8.27.2009

Adam the Session Player/Collaborator

I'm appearing on two upcoming releases, both in very different settings and playing very different roles.

First is Elm City Guitar 4tet + 3, with "Crash." A grouping of the New Haven Improvisers Collective that has so far met only once in concert, last December. The recording is an edit of the live recording made from this performance. Featuring Tom Gogola, Chris Venter, Jeff Cedrone, Bob Gorry - Guitars, John Venter, Baritone Sax, Bass Clarinet, Steve Zieminski - Drums, Narration, and myself on Clarinet and Accordion. Due to be released on NHIC Records on September 15th. (Look also for another recording with another lineup, Inflection, also out this fall.)

Second is Sigh, with "Scenes from Hell." I'm much less audible on this release, coming January 2010, but a part of a large "studio orchestra," contributing bass clarinet, clarinet and accordion on 5 tracks. Sigh is a pioneering metal band utilizing complex orchestration and psychedelic keyboards and production sounds across doom, black and thrash metal backdrops - this is the first album to feature an almost entirely live orchestral palette, (perhaps one or two parts are backed on synth) which includes trumpet, trombone, tuba, flute/piccolo, clarinet, bass clarinet, and a string quartet. There might be an oboe in there, too, and fulltime band member Mikannibal contributes alto sax at points. Suffice it to say the final master is REALLY crushing and dynamic, featuring some of the most accomplished and focused songwriting of the group's history.

Also in the process of trying to form a local group for playing acoustic jazz, gypsy jazz, etc. We'll see how well this goes, but early meetings have been promising.

A Progress Post

In brief:

G. Zarapanecko - Zaratozom and Magnus is due out at the end of August, after finally getting a duplication order together that I can afford...

I'm also real close to finishing the An Historic demo tape, "My Czerny," which will hopefully be ready for self-release soon. Two more tracks to finish!!! The title references Carl Czerny, who (any piano student will tell you) wrote some fairly boring but essential exercises to build technique. The tunes on this demo are, in essence, my equivalent - songs that I love playing, but have also helped me to build some basic skills for the type of accordion I play. Plus, it'll have a few originals, too. Time and money both have been restrictions upon the completion of An Historic's "Ephemeral Stampede," which I still hope to record at Dirt Floor Studios in Chester, CT. But it is coming, dammit...

Progress on the release of "Intravene, Pt. 1" has stalled temporarily, as I have only so many synapses that can fire simultaneously and I'm a wee overwhelmed. It's coming, though...

-I'm also working on a few scattered longer-form works. The song cycle based on Rob Talbot's poetry is coming along, about halfway done, and I'm still hoping to have it finished at least in draft by the end of August, hopefully with a performance (and possibly recording?) to follow before the year's end.
-Additionally, I'm working on another "Drama Mit Musik," which will probably exist first as a multi-tracked recording. Using some of the techniques and instrumentation of Japanese Noh theatre to illustrate a modern supernatural tale of occult warfare, the piece will be scored for narrator/vocalist/recorder, as well as a backing choir of four (serving the function of a classical Greek "chorus" that has been adopted by Balinese and feudal Japanese parents) that also handles percussion.
-I'm hoping to finish revisions of "Smiling, Laughing and Taking Pictures," soon, in a way that will hopefully be presentable with the resources I've currently got available.
-I've also begun sketching and working out some more vocal techniques for the other two parts of "Intravene," which I hope to perform in full next year.
-I've also begun tentative work on another G. Zarapanecko release, an EP entitled "For Accordion." Not much can be said about this yet, but this will be studio music largely created by accordion and tweaked heavily in post. More to come...!