Interview

Change is on the horizon for Aviram Cohen, formerly of avant-jazz outfit Soiled Mattress and the Springs. For Cohen, this month brings a record release for Silk Flowers, his new band—which has a decidedly more delicate name than the last one—with Ethan Swan and Peter Schuette, along with a show at Cake Shop this Saturday that just happens to coincide with his 29th birthday. The new project is also a stylistic divergence for Cohen and Schuette, who also hails from Soiled Mattress—where Mattress’s focus was on the sax, Silk Flowers builds on electronic loops à la Philip Glass, along with Bauhaus-style distorted vocals.

“The show on Saturday is like a joining of different aspects of my life from the past to the present, which makes it sort of extraordinary,” Cohen notes. “The record we made is a meditation on the past and how to move forward from that. It will also mark the last year of my twenties. So, there is an element of reflection in all this for me but, also sense of anticipation for what's to come.” What’s to come is promising: Silk Flowers also has an upcoming show at SculptureCenter in Long Island City with Brendan Fowler’s spoken-word pop band BARR, and West Coast dates throughout August.