Ars Nova Workshop presents Dromedaries x Alexoteric, the incendiary collaboration between improvising trio Dromedaries and writer/vocalist/activist Alex Smith, at Solar Myth on Thursday, January 30.

Comprising saxophonist Keir Neuringer (Irreversible Entanglements), bassist Shayna Dulberger (Chaser, Warrior of Light), and percussionist Julius Masri (Mephisto Halabi, Spectral Forces, Night Raids), Dromedaries have developed an energetic, telepathic, playful mode of collective improvisation over the past decade. A key figure in multiple Philadelphia arts subcultures, Alexoteric, aka Alex Smith (Spectral Forces, Solarized, Arkdust short story collection), is an artist and activist whose writing⁠—from science fiction to superhero comics to music and art critique⁠—delves into worlds often forgotten, inhabited by people often marginalized. They came together in a single high voltage burst of cosmic collaboration to record their brilliant debut, The Burning Bright Light, a sonic document that emerges organically on a foundation of speculative fiction, free jazz interaction, avant-garde textures, and freestyle refrains.