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Adam Shead's Adiaphora Orchestra

Miniature Paintings And The Impossible Warehouse

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*2025 stock* Founded in the Winter of 2017 Adam Shead’s Adiaphora Orchestra is a large mixed chamber orchestra performing the compositions and conductions of percussionist composer, and educator Adam Shead. The Adiaphora Orchestra, located in Chicago, IL, is comprised of the cities finest rising star improvisers from a variety of performance idioms and practices. Including a full string, brass, woodwind, auxillary, and rhythm section the ensemble performs what Shead calls “indifference music”. Adiaphora, meaning an act that is neither moral nor immoral is the basis for the music of the ensemble, performing long form pieces that have little interest in codified ways of knowing musical expression. This resistance to the codified structures of improvisation brings about a type of musical indifference, or rather a love from the ensemble for creating something that is uniquely their own, something not bound to the constructs of musical hierarchy.
 
“Miniature Paintings and the Impossible Warehouse” is a series of pieces dealing with diametrically opposed concepts of scale. Utilizing both the concept of miniature paintings or micro scaler systems displaying the distortion of reality, and the impossible warehouse as the macro or literal representation of reality the orchestra hopes to display an honest reflection on concepts of delusion, paranoia, imitation, contentment, and interpersonal relations. The debut album from Adam Shead’s Adiaphora Orchestra, “Miniature Paintings and the Impossible Warehouse”, will be physically produced and released by Chicago based record label Amalgam Music. 

Adam Shead is among the newest generation of Chicago improvisers, bringing his unique approach to the drum set to such groups as Adam Shead’s “Finding Home”, Wark/Dawid/Heinemann/Shead, Ben Zucker’s “Fifth Season”, the Stein/Shead duo, and the Adiaphora Orchestra. Shead’s background in hardcore punk, contemporary classical, jazz, and improvised music provides him with the ability to move fluidily throughout a myriad of musical styles while utilizing extended techniques, blistering speed, and dynamic control in a manner often unheard of on the drum set.
 
Shead has performed at renowned music festivals such as The Present is Present in Amsterdam, NL, The Ann Arbor Edge Fest, Homebody Festival in South Bend, IN, and The Chicago Jazz Festival. Shead has performed alongside such luminaries as Jason Stein, Tim Daisy, Steve Swell, John Dikeman, Jasper Stadhouders, Mary Oliver, Anna Webber, Angel Bat Dawid, and Matt Piet. Shead is the founder and conductor of the twenty piece Adiaphora Orchestra and currently works as the Director of Outreach at Slate Arts and Performance in Chicago, IL. 
Details
Cat. number: AMA020
Year: 2020

Format

Recorded at Elastic Arts Foundation in Chicago, IL on September 15, 2019.

Thanks to Mom, Dad, Jessica, Jonathan Ben Kernes, , Jenny Hargrave, Mark Kirschenmann and the orchestra.

Release notes

Recorded at Elastic Arts Foundation in Chicago, IL on September 15, 2019. Thanks to Mom, Dad, Jessica, Jonathan Ben Kernes, , Jenny Hargrave, Mark Kirschenmann and the orchestra.

Tracklist
1And The Truth Is I Feel So Angry, And The Truth Is I've Felt So Fucking Hurt, For So Fucking Long
2And For Just As Long I've Been Pretending I'm OK Just To Get Along Just For, I Don't Know Why
3Maybe Because No One Wants To Hear About My Misery Because They Have Their Own
Credits
Sarah Clausen
Alto Saxophone, Clarinet
Chris Moore
Alto Saxophone, Recorder
Cameron Oard
Artwork
Erica Miller
Cello
Ishmael Ali
Cello, Electronics
Jeff Kimmel
Clarinet
Adam Shead
Conductor
Andrew Scott Young
Double Bass
Eli Namay
Double Bass
Jakob Heinemann
Double Bass
Matt Piet
Piano
Bill Harris
Recorded By, Mixed By, Mastered By
Jake Wark
Soprano Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone
David Fletcher
Trombone
Matt Murphy
Trumpet
Mark Mahoney
Trumpet, Accordion
Matt Riggen
Trumpet, Tuba
Ben Perkins
Veena
Ben Zucker
Vibraphone
Scott Rubin
Viola
Johanna Brock
Violin, Voice
Charlie Kaufman
Words By
Jeff Sherfey
Words By