Location: Kingston NY

Hailing from Lagos, Nigeria classically trained pianist and producer/rapper DAP was drawn to music through an entirely musical family. He started playing the piano aged 4 and passed his ABRSM Grade 8 Piano with distinction aged 13, and went on to attain a DipABRSM Performance Diploma on the Piano aged 17. After high school in London, UK, he attended the Berklee College of Music for two semesters majoring in Contemporary Writing & Production or Music Production & Engineering. He released the mixtape GoodBye For Never in October 2014, which The Source magazine labelled “the best mixtape of 2014”. In September 2015, he recorded at the renowned Abbey Road Studios in London with Grammy award winning “Uptown Funk” producer Mark Ronson after being selected for a competition produced by Converse. Through graduating from Brown University in 2016 with a Bachelor of Arts in Classics and Computer Music & Multimedia, and Columbia Law School in 2020, and having been a practicing intellectual property attorney for 3 years at a top NY law firm, DAP continued to release several projects, including the collaborative EP entitled Old New Clothes under the moniker Hi-Lo Jack with fellow collaborators Clyde Lawrence and Cody Fitzgerald, who scored the 2019 Disney movie “Noelle”; “Two Roads EP” on April 28th 2017; the Contract Thursdays series (Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 in 2017, Pt. 3 in 2019); and the album and short film EVERYBODY FALLS IN THE SUMMER. DAP has opened for Lawrence (the band), Skepta, Burna Boy, Rema, and most recently, The Cavemen, and performed at shows and festivals across continents, most notably in Lagos, London, and New York. The Powers series was born during the COVID-19 pandemic, the third installment of which was released on May 26, 2023.

dapthecontract.com

Good For Mondays is a new Indie Folk Rock band based out of Bethel, home of the ’69 Woodstock Festival. With a goal of having good, lighthearted fun and making some great music in the process, they are keeping it rootsy, groovy and simple in all the right ways.

Replete with rich imagery and burning affirmations for life, the Albany, NY group’s exploratory writing takes the form of grandiose song structures, call-and-response passages, and confrontations with the unfamiliar.

Zohar & Adam Cabo are a keys & drums jazz duo who compose with a dynamic multi-genre influence rooted in jazz ranging from classical music to Hip-Hop and Latin grooves. They have been playing together our whole lives and writing, recording, and performing their own original material for the last two years.

Bob Goldberg is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and music educator, born in New York City, based in Brooklyn since the 1980s and in the Hudson Valley since 2017. Having studied piano, electronic music and composition, accordion has been his main performing instrument and a focus of his compositional activity in the 21st Century.

He has written and performed in small- and large-group settings, within the context of folk, rock, jazz, world, and modern experimental music, collaborated with film, dance, theater and television, and created site-specific work in non-traditional performing spaces, including parks, community gardens, the NYC and Philadelphia Subway Systems, Green-Wood Cemetery, and the 24- Hour Drone at Basilica in Hudson NY.

Bob has performed and recorded as a member of Washboard Jungle, Le Nozze di Carlo, The Corner Store Dance Company, the BAN Radio “Orchestra” and “Chorus”, and the Famous Accordion Orchestra.

He is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College (BA) and Brooklyn College (MA), and has received grants and commissions from Arts Mid-Hudson, the Brooklyn Arts Council, the American Orff Schulwerk Association, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Franklin Furnace and the Bachtopus Accordion Ensemble.

Multi-instrumentalist, composer, and music-aficionado David Cruz (also known as Jams Bond) brings a crate of unique and diverse talent to the helm of every party. In the DJ booth, he not only showcases his mastery with seamless transitions and impressive tricks on the decks but also delivers a feel-good selection that keeps the energy soaring.

His home base is in the Hudson Valley, while performing events and clubs in Brooklyn and NYC often. His list of residencies include Bembe, Nublu, Miss Favela, and the Hudson Valley skate rink, Skate Time. He’s rocked NYC venues such as Norwood, Le Bain, Beauty & Essex, Capitale, Chelsea Music Hall, and Output to name a few. David has traveled the world and has an extensive resume, performing in Berlin, Tokyo, Beirut, Dominican Republic, Turks and Caicos, and the Bahamas.

He’s a Bronx-born musician who got his first taste for music from his self-professed, Woodstock-hippie mom. He started listening to rock and psychedelic hits as a kid, and the first records he spun were Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours with songs such as “Dreams” and “The Chain”—they just so happened to be played from a Fisher Price kid’s record player.

Fast forward to today, David’s sets allow for dance-floor goers to feel complete liberation via his eclectic taste, leaning more into electronic-flavored styles such as nu-disco, house, techno, drum and bass, Latin, Brazilian, afrobeats, hip hop & reggaeton.

As of late 2023 into 2024, you’ll find David in the epicenter of the emerging dance music scene in Kingston, NY. He began his art and electronic-music centered party, “Kingston Techno” in the summer of 2023 with underground raves and epic sold-out parties. He’s a major contributor to the “Bombón” and “The Audacity” parties which are also picking up steam and are sure to be wild events to be a part of if you’re near the Hudson Valley!

Don’t be mistaken, even though he tends to stay away from pop in his everyday listening, it surely sneaks in his mixes because he loves a good guilty-pleasure tune to get the crowds going.

https://jamsbond.com

https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17963287193703632

https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17993049410255070

Morphing alternative rock sub-genres, independent female-fronted ‘DIY’ band, Sir Echo, is causing big waves in the vibrant sea of Hudson Valley NY music. From festival stages to sweaty, college-house-show basements, human-to-human moments are the remedy for doom-scrolling, and the infectious energy of a Sir Echo show is the medicine. ‘I won’t try to change the way I cope, or alter my born silhouette – oh god, I hate the internet’. — SIMMER by Sir Echo

https://sir-echo.com

Grains of Euphora are Bradford Reed and Ryder Cooley. Bradford is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and inventor of the Pencilina, an electro-acoustic double necked string instrument inspired by the sounds of Indonesian Gamelan music and appearing similar to the Korean Kayagum. His projects have included King Missile III, The Blue Man Group as well as TV and film scoring. He currently plays with The Dirt Whisperers and Order of The Illusive. Ryder is an interdisciplinary artist, accordionist, singing saw player and founder of the band Dust Bowl Faeries. She has performed with Rasputina, Tommy Stinson and Elvis Perkins. The accordion was passed down to Ryder by her grandmother, who was both a composer and an exuberant accordionist.

https://linktr.ee/pencilina

Mannuel Santiago is an exceptionally fluid, engaging, and authentic singer/songwriter born in Popayan, Colombia who has performed professionally since the age of 11. Currently living in the Antioquia region of Colombia, Mannuel performs regularly in Colombia’s “second city” Medellin as well as throughout the mountain town of Santa Elena where he now resides. Mannuel is a multi-instrumentalist whose primary instrument is a nylon string acoustic/electric classical guitar. While Mannuel’s rhythmic sensibility is deep, wide ranging, and steeped in Latin American tradition, his sound is quite current having a strong infusion of U.S. production and writing styles. Mannuel is honored to be teaching a 10 week music residency program through Music Ascension (www.musicascension.com) at the Ulster BOCES Center For Innovative Teaching & Learning in Port Ewen.

www.musicascension.com/mannuelsantiago

Born in 2022 in the waters of the Widow Jane Mine in Rosendale, NY, S.P.A.L.L. (Kenji Garland, Nancy Kim, and Winslow) plays harsh environments for rare earths and music. They have performed at Avalon Lounge and 24 Hr Drone at Basilica Hudson. Nancy Kim is an interdisciplinary artist, musician, and designer based in New York. They investigate the sonic architecture of emotion, hidden stories, and multigenerational pain. Using the amplification of hand-crafted elements, voice, electronics, breath, and synthesis, they create tense and textural environments for catharsis. They also perform under the alias Nyhne. Kenji Garland is another Hudson Valley-based sound practitioner. Their work is oriented around physical processes, memory, and near- or non-patterns, and is marred by a relentless pursuit of imperfection. They also play as 1/2 of Garlands, roughly 1/5th of Music for Furniture, and 0/1 of Angel Names. Winslow is a musician, geographer, and amateur mycologist. He curates and hosts the Upon the Cypress Bough radio show for WGXC/Wave Farm. He also captures and manipulates sounds under the name pleurodesis.