New(ish) Trio
New project.
A Greater Horror
It’s a trio of piano, electric (fretless) bass, and drums.
Sort of post-jazz meets math-rock meets contemporary classical meets electronics.
New Duo Recording Session
After meeting and playing with Hervé Perez back when The Noise Upstairs’ Sheffield night started in early 2010 we got to talking about doing a recording together. It took a bit to work out the logistics of when/where and all that, but we finally got in the studio and recorded a doozy.
I played toy piano, Specto, Party Bus, Sidrassi, modified CD-player (ala Nic Collins), iPad (using Grid, Curtis and TOPLAPapp), Namasitar, and some misc percussion.
On The Horizon
So many many exciting things in the works. I will list some of them, in no particular order.
A trio record with Ray Evanoff (of Atemnt) and Iain Harrison that has been recorded and is in the process of being mixed.
A solo Drum/Keyboard improv record that will be called “P-P-P-Piano, P-P-Percussion”. Some recording done.
A solo album filled with a shmorgishborg of stuff called “Constantly Rodrigo”.
A duo album with Richard Knight on no-input mixer. We are in rehearsals at the moment.
A drum compilation album I was invited to play on. Other performers include Chris Corsano, Glenn Kotch, and Greg Saunier.
I Am Your Density
I am very excited to finally present “I AM YOUR DENSITY”. This CD has been in the pipe for over a year, being sidetracked by Drum & Bass and Jew Point Owe. It is finally done, and it is a doozy.
I AM YOUR DENSITY is a composition written for a group of improvisers. It was written in 2008 and has been performed twice, once at The Noise Upstairs, and the other time at The Arches in Glasgow, in conjunction with the Red Note ensemble. It was recorded in late 2008, and subsequently mixed by Dan Escauriza. It is being released on Noise Upstairs Records. Continue reading »
Drum & Bass: And The Horse You Rode In On
I am very excited to present “Drum & Bass : And The Horse You Rode In On”. This is a duo CD with PA Tremblay that was recorded in early 2009.
We shared a stage in 2008 and after exchanging some e-mails we decided to hit the studio. I showed up at Huddersfield University’s Studio with my ‘drums’ setup. PA had his 6-string fretless bass + Laptop setup, and we let it roll. After months of editing and mixing we carved out this gem. It’s 13 tracks of pure joy. The improvs range from textural laptop-scapes, to grimy stutter-hop, to some smooth jazz, and many other things that I can’t pretend to come up with names for (those above are inadequate enough). Continue reading »
Jew Point Owe : The Making Of
What started off as a simple idea of writing a few klezmer inspired folk songs to improvise around, turned into over a year of writing, performing, recording, and eventually book-binding.
Jew Point Owe, my second full solo album, eventually ended up as an 11 track variety-fest, with tracks ranging from an acoustic guitar duo, to an electronic noise orgy, to a quasi-jazz freak-out.
The recording of the album was a challenge as each track is a different lineup and approach. The packaging was also a MASSIVE endeavor as it is being released on Concrete Moniker, as a limited edition of 40 hand-made (by me), hard-cover books. Real books. Each one contains the scores to the acoustic tracks, as well as artwork by Angela Guyton. Continue reading »
JEW POINT OWE Reassessed
After finally finishing the seventh klezmer inspired composition, I decided it was time to rethink ‘Jew Point Owe’. When I originally set out to do the album it was going to be an EP, with three klezmer pieces, and three laptop pieces. As the actual recordings of the klezmer pieces grew in size (about 20 minutes for all three), the idea went from EP to LP. The original reason for only recording three, of the six and a half available at the time, of the pieces for the ‘acoustic’ half was I could only do the ones that would work as duos with me and Serg.
Since then I’ve begun working with a lot of new musicians, particularly Manchester’s Jazz scene. So I’ve decided to record the remaining ‘acoustic’ pieces for the release. I’m very excited about this as some of the pieces I had to leave out of the recording before were my favorites.
In addition to extending the length, ‘Jew Point Owe’ will also be released on Concrete Moniker, a Manchester Label.
PA Tremblay Recording Session
After sharing a stage with PA in December, and being invited to speak at the GEM Days festival in Huddersfield, we booked some studio time at Huddersfield University.
I took my ‘drumset’ setup, which as you can see by the pictures is hardly a drumset at all. PA used his 6-string fretless bass + laptop setup which I saw him perform with originally. We improvised for just under two hours and seemed to cover everything from subtle, texture-scapes, to blasts of lo-fi meets hi-fi noise, to stuttering glitch/sludge hip-hop. I look forward to hearing it back, and seeing what will become of it. Continue reading »
“Asleep at the Monologue” Recording Session
This completes the ‘acoustic’ half of ‘Jew Point Owe’. For this one I’m on Melodica, Serg is on guitar, and Hamit, my Tabla teacher, is on Tabla.
It took two sessions to get this right since we had a very limited time window with Serg moving back to the US in a week. Continue reading »
“I AM YOUR DENSITY” Recording Session
My poor, poor neighbors. We blasted them with noise for about five solid hours. It was a pretty exhausting session, primarily because the material is so loud/dense.
I’m working on the mixing/editing at the moment, and I am incredibly pleased with the results. Expect a ‘single’ release before the end of the year. Special thanks to Angela, Anton, Sergio, Zoë, Ramsey, Wyn, Laurence, Evan, and Adam for being a part of the recording. Continue reading »
“The Ocean’s Like Right There” Recording Session
More ‘Jew Point Owe’ recording with “The Ocean’s Like Right There”. Another duo with Serg but this time we are on Namasitar and Banjo. Nearly through with the ‘acoustic’ half of the CD. Continue reading »
In The Studio With Takahashi’s Shellfish Concern
With Serg moving back soon, and a recent performance firing us up, we decided to do a studio session. We setup all the usual mics/equipment, and five video cameras and let it roll.
Expect a CD/DVD , currently titled “The Sans of Gilbert”, sometime in early 2009. Continue reading »
“These Secrets Are Just Lists” Recording Session
This is the first recording session for my next CD entitled ‘Jew Point Owe’. This is for the piece “The Secrets Are Just Lists”. For this piece I went with a simple, stripped down instrumentation of two naked acoustic guitars. Serg is the second guitar on this track.
The rest of the CD will be half klezmer/folk inspired experimentations and half laptop/electronic improvisations.
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