Album Release Shows w/ Tony Barba Winter's Arms:

11.3.2016 Constellation | Chicago
11.4.2016 Williamson Magnetic Recording Company | Madison
11.11.2016 Bay View United Methodist Church | Milwaukee

In the midst of the bone-crushing Chicago winter of 2013, guitarist Andrew Trim and drummer Devin Drobka performed for the very first time as Dim Lighting. Working as the opening act on a bill with several jazz groups, the pair played a set of spontaneous compositions based entirely on song titles that were chosen by the small but attentive audience that had braved the weather and huddled up at a Logan Square dive bar. By mashing together a variety of musical approaches that night, a vision of a small ensemble was born - one that fed on the energy of group interplay and an open-minded approach to improvisation within a broad sonic universe.

Almost four years later, the group has reached a new cohesion. Bassist Kurt Schweitz joined the group after the first performance and they began working regularly in 2013, releasing a well-received self-produced live album in 2014. Trim and Drobka compose melody driven music that they have been mining from a wide range of inspirations - Ornette Coleman, Robert Wyatt, Sonny Sharrock & Jim Jarmusch to name a few.

Your Miniature Motion, the group's first studio album, showcases their most developed work to date. Slowly churning rock rhythms are balanced on the edge of a cliff, whispers of erie melody are brushed on a canvas of night, and dark waves of distortion slowly effervesce towards light. Pushing the boundaries even further now, the trio effortlessly moves in and out of time, posing unanswerable questions or seeking their own haven of clarity in the sound they generate around themselves.

Press:

"When I wrote about the first album by guitar trio Dim Lighting I lamented the fact that just about every piece moved at a crawl. Guitarist Andrew Trim, bassist Kurt Schweitz, and drummer Devin Drobka created richly atmospheric, patient pieces—touching on the wide-open Americana of Bill Frisell here and the vibe of a Morricone score there—but they seemed unwilling to switch into a higher gear. That’s no longer the case with their terrific second album Your Miniature Motion (Off), which explores a much broader range of moods and attacks as Dim Lighting settle into a sound of their own. Some of the turbulent ballads, such as “Man Cole,” make me wonder if the “motion” in the album title is a wink to the playing of drummer Paul Motian, but the hurtling title track—where Trim toggles between twangy ambience, crushing power chords, and single-note splatter worthy of Sonny Sharrock—argues against that supposition. The watery reverb of his tone on “Tributaries” is gorgeous as he delivers blurry melodic outlines occasionally punctured by the metallic splash of Drobka’s cymbals, while on “Face/Fate” Schweitz generates a furious barrage of notes a la William Parker, grounding the guitarist’s most sprawling, hard-rocking performance and the drummer’s most walloping one. The Ornette-ish “Donmai!” is a tune previously recorded by Trim’s Hanami Quartet, but here he swaps out the free-jazz explosion of that combo for a series of changing, celebratory grooves." - Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader