Slow Six

Sat., Feb. 19

There's a category of music you might, if you were feeling catty, call the "I've been to graduate school" genre. This is not a swipe at anyone with an advanced degree in composition (I'm guessing your dad already took care of that), but rather music that is so self-consciously written that you can practically hear the composer reciting a dissertation on the finer points of second modernism in the background.

Oversaturated on such complexities, a few nights ago I dropped Slow Six's 2004 release, Private Times in Public Places, into the CD player. Considering the academic pedigree (Bard-NYU-Princeton) of Chris Tignor, the composer who put the project together, I wasn't sure what to expect from the eight-piece ensemble's recording. And admittedly, being that it was 2 a.m. when this little listening party took place, I was hoping that with "This Is Your Last Chance (Before I Sleep)" as an opening track title, I wouldn't hear more than the first five minutes before I was off and dreaming myself.

Sleep was not to come, however. It's a bliss-out sort of album, rolling through thoughts like molasses, but my ear was unwilling to let go of the delicate, percussionless lines. The music is ambient at its surface, but carefully constructed in a way that holds up under repeat listening. The violin's rolled chords at the end of the first track-perhaps a nod to Arvo Pärt's Fratres?-are as intense as things get.

In live performance, Slow Six shares their sonic environment with Lee Whittier, who has created projections to accompany each piece. I'm generally suspicious of such visuals when advertised, since the idea usually sounds so good and ends up being so bad, but the chance to check out the results comes this Saturday at the Knitting Factory. Slow Six will perform "This Is Your Last Chance" for violin, electric guitar, fender Rhodes and computer, as well as the more compositionally complex but equally beautiful "The Lines We Walked When We Walked Once Together" for the full group: violin, viola, cello, Fender Rhodes, two electric guitars and computer.

The night's bill mixes a number of projects that walk that academic/indie rocker line to interesting effect. Also making an appearance are Montreal's Sea Snakes, Todd Reynolds (the hardest-working violinist on the new music scene-surely they must have cloned that man) and Capital M, a chamber ensemble cum rock band.

Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard St. (betw. B'way & Church St.), 212-219-3006; 8, $10.