Friday, May 2nd
Helen Gillet with Terrence Houston, Aurora Nealand’s Monocle
7:00PM DOORS, 8PM SHOW
Helen Gillet is a singer-songwriter and surrealist-archeologist exploring synthesized sounds, texture, and rhythm using an acoustic cello.
Gillet is the recipient of the Doris Duke Performance Award, New Orleans Best Contemporary Jazz and best Female Performer from Gambit Best of The Beat awards and Offbeat Magazine's Best "Other Instrumentalist" and "Mixed Bag" music and twice for Rising Star in Downbeat Magazine’s Critic Poll.
Gillet was born in Belgium, raised in Singapore for 9 years as a child. Over the past 23 years, living in New Orleans she has played with musicians of all stripes, from avant-garde jazz and classical to pop and funk — Gillet has developed a singular polyglot style.
The core of her work is solo performance with live looping, layering cello parts and vocal lines. Rhythmic figures emerge with bowed or plucked ostinatos or a variety of rubbing and slapping on the body of the cello, then enhanced with melodies played or sung in her haunting alto.
Gillet’s solo performance is known for its enigmatic quality as she fabricates each song with innovative use of the cello and true mastery of live looping technology. She has performing in festivals across Europe, Australia, and The United States as a solo musician, collaborator and educator.
Gillet has recorded for countless musicians throughout her career and has self published 14 albums of her own original music ranging from progressive jazz, electro folk rock and punk bands and solo singer-songwriting albums. Her latest album is called "ReBelle" a Tribute to Belgian folk singer Julos Beaucarne and features a quintet of New Orleans musicians.
You can find Helen at her website, helengillet.com or on bandcamp at helengillet.bandcamp.com and on Youtube and Instagram at Helen Gillet.
Monocle Ensemble Bio 2025:
Aurora Nealand strives to live at the intersection of Lunatic and Librarian. She is a sound artist, composer and multi-instrumentalist (saxophones, accordion, voice) based in New Orleans, LA . Within the Monocle Ensemble, Nealand’s original music examines the intersections between love, technology, community, government, mental health and sound in our modern world. Less loftily, it's music made up for 3 part vocal harmonies, accordion & electronics, guitar soundscapes and many people hitting things (such as drums and emotional walls). It’s art-pop and performance art greatly influenced by the last 2 decades of living and breathing through the beauty and disfunction of infrastructure, feelings, tradition and innovation in and between New Orleans, LA and New York City.
The Monocle Ensemble has premiered full length performances at the Music Box Village (New Orleans) in collaboration with Shannon Stewarts dance company, and created a 90 minute fully staged theatrical show for the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans in collaboration with Goat in the Road Theatre Company. This show, KindHumanKind, debuted to sold out audiences in 2019, and adaptations of the piece were presented at the Kennedy Center and Big Ears Festival.
Nealand has toured as a featured artist to national & international festivals including Montreal Jazz Festival, Istanbul Jazz Festival, Big Ears Festival, Copenhagen Jazz Festival, MPB Jazz Festival (Natal, Brazil), Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Summerstage NYC & The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. She has worked with Pauline Oliveros, Jonathan Hart Makwaia, Preservation Hall Allstars, Bill Frisell, Tim Berne, John Hollenbeck, James Singleton, Arto Lindsey, Germaine Bazzle, John Boutte, Johnny Vidacovich and many more. She is the co-founder of SONO (Sound Observatory New Orleans) which facilitates workshops of new music in the New Orleans region. She has been awarded residencies at the New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center, the MacDowell Colony, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. She has frequently worked as a musical facilitator for Found Sound Nation, and
has been involved with the Walden School for Young Composers (as a teacher/performer) for 20 years. She particularly enjoys the close-mic-ed sound of eggs frying in oil.