Rhys Chatham & Nico Guerrero | Mengi Reykjavik | June 20 2026
Mengi presents the Icelandic premiere of Athanor, the collaborative duo project of legendary American composer, guitarist and trumpet player Rhys Chatham and French guitarist and experimental composer Nico Guerrero.
Marking Chatham’s first ever performance in Iceland, the concert will feature the duo performing material from their album Athanor, released in early 2026 on Erototox Decodings.
A major figure of the New York downtown and No Wave scene since the 1970s, Rhys Chatham pioneered a radical meeting point between minimalism, amplified sound and electric guitar orchestras. Nico Guerrero has developed since the 1990s an immersive body of work centered around drone, resonance and altered states of perception through electric guitar and electronic transformation.
Conceived as a process of sonic transmutation rather than a conventional collaboration, Athanor unfolds through electric guitars, bass and alto flutes, Pythagorean tunings, electronic filters and slowly evolving overtones friction. Waves of resonance accumulate into dense spectral fields where breath, metal and electricity dissolve into a single vibrating matter. Thurston Moore described the album as “a beauty of bliss drone post-minimalism excellence.”
The concert will feature the screening of a film created especially for the duo by Icelandic filmmaker Ari Allansson.
This event is presented in partnership with the Alliance Française in Reykjavik and the French Embassy.
Doors 19:30 / show 20:00
3000kr / 2500kr students
Ticket reservation : blikk hlekkur
Event pages : https://fb.me/e/23FrPXcDd5 / Grapevine : Rhys Chatham & Nico Guerrero : Athanor
Photo : Nicolas Ballet