Join us in the Hunter Center to witness a special musical collaboration in action as the trio behind Hug brings their deeply intuitive creative partnership to the stage.

The three musicians who wrote and recorded Hug — Devendra Banhart, Gyan Riley and Noah Georgeson — are not related by blood, but they sure act like it. Whatever it is that connects these three, you can hear it in their banter as much as you can in their music. The record is almost like a bait and switch: You read the spine and — especially if you’re familiar with the work of Devendra or Gyan or Noah — you think, this is a guitar trio. But Hug doesn’t particularly sound like any of these artists, and if it’s a guitar trio, then it’s one without too many guitars. Hug is more than the sum of its parts — because these artists know how to play with each other.

About the artists: 

Hug members Gyan Riley and Noah Georgeson grew up together in the New Age enclave of Nevada City, California, bonding over a shared obsession with classical guitar before their musical paths led them to influential careers in experimental, folk, and contemporary music. Years later, they met Devendra Banhart, whose similarly unconventional upbringing and early devotion to music made him a natural creative counterpart. Written and recorded organically over three weeks, Hug reflects the trio’s lifelong affinities, blending folk, ambient, and experimental traditions with field recordings, spiritual references, and a sense of childlike play. The album is filled with echoes of their shared histories — from Sanskrit chants paired with unexpected lyrics to musical ideas first conceived decades earlier — creating a work that feels both deeply rooted in the past and open-ended, as though it is the beginning of an ongoing conversation.