A definitive list of projects and their activity, Winter 2024

This is probably long overdue, but with the release of material from projects that had been defunct for 6 and 7 years respectively (Pendragon and Dispell), it seemed like a good chance to take stock of which projects were active or not. Most of these are in the realm of dungeon synth, new age, black metal, or game music, with other elements noted as applicable. 

  Concluded: 

Dispell (Avant Garde DS, Dungeon Noise, ritual ambient) 

Conqueror's Mourn (Dungeon synth with grand piano and bizarre samples) 

Black Epheria (extremely lo-fi nature themed dungeon synth recorded live with cassette in front of an amplifier) 

(Forest Walk by extension) 

One-off, Probably Concluded: 

Sudslinger (comfy noise - harsh noise + comfy synth) 

Into the Valley (Star Wars themed DS) 

Organa Hermetica (an attempt at Trad DS with accordion and loop pedal only) 

Still Active/Still more to say: 

Nahadoth - Dungeon Synth, various styles 

The Herbalists - DS, naive, fantasy 

Pendragon - DS, epic, progressive rock/Balkan folk inspired 

Mystal Tree - Prog with VGM influences and vocals 

GZARA - Ambient, drone, darkjazz 

Revenant - DS recorded live with strings and choirs and orchestral elements 

Deliverer - "Dungeon Folk" all recorded with accordion, recorder, percussion, vocals 

AOS - Symphonic Black Metal, all keys 

Great Knife - Dungeon Noise/Keyboard Black Metal 

Stroboseth - Techno ("Vampiric Trance") 

Werepanther - dungeon rap with actual rapping 

Kolessa - New Age, Jazz, DS 

L.B.R.P. - Occult DS and Dark Ambient 

Mycologia - mushroom synth 

Ghost of Forest - Lo-fi DS 

Erszebet - Vampiric DS 

Hypostatic Soundblast Awakening - free jazz with Dungeon costume 

Dust Seeker - Fantasy Music and DS inspired by His Dark Materials

Performances in Fall 2024

Some upcoming gigs I’m really looking forward to, and an update I'm really excited about. October 18-20, I’ll be making two appearances at the inaugural Great Lakes Dungeon Siege. On October 18th, I’ll be playing as part of the live band for Cernunnos Woods, returning after the headlining appearance at Northeast Dungeon Siege earlier this year. On the 19th, I’ll be playing a solo set as Nahadoth. The whole event has an incredible lineup of some of the best Live Dungeon Synth acts from here and abroad. October 27 will be the live debut of the trio Carapace, which features Kelly Bray on Trumpet and Michael Larocca on percussion, alongside myself on piano. This improvising trio has recently recorded a second record, which features some of my compositions alongside some incredible improvisations. I’m always excited to work with these musicians, and for the rest of you to hear this trio as well. Then, on Sunday November 3rd, Dr. Caterwauls Cadre of Clairvoyant Claptrap’s will play at Small Batch Winery in North Branford, CT, on a bill with local Klezmer band Nu Haven Kapelye. Doors are at 4 PM, music at 5PM, and tickets are available in advance here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nu-haven-kapelye-dr-caterwauls-cadre-of-clairvoyant-claptraps-tickets-993717013337 Finally, December 12th, I’ll be playing with Michael Larocca as Hypostatic Soundblast Awakening, the synthesizer/drums duo with Michael Larocca. We recorded a phenomenal record recently and the concept of this project is growing more refined both musically and philosophically. The performance will be part of the New Haven Improvisers Collective Performance series, at Never Ending books in New Haven, CT. Starting at 7 PM. Finally, unrelated to performance, I’ve been working on some ‘live’ techno sets, using various synthesizers and sequencers, attempting to do some version of live Techno performances, ranging from 30 to 40 minutes in length. I’ve started uploading them to SoundCloud, if you’re interested to hear me try something very different than usual for me. Looking forward to seeing you at any one of these upcoming dates!

Lilith, and Mushrooms

It is often recognized that support for noncommercial music is usually limited to premieres. Everyone wants to be recognized for helping bring a new thing into the world, but it seems like there is more prestige in supporting novelty than there is in supporting development. Given the pressures of deadlines, music preparation, communication, etc, premieres are often not the best performance of a work. Which makes it a shame that sometimes, premieres are the only performance a new work may receive.

So my experience working with Ingrid Laubrock in her Lilith project, alongside the phenomenally talented band of Yvonne Rogers, Eva Lawitts, David Adewumi and Henry Mermer, has been somewhat unique for me, in that we not only had a full week of rehearsal prior to its first unveiling, but have had the chance to return to this music more than once. This week, we’ll perform the suite on Thursday the 14th at Hawks and Reed in Greenfield, MA, presented as part of the Pioneer Valley Jazz Share, and then Friday the 15th at Firehouse 12 in New Haven, CT, and record it there as well.

Experience before Understanding: Some Thoughts About Improvised Music

Free improvisation has been at the heart of my music making for most of my adult and performing life. It is one of those practices that you can do for decades but not actually improve on your abilities. Wary of that, I’ve tried to be as analytical as possible with my own practice of free improvisation, whether solo or with others. I don’t know if this level of analysis has ever had a meaningful impact on my sound, but it has certainly changed how I talk about it over the years.

The appeal of this for a lot of people I speak to is the “newness” of it. When listening to improvised music, you are theoretically hearing a sound or combination of sounds that has never been heard before. That’s obviously not the only appeal, otherwise people wouldn’t record music in this style, or form groups to do it in, etc. But encountering that “newness-above-all” attitude early on in my improvising life was one of the things that made me determined to figure out how to tell the difference from one improvised set to another, besides an affinity for the instruments being played or the people manipulating them.

A Year Joyful and Tragic: An Explanation of why I play Irish Music

I’m coming up on a year anniversary of going to a local Irish session, and of really working on acquiring a repertoire and vocabulary in this style. During that time I’ve learned - certainly not mastered - somewhere around 120 tunes. I use the ‘tunebook’ feature of the website The Session to help keep track of these things, but some of the tunes added are placeholders, so those don’t count. 

I can’t say completely what compelled me to do it. My only session experience was at this same session near me, in 2014, when I had absolutely no Irish repertoire, but a curiosity, and a desire to push myself further into folk traditions after spending some time at a Swedish fiddle workshop (also playing accordion) and getting my butt kicked by the details. I did what I now understand to be the mostly verboten thing of sort of ‘busking along’ with tunes I don’t know - and played a Swedish polska for them, by request. But I did also record, and from that recording, painstakingly transcribed a single tune. Not knowing any of the vocabulary, having very little idea of the ornamentation or variation that is often employed, this was not an easy process, and my attempts to actually learn the tune suffered for that reason. (I later learned, in this attempt, that the tune was called the Wicklow Hornpipe, or Sonny Murray’s, and actually learned the tune properly).