Benito Cereno

Sat., June 30, 8 p.m., with Nate Wooley/Kieran Daly/Aaron Siegel, University City Arts League, 4226 Spruce St.

by Shaun Brady

experimental

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For all the activity going on under the Bowerbird name, a musical archaeologist in the distant future would have difficulty re-creating their sounds given how little concrete record exists beyond a few flyers. On Saturday, five of the collective's regulars will contribute three more inches of physical evidence with the first CD release by Benito Cereno. The quintet, named for a Herman Melville story, consists of Bowerbird head honcho Dustin Hurt on cornet and accordion, Ian M. Fraser on laptop and electronics, Chandan Naryan on autoharp, and guitar/electronics manipulators Jesse Kudler and Tim Albro. Five guys improvising often translates as chaos (not always a bad thing), but this group not only shares a minimalist compositional approach but a severe distaste for spotlight-hogging. The fact that their spontaneous music comes only after a great deal of rehearsal shows in the unified palette; it's hard to suss sometimes who's making what sounds, only that they create a sparse, textured hum that reveals at least as much listening as playing.

Sat., June 30, 8 p.m., $5-$10, with Nate Wooley/Kieran Daly/Aaron Siegel, University City Arts League, 4226 Spruce St., www.bowerbird.org.