VPC Ensemble is a psychedelic ambient space jazz collective led by New York multimedia artist Virtual Perfection Cowboy (Dash Lunde). The group—electric viola, flute and pedals, drums, voice, and dance in wearable percussion—works in the lineage of Alice Coltrane, Carlos Niño, Nala Sinephro, Fripp & Eno, and Laraaji, and treats a performance less as a set than as a ritual: long, continuous pieces, live projection, and room for the audience to breathe, hum, and move.

Their 2026 album, Life Is a Strange Loop, takes its structure from Douglas Hofstadter's idea of the strange loop—and from the loops of new fatherhood—unfolding as one unbroken piece that circles back on itself. Live, the music is paired with browser-based visual instruments Dash builds himself, responding in real time to sound and to the dancer's movement.

VPC Ensemble's shows are designed as rituals as much as concerts. Recent events include Release Ritual, a hybrid sound bath and concert at the Greenhouse (9/25/2026), and a Deep Listening Lounge at DADA (10/16/2026); VPC Ritual is becoming a recurring series. The group has proposed in-the-round, hour-long deep-listening pieces with collective humming and optional audience movement—a deliberate refusal of the attention economy: screens down, one unbroken hour tuned to breath and tide rather than algorithmic churn.

The ensemble's members bring credits from Solange, Kelsey Lu, Las Mariquitas, and Tentative, and dancer-choreographer Kacie Boblitt from Sleep No More and the Metropolitan Opera. A second album, Everything Is Ongoing (ETIO), follows in 2027. A second phase of the project is in development: a full healing ritual, and eventually a dedicated non-profit healing space.
