Leonardson Zerang Duo in the Reader

from the Chicago Reader:

ERIC LEONARDSON & MICHAEL ZERANG Local musicians Eric Leonardson and Michael Zerang don't play together very often, so their ongoing dialogue of acoustic and electric sounds has stayed fresh. Zerang, a percussionist, combines restless activity with a nuanced command of abrasive textures; tonight he'll restrict himself to a single snare drum played with homemade friction mallets, which he scrapes across the drumhead. Leonardson uses a device he designed called a "springboard"--a wooden board mounted on a walker and fitted with a contact microphone, which amplifies the vibrations of the metal springs, wooden slats, and rubber bands that he attaches to the board and plays with bows, brushes, and his fingertips. It's a marvelously flexible instrument, sonically and otherwise. Both men have written music for theater productions, which may account for the highly developed sense of drama they create when they improvise together. The Soliday-Baker Trio with Brent Gutzeit opens. --Bill Meyer