Walker Art Center Presents River Mouth, Unseen Green: An Exclusive Two-Night Collaboration Featuring Nels Cline (Wilco), Yuka Honda (Cibo Matto)
“Nels Cline is one of the most influential guitarists and composers working today.” —NPR
“This is the unique beauty of Yuka [Honda]’s art: a Pop art that mocks the intangible unnaturalness of the contrived Pop of our times.” —DeBaser
The Walker Art Center presents River Mouth, Unseen Green, an exclusive two-night musical collaboration led by guitarist and composer Nels Cline and producer and multi-instrumentalist Yuka Honda. Taking place September 24–25 at 7:30 pm in the McGuire Theater, the engagement brings together a remarkable constellation of artists for two distinct evenings of adventurous music spanning punk, jazz, electronica, experimental composition, and pop.
Perhaps best known for their work with influential ensembles—Cline as lead guitarist for Wilco and Honda as cofounder of the 1990s art-pop duo Cibo Matto—the two artists have built expansive careers defined by restless experimentation and collaboration. For River Mouth, Unseen Green, Cline and Honda gather longtime friends and collaborators, including guitar virtuoso Julian Lage, vocalist and composer Shara Nova, Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche, bassist Anthony Cox, vocalist Theo Bleckmann, pianist and keyboardist Jason Lindner, and others.
The two evenings take markedly different forms. On Thursday, September 24, Cline leads a shifting ensemble of musicians through a kaleidoscopic program built around unexpected combinations and constantly changing configurations. Artists rotate through changing configurations, bringing together disparate influences and approaches in a performance that travels freely between the raw energy of punk, the improvisational language of jazz, electronic textures, and pop. Cline is joined by an expansive lineup including Honda, Lage, Nova, Kotche, Theo Bleckmann, Alex Cline, John Dieterich, Devra Hoff, and others.
On Friday, September 25, Honda takes the lead for a two-part evening dedicated to her longtime friend and collaborator Yoko Ono. The program offers a full preview performance of Honda and artist Glenn Kaino’s forthcoming opera, I Am Yoko, performed by Honda and her ensemble. The opera draws inspiration from Ono’s life and artistic legacy, extending Honda’s ongoing creative dialogue with an artist whose work has reshaped understandings of music, performance, conceptual art, and popular culture.
Honda comments about her work with Ono, “Yoko and I are the kinds of artists who are more about ideas, and the formats that we use are more like languages… She has opened up a lot of pathways for us, and we improve at what we do thanks to her going ahead of us, walking through the tall grass, and making roads for us.”
The evening continues with a live, improvised soundtrack to Fly (1970), Yoko Ono and John Lennon’s avant-garde short film. Honda is joined by collaborators including Bleckmann and Lindner, with the musicians responding to the film in real time and creating a new sonic environment around Ono and Lennon’s radical cinematic experiment.
Nels Cline & Yuka Honda, River Mouth, Unseen Green. Photo: Chiiho Tanaka. Courtesy the artist.
Nels Cline & Yuka Honda: River Mouth, Unseen Green
September 24–25, 7:30 pm
McGuire Theater
TICKETS
Ordering tickets is easy: visit walkerart.org/tickets or call 612-375-7600. Box office is open Wednesday–Sunday and one hour before performances.
ACCESSIBILITY
For more information about accessibility, visit our accessibility page. For questions on accessibility or to request additional accommodations, call 612-375-7564 or email access@walkerart.org.
About Nels Cline
Nels Cline is a genre-defying guitarist widely celebrated as a longtime member of seminal rock band Wilco, and for his expansive solo career spanning jazz, rock, and experimental music. As a band leader he’s released three critically acclaimed albums on Blue Note Records, from the lush orchestration of Lovers to the electrified improvisations of Share the Wealth. His latest project, Consentrik Quartet, showcases his deep roots in the avant-garde improvised music scene, further cementing his reputation as one of today’s most adventurous and versatile guitarists.
About Yuka Honda
Yuka Honda (eucademix) is a composer, producer, and sonic innovator whose work defies genre and convention. Co-founder of the trailblazing duo Cibo Matto,she has since forged a solo path that blends electronic experimentation, improvisational depth, infectious rhythm, and abstract storytelling. She describes her music as quantum, continuum, and sensory—a fluid exploration of sound as both narrative and experience. Like a book or a film, her compositions invite the listener into a story: shifting through contrasting emotions, spaces, and textures to create an unfolding journey. Her work was shaped by the sound of hip hop—where sampling, layering, and cross-genre collage redefined music—as well as by experimental production, microtonal detail, and the interplay between digital and live instrumentation. Honda has collaborated with artists including Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon, Nels Cline, Photay, Jason Lindner (Black Star), Dave Harrington (Darkside), L’Rain, and Martha Wainwright, and her recent projects span multimedia opera, museum performance, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
About the Walker Art Center
The Walker Art Center is a renowned multidisciplinary arts institution that presents, collects, and supports the creation of groundbreaking work across the visual and performing arts, moving image, and design. Guided by the belief that art has the power to bring joy and solace and the ability to unite people through dialogue and shared experiences, the Walker engages communities through a dynamic array of exhibitions, performances, events, and initiatives. Its multiacre campus includes 65,000 sq. ft. of exhibition space, the state-of-the-art McGuire Theater and Walker Cinema, and ample green space that connects with the adjoining Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. The Garden, a partnership with the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, is one of the first urban sculpture parks of its kind in the United States and home to the beloved Twin Cities landmark Spoonbridge and Cherry by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. Recognized for its ambitious program and growing collection of more than 16,000 works, the Walker embraces emerging art forms and amplifies the work of artists from the Twin Cities and from across the country and the globe. Its broad spectrum of offerings makes it a lively and welcoming hub for artistic expression, creative innovation, and community connection.