Rhys Chatham's Essentialist + Jandek

Fans of obscure wizard aesthetes—as much as such figures can maintain their outsider vibe and a MySpace profile—take note: Nirvana awaits at the Empty Bottle. Its annual Adventures in Modern Music fest, cosponsored by British avant-everything magazine The Wire, kicks off with a bill that includes two of the most infrequently glimpsed guitar heroes of the last 30 years. Jandek, a human cipher with a Houston post-office box, has cultivated a recondite mythology to match that of, say, Thomas Pynchon’s. After nearly 50 albums on his own Corwood Industries label, Jandek has begun materializing for gigs: His Chicago date, which makes up for a canceled 2005 show, will be only his 20th since 2004—or, indeed, ever. The guitarist’s mysterious phases reward the faithful with their unpredictability and artistic willfulness. Though some may simply find the music self-indulgent, an endless somber drone inflected with blues and folk elements, there is no doubt as to its originality.

Same goes for Rhys Chatham. The second-wave minimalist, a protégé of Glenn Gould, has been rocking the canon since he cross-wired the Ramones with La Monte Young in the mid-1970s. Chatham’s swinging guitar armies stir jubilance in their soaring overtones, but on his tour the expatriate composer arrives from France with a new concept. And its center of gravity is much lower. The Essentialist is Chatham’s answer to the slo-mo monster sounds of visionary metal acts like Sleep, Sunn 0))) and Earth, turned over, under, sideways, down. The band’s concert date coincides with a local recording session, so expect the Essentialist to be white-hot and as wizardly as any dark overlord’s bid for sonic majesty. Canadian sound artist Tim Hecker headlines.—Steve Dollar