism, amplified sound and electric guitar orchestras. Nico Guerrero has developed since the 1990s an immersive body of work centered around drone, resonance and altered states of perception through electric guitar and electronic transformation. Conceived as a process of sonic transmutation rather than a conventional collaboration, Athanor unfolds through electric guitars, bass and alto flutes, Pythagorean tunings, electronic filters and slowly evolving overtones ...