Adam Schatz's Civil Engineering feat. Carmen Quill & Qasim Naqvi
LOOVE ANNEX is pleased to present Adam Schatz' spectacular new group CIVIL ENGINEERING this coming APRIL the 28th, with two sets at 8 & 9 PM.
Featuring:
ADAM SCHATZ - piano, saxophone, synthesizer
CARMEN QUILL - upright bass
QASIM NAQVI - drums
Adam Schatz is a New England–born multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer known for his genre-blurring work across indie rock and improvised music. A longtime fixture of New York City’s experimental and songwriter scenes from 2006–2021, he is the bandleader behind Landlady, with five albums released on Jealous Butcher Records, and has collaborated with artists such as Neko Case, Japanese Breakfast, Wye Oak, and Miley Cyrus. Now based in Southern Vermont, he continues to tour extensively while contributing saxophone, clarinet, and keyboards to a wide range of recordings. Schatz has also produced records for emerging artists, composed scores for film and multimedia projects, and studied saxophone and improvisation at NYU under Ralph Alessi and Wayne Krantz. His work draws on diverse influences including jazz, soul, and experimental pop, reflecting inspirations like Carla Bley, Duke Ellington, Nina Simone, and Sly & the Family Stone.
Carmen Quill is a Brooklyn-based double bassist, composer, vocalist, and interdisciplinary artist known for her expressive versatility, improvisational sensitivity, and compelling solo work. Her debut album Don’t Get Comfy / Nowhere (2020) earned critical acclaim for its blend of emotional depth and restraint, establishing her as a distinctive voice across experimental and jazz-adjacent scenes. In addition to leading her own projects, she performs and records with groups including tilt and Scree, and has collaborated with artists such as David Murray, Dave Douglas, and Joey Baron. A 2025 Next Jazz Legacy Awardee, Quill’s work spans performance, composition, and interdisciplinary projects, reflecting a practice that bridges improvisation, songcraft, and contemporary performance.
Qasim Naqvi is a Pakistani-American drummer, composer, and electronic artist best known as a founding member of the acoustic trio Dawn of Midi, whose acclaimed album Dysnomia led to performances with Radiohead. Based in Brooklyn, his work spans experimental music, contemporary classical composition, and film scoring, with commissions performed by ensembles such as the BBC Concert Orchestra and Bang on a Can All-Stars. As a solo artist, he explores analogue and modular synthesis, and his screen compositions have appeared across major networks, international film festivals, and cultural institutions. A graduate of The New School and CalArts, Naqvi’s practice blends rhythmic minimalism, electronic texture, and cinematic sound design.
"I never thought "I think we've got something here" until we listened back to the tape, twenty of us crammed into the control room. The tape was dumped into the computer and the sessions went on a hard drive you can fit in the pocket of your jeans and I mixed the recordings on my laptop while on tour with Japanese Breakfast the following month. Ancient and modern technologies shaking hands.
A similar handshake happens with improvisation. The waves of intention and risk and adventure that have been surfed by musical improvisation go back far, far, far, far, far in time. As modern bodies on a modern planet spinning in ancient space, we're constantly reckoning with what was and what could be. By actively improvising and meeting each other on that forgiving plane, we can peek into new vantages and obtain new perspectives. We can feel challenged and poised. We can feel dread. But we'll be damned if it isn't all felt in real time, ancient approaches adding extra calcium to our bones, future questions answering themselves with newer questions.
To me, a sentient work in progress, I feel that improvisation is such a damn gift. I'm grateful for Carmen & Qasim for their the willingness to expand out and dig down. There's nothing quite like taking a bunch of me's and making a big We. We pile on and shift. We reboot and rework. Here's what happened this one time. Thanks for joining us."
- Adam Schatz
Pre-order the new album and hear the opening track here:
https://pocp.co/civil-
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