Pan American is the long-running solo ambient project of MARK NELSON, guitarist and vocalist of ambient drone-rock legends LABRADFORD.

Mark Nelson has been a key conduit and innovator of American ambient music for more than 30 years. In the early ’90s, he cofounded the trio Labradford, whose 1993 Prazision LP was the first release on Kranky, the Chicago label that continues to serve as a tastemaker for slow, soft sounds three decades later. Labradford drifted methodically between ambient hum and doomy rattle, between slowcore moan and post-rock tension, establishing curving byways that many other bands soon followed. Nelson began releasing more insular solo music as Pan American in 1998, before Labradford disbanded and before his subgenres of interest had floated toward their current of wider attention. His string of albums in the past quarter-century are rafts of largely instrumental exploration, documenting a restlessness that belies the pace of his patient music.

Take Pan American’s excellent 2019 album, A Son, where nine tracks all present different ways toward meditative transcendence. Where “Muriel Spark” suggests Neil Young bringing Old Black to a Fennesz session, “Sleepwalk Guitars” staggers down an empty hallway, each lonely note bumping into another wall. Where “Shenandoah” is a tide of heavenly drone, its predecessor is an ecstatic dulcimer exploration, electronics radiating beneath the symphony of bright notes. In 2024, Pan American released “Point Harbor,” three minutes of field recordings, long synthesizer tones, and slide guitar moaning beneath a rainbow built from a choir of tiny notes. It was, Nelson wrote, “part of a continuing effort to expand the harmonic vocabulary of Pan American.” Such efforts keep making his music so vital.

STEPHEN VITIELLO is an electronic musician and media artist. His sound installations and multi-channel works are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Lyon. Recent exhibitions include a site-specific project for a space built in the 4th century in Poitiers, France as part of the exhibition, Traversées – Kimsooja. CD and LP releases have been published by numerous labels, including New Albion, Sub Rosa, 12k, and Room 40. Over the last 30 years, Vitiello has collaborated with such artists and musicians as Pauline Oliveros, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Taylor Deupree, Joan Jonas, Robin Rimbaud, Brendan Canty, Steve Roden and Jule Mehretu. Vitiello has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for “Fine Arts,” a Creative Capital grant for “Emerging Fields” and an Alpert/Ucross Award for Music. Originally from New York, Vitiello is now based in Richmond, VA where he is a professor of Kinetic Imaging at Virginia Commonwealth University.

J&R’S MUSIC WORLD: Johnathan Rickman and Robert Salsbury are the curators of the Sunday Soundtracks series, Richmond’s premiere monthly live electronica music showcase spotlighting regional talent and emerging artists.

With only 100 seats, shows at Révéler are intimate and immersive. A romantic venue with exquisite sound and dreamy vibes, Révéler offers a unique selection of cocktails, wines, beers, bubbles, and non-alcoholic beverages. Our kitchen delivers small plates crafted with care.

SHOW NOTES

LOCATION