Rumblings - An Historic Music

February 18th

2012-02-15T10:46:00.000-08:00

Dr. Caterwauls will be playing an hour-long set, partially backing up the Cygnet Sisters, this Saturday, February 18th at the Acoustic Cafe, as part of the Black Rock Rocks day-long Mardi Gras festival. We hit at 2:00 PM (note the early time).

Anne, Nathan and I will scatter on to NY for a Broadcloth gig, later that evening. We'll be performing at The Stone in NYC at 10PM, performing a set including my chamber opera "Mere Distractions" and Anne's recently finished "Book One," an embroidered score for the group.

Nathan will be playing in the earlier set, an improvisational string quartet assembled by Al Margolis on Violin and featuring Julianne Carney on violin and James Ilgenfritz on bass.

A busy, but worthwhile day. I'll have a bit of downtime after that, gearing up for March.

More to come.

Stream the new "An Historic Live"

2012-02-06T09:18:00.000-08:00

Live by An Historic

There ya have it. You can click through to download for free or donation. All money funds future recording and releases, getting people with, y'know, visual talent to do the art, and what not.

I've also just received the duplicated tapes for the upcoming Seicremllams EP. Looking like an April release, and once I get the art I'll set up a pre-order on my bandcamp page.

More news forthcoming.

New Performance Video and Video Tag

2012-01-14T09:24:00.000-08:00

Below is the video from a live performance last weekend in Hadley, MA. It is the first recording of this song which has existed in more or less the same form since September of last year. I'm posting this to bring attention to the "video" label which will allow me to get away with the idea of not updating the videos page for awhile. Click through to find any video I've posted just in the main blog.

Upcoming Broadcloth Shows

2012-01-10T22:07:00.000-08:00

Broadcloth is playing two upcoming gigs this January.

The first is in New Haven at 756 Chapel (guess the address!) this Friday, January 13th, starting at 8PM.

Broadcloth wil play alongside Jeffrey Young, Paul Pinto, and Gelsey Bell from ThingNY. Each will perform solo sets as described below, and the night will conclude with group improv:

Jeffrey Young (of thingNY) presents a new set of alternatively energetic and meditative work for violin, voice, and live electronics. Young is a composer and violinist from Brooklyn, NY who specializes in experimental classical and rock music.

http://jeffrey-young.com/

Blending lo-fi noise with minimalism, Paul Pinto (of thingNY) gives the New Haven premiere of For Stefanos Tsigrimanis, a haunting and meditative elegy scored for two Califone turntables, guitar, voice and electronics.

http://pfpinto.com/

Gelsey Bell (of thingNY) presents Tom Swafford’s one-woman distilled opera “This is the Real Me,” which Bell helped develop. Bell is a Brooklyn-based singer, songwriter, and scholar.
www.gelseybell.com

The second is on January 21st, being called the Chaos Academy Improv Night, at Home Audio, 132 St James Place, Brooklyn, NY, starting around 9 pm. The night will feature short sets from Ellwood Epps, trumpet, Montreal
(http://www.ellwoodepps.blogspot.com/), Flandrew Fleisenberg, percussion, Boston (http://lifeoffleisenberg.blogspot.com/), Sean Ali, bass, Queens
(http://seanali.tumblr.com/), Jeffrey Young, violin, Brooklyn (http://jeffrey-young.com/), Mara Mayer, bass clarinet, Brooklyn,
(http://maramayermusic.com/), in addition to a set from us. There will be various forms of improvised interaction between all of the performers as well. Entry with donation.

Down the line, we return to The Stone on February 18th, performing the 10PM set. Performing at 8:00 is String Surprise, a quartet put together by Al Margolis and featuring Broadcloth cellist Nathan Bontrager. Stay tuned for details on that gig.

An Historic Live on 2.3.12

2012-01-07T20:36:00.001-08:00

Don't ask me how it is I decided on the date. It was an arbitrary choice that seemed pleasing to my eyes when written out.

On 2.3.12, An Historic Live, the first ever public document of the trio I've been working with, will be released for P.W.Y.C. download!

The trio features Brian Slattery on Violin and Carl Testa on Bass Viol, and is an ideal grouping to work with in terms of tweaking the initial arrangements I've come up with for some of these tunes. In other cases, they're providing me with the chance to hear some of the tunes aloud as I've heard them all along in my head. It helps a great deal to have worked with Brian and Carl in various contexts before beginning to work with them on An Historic material, so I feel as though we are able to talk about arrangement details without over-discussing them, and making the arrangements too clinical. I am very pleased with the result, which is a complete live set from December 10th, 2011. The 7 tunes on this release span the entire An Historic songbook, from the earliest tunes to some yet-to-be-recorded ones.

Save the date, clear up some bandwidth in advance, whatever you gotta do! I will post samples and album art as the date approaches.

New An Historic video!

2012-01-02T08:08:00.000-08:00

The first ever An Historic music video. I shot and edited the thing myself (no one who actually knows anything about "film" or "filming" should have to take "credit" for this). The song is called "Is it Warm," and the release of the video is in anticipation of the upcoming cassette EP, "Seicremllams," out this Spring. The release will also be available digitally. Stay tuned here for more details!

Also, shows this Wednesday and Friday. Check out the sidebar for more info.

Happy New Year!

An Historic Releases this year

2011-12-28T15:29:00.000-08:00

Just to be clear (because I've referenced a few planned releases in the last several months):

I'm hoping to put out three releases as An Historic this year.

One will be a digital-only live album. It is a recording of the live set performed with the aid of Brian Slattery and Carl Testa at the December installment of the Uncertainy music series. I'm hoping to work more with this trio in the future.

One will be an EP, tentatively titled Seicremllams. This release contains 6 tunes, based around live single takes of accordion and voice with slight overdubs (vocal harmonies, clarinet, recorders, bowed cymbal). This release will have four stripped down arrangements of tunes that also exist in expanded form (either with the trio or performed with Dr. Caterwauls), as well as two tunes not heard anywhere else from a similar period of time. Hoping to release this on tape as well as digitally.

The last, hopefully, will be a full length, titled Small Mercies. There are ten tunes lined up for this set, all completed and fully arranged. As mentioned these will be more definitive versions of some of the tunes from the EP, as well as several tunes I've been playing live in various capacities for the last two years, which have been tweaked and refined by those experiences. The recording will also feature two tunes from the "Cutoff" split, also refined to fit the band sound.

This is plenty ambitious and all, but I have these tunes and more in the cue and it will be nice to launch some of them, so to speak, and clear the air for more. I have been working on a new series of piano-focused tunes and several new covers, and the momentum doesn't appear to be slowing. This year will also most likely see a self-made/shot/directed music video for one of the tunes from Seicremllams, if all goes well.

First things in the New Year

2011-12-26T10:26:00.000-08:00

Here is a solo An Historic cover of Scott Matthew's "Language," as seen in Shortbus. I have wanted to cover this song for awhile but only a few days ago discovered a satisfying way to approach it. enjoy!

An Historic plays next in Hadley, MA on January 6th at Emmett Island (8 Pine Hill Rd) w/ Wood Spider, The Suitcase Junket, Asher (of Bella's Bartok). I'll be releasing a live album soon of the performance at the December Uncertainty Series - the second ever An Historic trio set, recorded in full by Lou Guarino. This set features tunes current and past, and I'm very pleased with the way Brian (Slattery, fiddle) and Carl (Testa, bass) have helped to realize these finicky compositions.

Dr. Caterwaul's hosts Wood Spider in New Haven on the first day of their winter tour. The show also features Tyler Bussey and Black is the Color (ex-Feral Flowers). Come out on Wednesday, January 4th to the coziest venue in New Haven, Neverending Books (810 State St)

Dr. Caterwauls appears again on January 14th at the Euphoria Salon in New Haven, doing a cabaret set with the Cygnet Sisters. The event is an opening for the art of Erin Jenkins. The opening is between 5-8PM and our set time is TBA.

Finally, I'll be participating in a Large ensemble project featuring a new composition by Barry Seroff and one by Nate Trier. The date is the 29th of January, at the Outer Space.

Take a look at the (finally updated) performance bar for some upcoming appearances January and beyond.

2011-11-23T15:47:00.000-08:00

Another month and change has gone by without an update. I don't think the idea of keeping each project isolated by updates is actually going to work.

Coming up soon is two shows back to back with Dr. Caterwauls, first opening for the excellent David Wax Museum from the Boston area on November 30th. This show is free and at BAR in New Haven, a fine venue with homemade pizza and house-brewed beer selections. The following day, we return to the Outer Space (a favorite venue in New Haven) to open for touring songwriters Andru Bemis and Elizabeth Pixley-Fink. See the sidebar for more details.

The day after THAT I'm doing a solo set as An Historic at a house show, details for which will be forthcoming.

The day after THAT I'll be performing with Atlas, a subgrouping of the New Haven Improvisers Collective, at Firehouse 12, at 8:30. NHIC does an annual concert at Firehouse 12 which is a fantastic venue both for listening and performing, and this year will also include the debut of NHIC Electric. Again, more details on the sidebar.

December will slow down a bit after that opening burst. I'll be performing with the Yale Klezmer band on December 7th, and again with Dr. Caterwauls at the Acoustic Cafe in Bridgeport on the 22nd. Most of this month is devoted to working on a short opera that I've mentioned here before, as well as a pretty crucial grad school application.

More details as I get em.

An Historic - upcoming events

2011-10-05T20:54:00.000-07:00

The first two tracks of the long-awaited "Cutoff" Split with Cud Eastbound are up for streaming HERE. I am very excited to see this get off my harddrive and out into the cyber-aether. The full release (including Cud's tracks) will be available for PWYC download by this weekend.

This release coincides with a minitour I'm conducting next week with Mountain Wasp (mountainwasp.tumblr.com). There are only three dates, due to various unfortunate and last minute circumstances:
-10/11 in New Haven, at The Outer Space. (10PM, Free show but donations for gas and whatnot greatly accepted.)
-10/13 in Northampton, MA, on top of the parking garage downtown. With Nicholas Francis and maybe +1 TBA? Email me for more details.
-10/15 in Portland, ME. This will be with musical sibling Jakob Battick, in what will be the last ever show of his Jakob Battick and Friends project, for which he's put together the "Bloodworm Orchestra" for something really epic and special. (8PM, Poland St, Portland, ME.)

Two other shows in New Haven to mention, post tour:

10/27, at Bru Cafe. I'll be doing a set in support of Nicholas Francis and Homebody, two awesome acts (and friends) on a tour from Northampton, MA. 7:00 PM

11/7, at Neverending Books, in support of Mal Blum and Zoe Boekbinder. Circle Circle and an acoustic version of Proud Flesh will be playing. I am especially excited for this date as I will be joined by Brian Slattery on fiddle and Carl Testa on upright bass, which will be the first time I've performed a full set of An Historic material with something resembling a band. 7:30. This'll be a barn burner.

The possibility of scheduling a recording has ended up being a hassle, and thus will be postponed until early next year. I am still hoping to draw in the rest of Dr. Caterwaul's after some woodshedding, and there will still be a kickstarter campaign to fund its recording and release, although probably not on vinyl as originally expected. Details for that are still stewing, and I hope to release them soon.

Broadcloth Awakens!!

2011-09-28T14:51:00.000-07:00

Broadcloth has technically been on hiatus for the past few months; although we all performed in several concerts together (notably with Carl Testa and guitarist Ben Shirley performing Shirley’s compositions, and with vocalist Kyoko Kitamura on a different bill), and did one recording session in order to continue tracking the ever-impending full length album, we hadn’t performed as Broadcloth since the end of June.

All this is about to change. As Nathan will be leaving for Europe in November, and we’re all extraordinarily busy with varying events including the Energies, Ideas, Intuitions Festival at Roulette between October 5-8, performing the music of Anthony Braxton (more info at: http://www.roulette.org/events/upcoming.php), we’ve only got a few dates on the horizon, but hopefully more soon.

First is this weekend, October 1st, at The Home Of in Gowanus. (http://www.thehomeof.org). This will be our second visit to curator/saxophonist Edward Schneider’s Holidays for the Future series which focuses on new and experimental music as well as improvisation. This is part of a two day mini-fest (day 2 is at 16 Beaver St in Manhattan, which will also feature Anne and Nathan along with other improvisers.) Our first time there was a blast and produced one of our best sets (audio available at http://thehomeof.org/holidays-for-the-future-4), and we are excited to return!

The next will be on November 2nd, as the debut installment of another arm of the Uncertainty Series, happening at the Elm Bar in New Haven, CT. Details surrounding start time are still nebulous but we’ll have them as we get them.

More as we hear it!

Miscellaneous events in the next few weeks

2011-09-28T11:50:00.000-07:00

*note: for ease of navigation, I've decided to do organize updates by project, instead of trying to cram everything into a single update. Hopefully this will mean smaller, less unwieldy updates, happening more regularly*

The Miscellaneous tag will be used for anything not connected to An Historic, Broadcloth or Dr. Caterwauls, the most active working groups I'm involved in at the moment. This is a formatting experiment, so please let me know if it's a terrible decision.

On October 2nd, I'll be performing with the Afro-Semitic Experience again at the West Haven I Wage Peace Walk. The walk and our set begins around 3PM - we'll be playing on the boardwalk, weather permitting, and if not, we'll be set up in St. John Vianney, at 300 Captain Thomas Blvd in West Haven.

October 7th, I'm EXTREMELY thrilled to be performing in the debut performance of the Ghost Trance Choir, which will be singing the music of Anthony Braxton as part of a 4 day festival called Energies, Ideas, Intuitions that is happening at the new Roulette space. That night will also see a performance of the 12+3tet, and the whole festival will feature some orchestra music, a new system incorporating voice, instruments and movement called Pine Top Aerial Music, and the debut of acts I and III of the new opera Trillium J, which will be accompanied by a 35 piece orchestra. Suffice to say that there is an incredible amount of energy going into the organization of this festival and if early rehearsals are any indication, it will pay off massively.

On November 12th, I will be involved in a composition recital of local friend and colleague Nate Trier. He is writing two pieces specifically for this occasion and I am very excited to be premiering them for him.

Stay tuned for opera updates - Brian, the librettist, and I have been having some great talks about the story/content, and I am excited to take the next step past the sketches I've been working on already. More to come!

Upcoming Dr. Caterwauls Events

2011-09-28T11:17:00.001-07:00

*note: for ease of navigation, I've decided to do organize updates by project, instead of trying to cram everything into a single update. Hopefully this will mean smaller, less unwieldy updates, happening more regularly*

Dr. Caterwaul's Cadre of Clairvoyant Claptraps has three upcoming performances, one of which I won't be involved in (we've done plenty of shows short a member before, no worries).

The first is THIS FRIDAY, September 30th, at the Outer Space in Hamden. We will be joined by vocalist Arminda Thomas and guitarist Jonny Rodgers, playing a set of early swing, and looking sharp. The rehearsals for this set have gone really well - it's going to be a ton of fun, and we would be awfully disappointed if no one danced.

(I can't seem to find info about the one in between, as that's happening while I'm on tour. However, it'll be for a tasting of some kind. whoops.)

The last, is Friday, October 21st, and is happening at Lyric Hall. For this , Dr. Caterwaul's will be joined by The Cygnet Sisters, vocalists Anne Rhodes and Zohra Rawling. Together we'll be affectionally deconstructing some classical repertoire, ranging from Mozart to Kurt Weill. There will be light fare and beverages included as part of the ticket price - further details on this event TBA.

Later we'll be playing at the Outer Space again, opening for Andru Bremis. That date is November 30th, and details will be confirmed for that later as well!

New An Historic Videos

2011-08-10T12:58:00.000-07:00

Birthquake Records head honcho Max was at the last two An Historic shows and got some nice video. You can check them all out HERE but here are a few of my favorites:

Stitched Together/Duke Barbatos

Hindsight

Briefest Eye

Thanks Max!

Upcoming Events

2011-08-10T12:24:00.000-07:00

First off, two exciting bits of news:

I had a proposal for a short opera accepted by the Baltimore based company Rhymes With Opera, to be performed in the summer of 2012. I'm excited to announce that the libretto will be written by Brian Slattery, who seems to get himself stuck on the same narrative questions I do, which has made for some intriguing conversations about the plot and structure of the piece. More details on that as they emerge.

I will also, next February, be working on a trio composed by Terran Olsen of the bands Kayo Dot and Autumn Tears. I have frequently enjoyed the chance to work with composers (as in my own composition) the possibility of integrating the accordion into an ensemble, and this will allow me to continue that to some degree. Terran will also be playing clarinet for the piece and Toby Driver, Terran's bandmate and the composer for Kayo Dot will play bass guitar.

Then, some upcoming shows -

I'm very excited to play with Dr. Caterwaul's twice before our mini-tour begins - once tonight, on the New Haven Register's "Register Sessions" at 6:00PM tonight (http://www.newhavenregister.com), and once tomorrow at Cafe Nine in New Haven, opening for the Fishtank Ensemble at 9:00 PM. Our mini-tour begins either in Philly on Thursday or New York on Friday, depending on a few factors. Look here or the facebook page for updates.

This weekend is the Uncertainty Series mini-festival. Many great folks are involved including on Friday locals Nathan Bontrager and Ben Shirley in a string quartet with Al Margolis and James Ilgenfritz, and Bird Fly Yellow with Joe Moffett, Dan Blacksberg and Dave Flaherty. That night I'll be doing a duo with Carl Testa, and we're both quite pleased with how we're helping to realize each other's compositions. On Saturday I'll be performing a short solo set alongside a set by Nathan Bontrager and a duo set between Anne Rhodes and Kyoko Kitamura.
Finally at the end of the month, An Historic plays with World History and Real Live Tigers, both intriguing songwriters playing in a scaled back fashion. The date for that is August 26th.

ACK! SHOW TONIGHT!

2011-08-04T08:19:00.001-07:00

Totally neglected to update this in the 4 days since I was added to this bill, but:

An Historic is making a debut performance in NYC TONIGHT! The show will be at The Delancy in Manhattan, (168 Delancy St), and I go first at 8PM. The bill, which is awesome, also includes Mal Blum (playing as part of a 4-piece band), Wood Spider and L.E. Rubin. I am incredibly stoked to be playing my first NY show as An Historic among such great company. Please come out! The venue is naming a drink special after one of Wood Spider's songs, "Oh Eloise!" (a proper ditty about getting shitfaced and writing a regrettable letter). $5-10 sliding scale, and $3 PBRs all night!

Collaborations

2011-07-25T08:07:00.000-07:00

I've been very glad to participate in several other projects outside of the most active 3-5 (at any given time), and a few have been or will be documented in some capacity before the end of the year. Chronologically:

I recorded a track with Elan O'Neal for his Old Forgotten Lands project, contributing throat singing, accordion and recorder to an epic ambient/dark folk track. The new Old Forgotten Lands album, "Primal," will be released later this year on Hypnotic Dirge Records. Elan and I talked about collaborating pretty much the whole time he lived in New Haven, given how similar our musical instincts are, and I was glad to finally do something before he left the city.

I contributed some Clarinet/Bass Clarinet and an accordion solo to Sigh's upcoming album "In Somniphobia." This will be coming out in November of 2011. I am very pleased to be again doing some spot recording for Sigh - I also contributed the same instruments to the orchestral palatte of 2010's "Scenes from Hell," and they are using those sounds to even creepier effect, complementing the keyboards/guitars/sax/bass/drums core lineup of the group. It was a great pleasure to get into the mind of Mirai Kawashima (frontman and composer) hearing drafts and demos of the tunes as they were taking shape.

I also recorded some doomy accordion for Mountain Wasp's upcoming split with Story. This will possibly be out (self-released) by October for our mini-tour. A future post will go into more detail about the mini tour - stay tuned!

Finally, the Atlas grouping of the NHIC that performed and recorded last year will be gearing up for the release of that material. Details TBA but it will probably be out by the end of this year. on NHIC Records.

Stupid Busy Again

2011-07-25T07:47:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed, there are a ton of new events along the sidebar. August looks to be a pretty exhausting month but also one quite worthwhile.

First up, since weather forced the cancellation of the first scheduled appearance with this group, I will be playing with the Afro-Semitic Experience on July 27th in Hadley, MA at the Porter-Phelps-Huntington House.

Two days later I'll be trying to work on a different set of old songs as An Historic at Neverending Books (July 29th, 8PM.) I'm excited to be splitting the bill with Robin Aigner and Serena Jost, two songwriters with some sonic kinship to me, from what I've heard. Please come out for what should be an excellent show.

Dr. Caterwaul's will then have a busy week, starting on August 7th at Lyric Hall as part of the launch party for the new Here Digest. We will play a live streaming set as part of the "Register Sessions," a series run by the New Haven Register, on August 10th at 6:00 PM, and on the 11th we'll play at Cafe 9 with the ridiculously talented Fishtank Ensemble, at 9:30 PM.

Then I'll be playing two days back to back as part of a mini-festival of the Uncertainty Series. On August 12th (Bru Cafe, New Haven, 7:30 PM) I'll be doing some new Duo compositions with Carl Testa, alongside Bird Fly Yellow from Philadelphia, PA, and the James Ilgenfritz String Quartet featuring local cellists Ben Shirley and Nathan Bontrager. Then on August 13th (Neverending Books, New Haven, 8:00 PM) I'll be doing a short set of solo music on a bill that features a split set with vocalists Kyoko Kitamura and Anne Rhodes as well as a solo set by Nathan Bontrager. All four performers will be variously involved throughout the night.

Further along (with more info coming) are a mini tour with Dr. Caterwaul's, a few performances in a play, and later an An Historic mini tour also featuring Mountain Wasp. Look also for an upcoming summary of collaborations and guest appearances that have happened this year and last, many of which will be released before the year is out.

A Brief Look Forward - EDITED

2011-06-27T16:24:00.000-07:00

(someone who proofreads a lot better than I do mentioned that it looked from the previous post as though Dr. Caterwaul's was breaking up. this is definitely not the case.)

As July has basically snuck up on me, here is a brief rundown of the gigs I’ve got coming up in the next week weeks.

July 1st – this Friday the month begins with a proper Dr. Caterwaul’s quartet show at the Acoustic Café in Bridgeport. We’re sharing the bill with Dada Mr. and the Diana Wayburn Ensemble. – things get going at 9 PM.

July 2nd is a Dr. Caterwaul’s trio gig at the Outer Space – Mike won’t be joining us as his reggae band, I Anbassa, will be opening for Steel Pulse at Toad’s Place in New Haven. Not to put too many thoughts into your heads, but you can totally make both sets without incurring a reckless endangerment charge. Due to various reasons this will be the last official Dr. Caterwaul’s show until mid August, although look to your local farmer's markets and street corners for a bit of busking between now and then. Some of us for certain will be around July 9th at the Wooster Square Farmer's Market, and more of us will be around July 17th at the Edgewood Farmer's Market. Should be grand.

July 3rd will be a new thing entirely for me. I am sitting in for this date with the Afro Semitic Experience, the group co-led by David Chevan and Warren Byrd that culls from spiritual music of both Jewish and African American Gospel traditions, throwing in a healthy bit of jazz. This will be a somewhat rare gig for me playing straight ahead jazz, but filling in for a pianist in this context is going to be fun and challenging. The other date is July 27th, in Hadley, MA, with details forthcoming.

July 9th – I’m pleased to be playing in a small ensemble put together by guitarist Ben Shirley for his Uncertainty Series date for the month of July. The ensemble comprises, at various points, myself on accordion, Carl Testa on Bass, Anne Rhodes on voice, and Nathan Bontrager on Cello as well as Ben on Guitar – Ben will also be performing duets with each of us as part of his presentation. Ben is a person I have enjoyed playing with immensely in every context thus far and his pieces make the most of the guitarist-perspective that I find can very nicely inform harmonic language, and can make harmonic progressions that are idiomatic to approach on other instruments.

July 14th is looking to be a solo An Historic gig at the New Haven Free Store – all proceeds raised will go to benefit the New Haven Bike Collective, which has had a strange history in the city but now is finally at a point where its existence will enable low-income folks to build and repair bicycles, which I am always in support of.

The rest of the month is forthcoming, and in many cases, not even fully pinned down yet. More to come!

Buzz Generator

2011-06-16T13:57:00.000-07:00

I'm getting strangely excited for this new An Historic Album, even though several details about it still remain undetermined. The grand plan remains to utilize Kickstarter to fund the recording and release of the album, and things are slowly falling into place - with every opportunity, I try and entice the rest of Dr. Caterwaul's into playing some of my tunes to try and align my vision for a final arrangement with the very alluring musicality of this group, and to that end, here are a few rough demonstrations - two tracks from the upcoming album as realized live at Lyric Hall during the last Dr. Caterwaul's concert.
Ice All Melting:
An Historic - Ice All Melting by gzarapanecko

Coffee Mouse:
An Historic - Coffee Mouse by gzarapanecko

The turnout of these, with minimal rehearsal and direction, is still quite satisfying and I'm very excited to get to work on the rest of the material. Part of the kickstarter rewards will include handmade CD copies of a Bonus EP (that I have literally JUST NOW finished recording) with an exclusive track not to be found anywhere else, and a live recording of some of my earlier songs being fleshed out and re-done with the help of various members of Dr. Caterwaul's, sometimes all at once. Stay tuned for all details, previews, etc.

Dr. Caterwaul's will be performing next week in New Haven, Thursday, June 23rd, as part of the Cirque du Papier, the New Haven Advocate's carnival/burlesque themed event as part of this year's Ideat Village festival. So far we know we're performing one set at 7:15, and possibly another later in the evening. Those coming out to bask in the stern visage of Brian Slattery should note that he'll be absent this performance, leaving me, Nathan and Mike to try and work a few new tunes in with our existing repertoire. (We'll be trying the above-posted An Historic Tunes on as a trio as well).
Later in the summer we're cooking up a Mini-tour with Spiff Wiegand's One Man Band, a multitasker's dream come true in which Spiff sings, plays rhythm, percussion and an occasional lead instrument without breaking a sweat. We're thrilled to be planning this - dates include Philly, NYC, New Haven, CT and Western Mass, with details TBA. Stay tuned, indeed.

Finally, Broadcloth has one more show before a summer vacation of sorts. We play June 24th at Cafe Orwell as part of a cello-themed night of experimental music, and we're super stoked for this. Our show with Prehistoric Horse was quite lovely in New Haven, and we're glad to be sharing a bill with them again - other performers include Hughs Vincent and Silver Process. We'll pretty much only be coming together as a group over the summer to try and finish up our impending debut release. In the mean time, check out http://music.broadclothtrio.com for the full audio of our Big Room show.

That's it for now.

Recent An Historic stuff:

2011-06-13T14:46:00.000-07:00

Since I haven't been doing a great job of juggling all the different outlets, facebook pages, blogs, etc too well, here is all of the most recent video and audio I've produced.

first, two of the most recent solo songs.

Soft as Snow:

Ice all Melting:

and finally a rough mix from the upcoming companion EP to the full length album that I will be trying to Kickstart soon:
An Historic - 2012 (unmixed) by gzarapanecko

Coming soon will be two renditions of An Historic songs by Dr. Caterwaul's (at our recent set with Tyler Bussey at Lyric Hall), and a proper update.

a heaping plate

2011-06-05T12:16:00.001-07:00

It has been awhile since I updated this blog but the time has been well spent. Broadcloth has played 4 shows in the last 2 weeks and we have two more on the horizon – highlights of this recent string of shows included playing amplified for the first time and collaborating and improvising with folks none of us have ever played with, including Jim Hobbs and Junko Fujiwara Simons in Cambridge at Outpost 186, the duo Architeuthis Walks on Land at IBeam and Edward Schneider and Constance Cooper at The Home Of… in Gowanus. These experiences were challenging and quite rewarding, as to my ears it helps us both expand our identity as a group as well as helps to define it more clearly when interacting with other players, instruments and approaches to improvisation. Expect assorted audio as well as the free/donation basis Big Room show at http://broadclothtrio.com in the next few weeks.

I played a few An Historic shows recently, finally got a handle for the new songs that I wrote over the course of the winter, and it seems as though the new album, Small Mercies, will be shaping up soon. There is a Kickstarter campaign that I am in the process of putting together, which will feature some handmade editions of upcoming promotional material I’m recording – a promo EP featuring alternate arrangements of songs that will be on the album as well as some other unreleased items. And at a recent Dr. Caterwaul’s gig we tried out a few of my more recent tunes in what were pretty invigorating arrangements, which makes me quite excited to pin them down and record them hopefully before the year is out. Dr. Caterwaul’s will be briefly on hiatus until July, although expect some of us to be out busking and trying to keep the spirit alive as we can during the rest of June. Stay tuned for info on that once I have done some more of the groundwork.

G. Zarapanecko is still experiencing some active splintering. I’ve been experimenting on utilizing black metal texture and tonality on synths toward some future recording goals, and in the meantime have been utilizing these works as the basis for some new small and large group compositions, trying to see in those pieces a potential for extreme fluidity that I think could really be beneficial. To that end I’ll be working in some capacity with Carl Testa, reviving our duo from last summer with some new motivations and goals in mind. Other permutations to be announced.

Finally, I’m working toward some manner of solo set for the Uncertainty Music series in August. Details to come but I am trying to make something cohesive out of the past 2+ years of miscellaneous composition and sketches. Expect details on everything soon!

(Cross)Pollination

2011-04-25T15:16:00.000-07:00

It is nice enough outside that I'm spending countless nights sitting on the porch past my bedtime enjoying the two weeks a year when the smell in New Haven is relatively pleasant. There is an enormous flowering tree in the next yard and with the right breeze this rather heavenly aroma is all you can smell. It's a wonder I get anything done...

This is some of the cross pollination I have been ranting about for the past few months:

Decayed Orbit

In which I start to see all compositions as mutable and modular and then slowly lose my sanity. This is the Erasmus Quintet performing a version of "Decade Orbit" from the last G. Zarapanecko record, and was a good dry run for the type of stuff I want to do with a live jazz/electronics group in the future. That project is totally embryonic right now although I have been sketching for it and thinking about it often over the past few months.

Upcoming shows include one I'm super excited about, what will be my last show at the Fucking Discovery Zone ever (the house is drying up at the beginning of June). This will be a milestone in a lot of sentimental ways that I won't go into here, but it will ALSO be an excuse to lure the fucking excellent Birth of Flower down to New Haven - think really mature-sounding insistently dissonant post-punk married with a bit of the Talking Heads. I never grew up listening to Spoonboy or the Max Levine Ensemble and I have heard various levels of enthusiasm about them from people that did, but I'm looking forward to checking it out for myself. And Circle Circle is another project of the prolific Emily Byram from the CT area, although I don't know much more about it.

Also really glad for Dr. Caterwaul's to be returning to Lyric Hall, this time with good friends and cohorts in this vaguely defined folky business Goodnight Blue Moon in tow. May 13th, further details TBA.

Finally G. Zarapanecko rolled over in its sleep, finished and then spat out two old covers onto Soundcloud. Check them out here:
The Brink Ov Time by gzarapanecko

G. Zarapanecko - Secret of the Forest by gzarapanecko

more to come, as always!

the imminence of tour

2011-03-28T11:08:00.000-07:00

Broadcloth, which has a brand spankin new website, is also getting ready to depart on our first ever tour starting Wednesday in Philadelphia. I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to bring our act on the road in a highly focused manner, and we'll be playing in New Haven at the Big Room the following Friday, April 8th. It will also be quite nice to be able to take in a bunch of new music in a semi-focused fashion. For the tour we'll have a bunch of new schwag, including business cards, buttons, stickers, and a tour-only hard-copy run of the compilation. There are some interesting possibilities on the horizon, but many too early to say - most intriguing to us is the chance of getting in a few recording sessions after tour, and channeling some of that chemistry in a recording setting. Stay tuned to the Broadcloth website for all that info and updates from the road.

Odds and Ends

2011-03-19T08:33:00.000-07:00

Alice

We finally outsmarted the computers and got this video of Alice to work. The version edited to our score was not quite the same cut that we played along to - the latter version had one really long title card which had to be approximated in this version. Anyhow, enjoy:

New Shows

Broadcloth will be warming up for our tour in New London, CT, at Telegraph on March 25th. Everyone will have new stuff to try out that we've been steadily working on. The tour goes as planned from March 30th through April 2nd, as unfortunately our IBeam show fell through. We'll still have the homecoming show in New Haven at The Big Room on April 8th as well.

The following day, April 9th, Nathan and I will be performing in the Lyric Hall Theater Orchestra, with music by Steve Asetta to accompany Tod Browning's "The Unknown." There are two screenings at 8PM and 10PM, and tickets are $10. If you're interested in securing a ticket, feel free to email me at weillwedance [at] gmail [dot] com.

The day after that, April 10th, Dr. Caterwaul's will play a set at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Milford, CT at 2:30 PM. We'll be slightly tweaking our repertoire for the setting, and we are expecting some guest vocals by Anne Rhodes for the occasion.

The other new date on that list to your right is May 25th at Outpost 186 in Cambridge, MA. We're very glad to be returning to that venue as it produced one of the more remarkable moments in our collective development as a group. Details about that are forthcoming.

that's all for now.

Triumph at Lyric Hall

2011-03-11T19:48:00.000-08:00

Dr. Caterwaul's show at Lyric Hall was awesome. Technical difficulties led to nerves led to general jitters but all in all it was great fun. We even have a few things to show for it - check out audio of our set HERE and also one of our soundtracks, for Georges Méliés "The Doctor's Secret" which features some music I composed/structured, expertly interpreted by the rest of the band:

I am still planning on doing the same treatment with our soundtrack to Cecil Hepworth's "Alice in Wonderland" but some really weird errors with my computer seem to be blocking this from happening. Soon, hopefully.

We also backed up Tyler Bussey on a set of folk tunes. I was quite enamored of his interpretations, and it is something we hope to do again, as our musical interests bisect at just the right angles that it really makes the collaboration work quite naturally. It also has got us discussing backing up other singers or singer-instrumentalists, with a few especially tantalizing possibilities on the verge of happening. That being said, if you have any inclination to sing your tunes and you want an incredibly smart, talented and goodlooking band to back you up, you should shoot us an email at doctors.caterwaul [at] gmail.com.

Upcoming will be a performance at St. Peter's Episcopal church in Milford, CT, possibly with a special guest, as well as a spot at Jalopy's Debauchery Series, hosted by the Whistlin' Wolves, on 5/20. The series in each of its installments focuses on a particular form or method of moral debasement, and the theme in May is sex; I'll leave it to you to guess which Prince song we're going to try and adapt. Shouldn't be hard.

Upcoming immediately is the return of the Erasmus Quintet. We're playing a set with Nick DiMaria's Zero Dollar Trio on Saturday at The Funky Monkey in Cheshire, CT, and while we've all grown as musicians since our last meeting, that certain je ne sais quoi about the group's identity is still maintained, and stronger than ever. Rehearsals over the last few weeks have been fun and there are some new compositions for the group, including two by myself and one by Nate Trier , musical renaissance man and NHIC affiliate. An upcoming gig on April 15th featuring the Erasmus Quintet also features the debut of Open Spaces, a free jazz group led by Trier. The gig will also feature a large group improv led by Trier, as well as a performance by Steve Asetta's Triolocus, prompting the gig to be branded as the NHIC's first annual Verge Fest, which will hopefully establish a tradition of drawing out some of the more well hidden groups contained within the fold of the NHIC.

Broadcloth is touring awfully soon. More on that in a later post.

At some point soon both Broadcloth and Dr. Caterwaul's are going to be aiming for a proper web site, instead of these stop-gap facebook pages and miscellaneous blog post mentions. I might end up cross posting some things between them if I start getting overwhelmed. Don't worry. I'm not likely to become a spam robot anytime soon.

Updates

2011-02-22T21:17:00.000-08:00

The Dr. Caterwaul's show on March 6th is really shaping up nicely - cellist Nathan Bontrager is writing some interesting material for the 1903 short silent film "Alice in Wonderland," and I'm pretty excited about what I'm writing for the 1909 short "The Doctor's Secret." The program also includes a short set by Dr. Caterwauls, playing quite a few new tunes, and a short set led by Tyler Bussey with Dr. Caterwauls as his backing band. Starts at 7PM on Sunday, March 6th at Lyric Hall in New Haven, CT.

Broadcloth has the dates for our short tour set. As follows:
March 30th - Fire Museum, Philadelphia, PA, 8PM, with Augmented Fourthet, Dan Blacksberg/Julius Masri
March 31st - The Windup Space, Baltimore, MD, 9:30, with Erik Spanger/ Jason Sloan, Three Red Crowns
April 1st - Infantree, Lancaster, PA, time TBA
April 2nd - Pyramid Atlantic, Silver Spring, MD, 8PM, with Seabrook Power... Plant, Lost Civilizations +2
April 8th - The Big Room, New Haven, CT, 8PM

We've decided to postpone recording until after the tour, which will hopefully allow for an even better turnout. Details forthcoming. In the meantime, we've been sorting through the past year of miscellaneous live recording and will be putting together a compilation with a limited handmade cd run exclusive to tour from some of that material. The compilation will be put on bandcamp for download after the tour is complete.

Gearing up, we've started a Facebook page as a stopgap for something that is more...of everything. "Like" us if you wanna: Broadcloth on the Infernal Machine/Facebook

also check out some of these videos.

It's spring and cross pollination is in the air. I have always liked the idea of hearing the same tune in different formats and instrumentations and for the first time I'm getting the chance to apply that in my own music through various collaborations. This has taken a chart on an incredibly large piece of paper to organize properly and is in fact still in progress, but will have various implications for the future - most significantly the adaptation of various studio G. Zarapanecko pieces into a way that can be performed live. Performing with my duo with Carl Testa and the Erasmus Quintet and doing some semi-regular workshop sessions has enabled this exploration and I am so far pleased with the results. Hopefully I'll have more to say on this soon.

Finally I should mention the Erasmus Quintet has added another date at the Buttonwood Tree in Middletown on Friday, May 6th. Time TBA. We'll be gearing up for the date at The Funky Monkey in Cheshire in March 12th soon. In the mean time check out the CD HERE.

ok, that's it for now.

Dr. Caterwaul's Demo

2011-02-04T13:38:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to announce that Dr. Caterwaul's Cadre of Clairvoyant Claptraps has released a free demo recording on our bandcamp page. Find it HERE.
We also have a page on Folk Routes.

Another gig

2011-01-30T19:33:00.000-08:00

I'm excited to announce that I'll be performing in a 4tet with trumpeter and electronic manipulator Lou Guarino Jr., as well as guitarist Christopher Riggs and bassist Carl Testa at the February installment of Testa's Uncertainty Music series, at 8PM, Neverending Books, New Haven, CT. This promises to be an energetic group! Lou Guarino Jr. opens with a solo set. 8PM, $5 suggested donation. More info at http://uncertaintymusic.com

2011-01-29T17:04:00.001-08:00

So ridiculously busy, but in the right kind of way recently.

of note:

Dr. Caterwaul's Cadre of Clairvoyant Claptraps played two excellent shows early this month, hosting Jakob Battick and Friends from Portland, ME and Wood Spider from allover CT, and picked up a drummer, Michael Paolucci. Big plans for this group include an upcoming demo, performing live in studio on Jeff Day's radio show (3/4, 89.5 or wpkn.org, 10pm) performing live accompaniment to a silent film (3/6, Lyric Hall, New Haven, CT, time TBA) and world domination. Check out our page on Folk Routes: http://folkroutes.org/profiles/drcaterwauls/

Broadcloth played the Local 269 as part of Fay Victor's Evolving Voice series on Jan. 17th. I felt really good about the set and it makes me excited for our upcoming Tour (March 30th to April 2nd). We've got two dates in PA, one in Baltimore and one in Silver Springs, MD, details up on the little sidebar. Our one year anniversary came and went without much fuss, but I've really enjoyed the past year of developing a group sound with these folks that continues to evolve. We're also gearing up to record a CD around the time of the tour, details forthcoming.

The Erasmus Quintet is gearing up for the official launch of the disc "Serious Folly" featuring myself on accordion and clarinet, Bob Gorry and Jeff Cedrone on Guitars, Paul McGuire on Soprano/Alto saxes and Steve Zieminski on Electro-Vibes. Shows coming up include one at the Funky Monkey in Cheshire, CT on March 12th with trumpeter Nick DiMaria's Zero Dollar Trio, and a Tax Day Mini Fest (for lack of a better term) featuring saxophonist Steve Asetta's new trio and a free jazz quartet led by keyboard-wrecker Nate Trier, on April 15th at Lyric Hall. More to come, too.

While An Historic still does exist it is pretty dormant at the moment. I have written a few new songs and am planning a release for hopefully this summer. Dr. Caterwauls has played a few An Historic tunes in concert, and they may be kind enough to help me out on the album. That might just fracture my ego, though. Additionally, I set up an old Yamaha synth with a really fat sound and have been recording some really strange stuff with it and bowed cymbals. I don't know if it qualifies as G. Zarapanecko stuff but it is fairly ambient, just much more melodic. Given the pace of that project it might be months before those ideas gestate. Finally, there is a group that I've been conceiving and writing for very slowly, which will also interpolate G. Zarapanecko material from the last album as well as some improv structures I've written for other groups. I've gotten maybe 20 minutes of sunlight daily in the last 4 days, but dammit, winter doesn't win. Snow, maybe.

New Albums and video!

2011-01-02T14:30:00.000-08:00

I'm pleased to announce the release of G. Zarapanecko's "Little Black Dots on the Air," officially released December 31st 2010. The album contains six noisy, drone-y ambient tracks, and one bonus track - a cover of the Sigh song "Nietzschean Conspiracy" done in raw black metal form. Find that HERE.

I've also just finished (yeah, like, just now) the "promo video" or what have you for Decade Orbit, from the new album. Shot over the period of several weeks on various borrowed cameras and compiled into an abstract visual narrative to accompany the song. This is my first such endeavor with video in general (not counting two "short films" for a high school language class) let alone a music video but I think the images do justice to the music. In addition to the Bonus track and high quality art, the video will be included as part of the bonus package. The album is free but if you have a few bucks to spare consider contributing a few for the release.

If you've already downloaded the album and you want to have a file of the video, please email me and we can set something up. Also check it out here:

I also recently released a recording of a live set from last May, featuring Steve Asetta, Nathan Bontrager, Anne Rhodes and Carl Testa in a series of improv structures. Results were quite good, I think, and worth a listen for an example of some fine acoustic improvisation with some real energy to it but full of the fluidity of an acoustic ensemble. Find that one HERE.

And a happy new year to everyone!

Folk Routes profile

2010-12-24T08:54:00.000-08:00

I have less use for Myspace now than I ever had, and thanks to this new project called Folk Routes, that amount diminishes daily.

Folk Routes is being described as an Anarchist networking and distribution syndicate - i.e. no ads, less bullshit, less legal grey-area. Right now it is a small group of folks in the northeastern US and the east coast of Canada (with a few exceptions) but who knows where it could end up? In the mean time, it's a great place for like-minded musicians to host music, videos, album downloads, etc in a centralized place. I will still of course be maintaining this blog and trying to figure out a balance between what goes here and there will take some work but it is an exciting new project and I am quite stoked about it. Also, my profile there has a sneak preview of a new song from the upcoming Cutoff split with Cud on it!

http://folkroutes.org/profiles/anhistoric

(the profile just says An Historic but you will be able to find info about G. Zarapanecko and other of my projects there too.)

Little Black Dots on the Air

2010-12-01T21:35:00.001-08:00

The new full length album from G. Zarapanecko, Little Black Dots on the Air, is scheduled to be released December 30th, 2010. Album will be released for now on my Bandcamp page with physical formats to follow.

Little Black Dots on the Air is the third release from G. Zarapanecko. In addition to previous elements of modern composition, ambient and improvised music, the new full length employs ideas from drone, noise and jazz, reflecting the experience of recent live performances: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BgsK8l_8S4 or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR9lD0ogsWg). Tying the ideas together is a deeply paranoid atmosphere driving all manner of the composing, structuring and performing of each layer of the album.

The album follows the course of a loosely structured narrative about small scale astronomical events within the earth's atmosphere, compromising the earth's relationship with the sun. The earth stretches orbit and axis, dead weight in the solar system, while on earth, faint singularities recondition human beings like so much circutry. But this is not a concept album, merely a reaction.

First two G. Zarapanecko albums - full length "Zaratozom and Magnus" and e.p. "Glitterdämmerung" available at http://gzarapanecko.bandcamp.com

Long Overdue

2010-11-10T19:19:00.000-08:00

I've been largely ignoring this blog as of late, but it's mostly because I've been trying to further sustain the juggling act of late, not usually succeeding.

Some highlights of the last few months:

Broadcloth did several extremely interesting performances, including one at the excellent venue Outpost 186 in Cambridge, MA. The highlight of the recent gigs was certainly the performance in New Haven with touring group Not the Wind, Not the Flag. They performed an amorphous take on free-improvisation, offering one duo of amplified mbira and percussion, and one of guitar and percussion, that was bracing, energetic and above all agile. Our set that night was extremely minimal, focusing on a lot of microtonal interaction and subtle shifts in various musical qualities over the course of several minutes. It was some of the most challenging music that I've played with Broadcloth, and proof to me that what we're doing has some vitality to it, even playing some of the same pieces multiple times during the past few gigs.

I've been working on the accordion part of Erik DeLuca's "Four Days of Winter," for an upcoming performance at Wesleyan University. I appreciate opportunities like this to perform new music, as it often is able to give me a perspective on both writing and improvising that is extremely valuable. The performance will be at Wesleyan University on November 16th, at 6PM, further details TBA.

After the recent string of G. Zarapanecko live performances and recorded collaborations, I've settled down back into some studio recording for another upcoming album. Pieces have been in progress in some form or another since December of 2009, and finally congealed in a cohesive way, one that's almost ready for release. The album will tentatively be called "New Doom," and while reflecting some of what I learned from doing live performance (i.e. noise and shifting loops) these are probably some of the most melancholy and desperate pieces ever recorded under this alias, even while being more direct than I often am. Expect future news about a tape release from GREESE,the hybrid of G. Zarapanecko and New Haven harsh noiser Bella Reese, too.

An Historic has been on-again/off-again. I'm gearing up for the release of a split with Cud Eastbound, tentatively titled "Cutoff." The songs for my half were originally recorded this summer, and have been tweaked recently with some bits and pieces of re-recording and overdubbing. They're all still geared toward (and were written at) the piano, but have been tweaked on various levels and provided with some expanded arrangements. I've been frustrated with the process of recording this one myself, mostly because recording a piano with proper equipment is difficult, let alone with a crummy built-in mic. I wonder if a situation will ever exist where studio time is possible through bartering or some other situation that doesn't involve temporary or long-term debt? Just an ongoing thought-process.

An Historic will be playing a show on November 19th at the Neverending Books, in support of Cabinet of Natural Curiosities and World History, starting at 7:00. The following Monday, I'll be playing a show to support Squinch Owl on her New England tour this year. This'll be November 22nd at Popeye's Garage - come dressed warm or ready to drink - it'll be cold, although one or two space heaters. Also, you should dance, I hear that helps.
You can check out Squinch Owl's latest release at http://squinchowl.bandcamp.com, and if you haven't already you should. Consider donating a few bucks if you can, because Sofia has run into some car trouble already on this tour that isn't cheap.

The show at Popeye's will also be the debut of Dr. Caterwaul's Cadre of Clairvoyant Claptraps, a group that I've been playing in with Nathan Bontrager and Brian Slattery. We primarily do bastardized renditions of folk music of varying origin, although the level of authenticity has been ranging wildly to great effect when we've practiced. It should be fun.

Finally, a show with an intriguing grouping of the NHIC, known as ATLAS. Consisting of Steve Asetta on saxes, Nathan Bontrager on Cello, Bob Gorry on Guitar, Jamie Paul Lamb on bass, myself on Clarinet and Steve Zieminski on drums. Many folks within this grouping already have some kind of rapport together in other situations, and the rehearsals so far have been extremely promising. This is Saturday, November 20th at 8:30 at Firehouse 12. The 10:00 pm show that night will be Mayhem Circus Electric, with the official CD release party of the group's freak-fusion effort, "Lubricity."

busy, busy, busy.

Razorcake Review - Ephemeral Stampede

2010-09-05T13:53:00.001-07:00

I find this review quite humorous.

Originally Posted on Razorcake: http://www.razorcake.org/site/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=23622

AN HISTORIC:
Ephemeral Stampede: CD-R
There are two camps of European folk-inspired contemporary music. The first include the bands and musicians who thoroughly enjoy the music of their fatherlands and wish to modernize the culture to allow greater access to the general public. The second consists of kids who listen to Flogging Molly and Gogol Bordello thinking themselves clever for being a band that pretends to have a wide worldview. I honestly don’t know which section Adam Matlock of An Historic should be placed in. He certainly seems more sincere about this music than most of the specimens I’ve ever seen. His arrangements are clever in parts and lead me to think he’s just a boy from 1930s New York longing to go back to his village in some small country that will soon become assimilated by the looming threat of the communist regime. If this is what he was going for, amazing job. –Bryan Static (Self-released)

CT Indie Review of Ephemeral Stampede

2010-08-11T12:07:00.000-07:00

Heavily percussed and violently accompanied by accordion, one of Adam Matlock's many project is titled An Historic. He just released his album Ephemeral Stampede. It features layer after layer of his soulful voice signing over top of eastern European and Balkan influenced music. He shows that he's not afraid to get a little weird, like all of the vocal layers on the first track, Briefest Eye; but later in the album in On Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? he goes completely beyond the realm of normal songwriting, where he elicits a gypsy jazz swing tune, complete with clarinets and what I think is a washtub. Fans of Beirut and A Hawk And A Hacksaw should perk up their ears and take notice. - JH

originally posted at:
http://www.ctindie.com/2010/08/historic-ephemeral-stampede.html

Recenter Things

2010-08-01T12:06:00.000-07:00

Recent-er things.
I've just finished recording and mixing my half of an intended split with Cud Eastbound. We find ourselves kin in strange and apocalyptic lyrics, and instead of being paralyzed by fear we decided to work with it to some common end. All these tunes are on piano with some occasional weird production effects, but I was trying to keep it simple before the next, fully arranged thing, which is still untitled but as before is almost fully arranged and completed months before any plans to record it solidify...

G. Zarapanecko is going live, on occasion, first at the August Uncertainty Music Series, as a joint set with Carl Testa, along with a set by A Split Psyche, and later Popeye's Garage on the 19th of August. This will also mark the only show of my group with Nathan Bontrager and Gabriel Bolaños, the Blackthorn Cataclysm, which is a strange and unique variety of rock-based improv. Everyone plays drums at some point. G. Zarapanecko is hard at work on some collaborations (collAberrations?) with some local noise artists, with results to be recorded or performed some time soonish - stay tuned for updates.

Finally, the debut disc from The Erasmus Quintet, recorded live in performance at Firehouse 12, has been released, and is available for download and ordinary purchase here:http://music.nhic-records.com/album/erasmus-quintet-serious-folly. The Erasmus Quintet has had some neat things said about it by the press - my take is Steve Reich on potent hallucinogens, a variously demented, driving and energetic drumless ride through the inner-workings of counterpoint. Also released on NHIC records is another group recorded that same night, Mayhem Circus Electric, featuring a strong core of the NHIC performing original compositions in the vein of better funk-influenced jazz-fusion. (less with the watery synths, more with the jittery rhythm section.)

More to come, as always.

Tour Blog YAY!

2010-06-19T14:01:00.001-07:00

Tour blog or something, almost entirely un-proofread so bear with me.

It was my first tour, it was Mallory's last, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, etc. etc. I'd had a few brief but intense hangouts with the kids from Mallory thanks to a random series of occurrences instigated by The Official Suckers when they were last on tour in the states, and had only a few random encounters with them afterward, but somehow I knew we'd be compatible touring buddies, and I was right. My only worry was that I'd never done this before and that I wouldn't be able to adjust to the trappings of touring, but it wasn't too far removed from my traveling days (in which I wore the same pair of overalls to, and past, any ordinary expectations for a garment, slept on floors or vertically in buses, etc.). I traveled with Niko, Justin and Andre of Mallory, as well as Haley, a current(?) Hampshire student who I'd met at various shows in the valley.

Our first stop was in Brattleboro, where the gig we'd gotten had fallen through just a few days before we departed. The idea was that we'd busk to make up a bit of gas money and take some valuable practice time, during which I learned some Mallory tunes (I had the honor of trying to sing Sofia Albam's part on "The House You Were Raised In," which was pretty difficult.) and during which Mallory learned a few of mine. That set up a pretty good dynamic for the rest of the shows we played, ensuring that at least one person in the audience could sing along to the other's material. Brattleboro is a cool town, which I had for some reason never been to before - it reminds me of Northampton circa 1993-ish, before various chains and franchises had started to move in, and the tremendous hilly-landscape of the downtown strip was fun to navigate. But it was a Tuesday, and there weren't a ton of folks out walking that night, so we didn't do too well. Finally we called it in, spent the little money we made on a beer special at the Brattleboro Co-op, and decided to go camping. Of course, the first place we found to do so was a cemetery, where a sign said Active Sporting permitted. The grounds were huge and we found a quiet corner near a rail-yard to pitch tents, build a small fire and chill out before the drive to Portland the next day...until around midnight, when the police rolled up, informed us that the sign actually said "Active Sporting _NOT_ Permitted" (The "not" had faded away) and very nicely asked us to leave. It was probably the least unpleasant police encounter I'd ever had, mostly based on the fact that the first cop reminded me of Mr Magoo and the second cop actually drove her cruiser into a grave by accident, which we both swore never to talk about again. Rather than pay 11 bucks for a campground and try and re-pitch our tents in the dark, we decided to make the drive that night to Portland. Along the way, we stopped at a gas station - I had started to fall asleep but was woken up by Niko who told me there was something I HAD to see. In my just-woken haze it looked like a fairy careening around the canopy of the gas station, until Haley named it as a Luna Moth, some enormous lime-green creature with about a 5-inch wingspan. A local drunk named Joe (apparently a regular at that gas station, since the attendant was calling him by name) was trying his damnedest to catch it, which he managed to do quite gently given his vigor. He held it still long enough for a few of us to get pictures, and then walked inside the convenience store and accidentally(?) set it loose. The attendant simply shrugged as she grabbed the broom to try and corral the moth back outside, as though Joe set large nocturnal insects loose in the store on a regular basis.

We made it to Portland at about 4AM the next morning, at which point Justin, Andre and I choose to try and catch a bit of sleep at the top floor of a hospital parking garage. Niko and Haley went to go exploring Portland and catch the sunrise, which I was altogether too exhausted to go along with, so when they came back around 7:30, we all switched - Haley and Niko tried to sleep for a bit and Andre, Justin and I went to a greasy-spoon diner to get a little something to eat, which was in hindsight a terrible idea. We all felt pretty queasy afterward, but strangely sated. We killed time for awhile, then tried to find Coyle St, the house that we were playing the show at that night. Once we did, we went busking at the local Farmer's market. Portland's Farmer's market is truly epic, taking up a full block of an enormous sidewalk, and we did extremely well, then took a walk around with one of Coyle St's former residents, Ariella. We found some food, then Ariella took us to this dilapidated dock that seemed to be entirely constructed of burnt timber, which made all of us a little nervous; but it was a sunny, breezy day and we all enjoyed the time spent relaxing before the show. At some point along the walk back, the tour had a name - "Champagne the Pain Away, 2010," a coded reference to a Cud Eastbound song which only meant for us that we'd try to drink a bottle of cheap sparkling wine on every stop of the tour. (This didn't last for long, once we crossed into Canada where the champagne was half as strong and all the alcohol was twice as expensive.). Armed with the cheapest alcohol on tour we descended upon Coyle St for an awesome show. If you ever hear that the Pattercubs are going on tour, check them out and fucking book them. They're awesome, loud folk-punk with violin, bass guitar, banjo, mandolin, a really sick inventive drummer who plays trash as well as a kit and lots of three-part harmonies. They played a great set that set the mood for the night really well. My set got people dancing, which set in motion the theory that Portland, ME has an unhealthy obsession with acoustic punk, and when Mallory played people were moshing and crowd surfing, which proved the theory pretty well. The show closed with Glade Swope, a truly unique individual who played an hour+ of solo thrash at low volumes accompanied by a rhythm track on CD. Not sure what else to say but the dude seems to be something of a local legend in Portland, totally consumed by metal yet wearing a baby-blue Hawaiian shirt. a living contradiction. Look him up, cos' I know you don't believe me.
We had a hell of a ride ahead of us the next day, so we woke up early to make the drive quickly and coherently. All of us had discussed our "story" for the border crossing in order to avoid customs/taxes for performing in Canada, and we had both mailed CDs across to avoid that becoming an issue. Again, this was one area where Mallory had some previous experience, so I deferred to them for the inspiration, though since the car was registered to me I did most of the talking. Aside from border guards taking issue with and confiscating pepper spray that was labeled "defensive spray" and not "bear spray," (though the ingredients would've been the same,) we crossed without incident or much delay. We drove about 1 1/2 hrs to Fredricton to pick up our CDs, and then two hours north of there to Moncton to play an outdoor show in a skate park for some really enthusiastic folks. We were more than a bit exhausted and were considering skipping the Moncton show (our hosts in Fredricton told us that Moncton was the heart of Nazi sentiment in New Brunswick, which made me glad i'd brought steel-toed boots, but thankfully we didn't encounter any of that.) On account of not realizing the time-zone shift, we were a bit late and missed the first act, but we got to see Josue play, the guy responsible for putting the show together. We ended up getting to see him play that night and the following two, in Fredricton and in Halifax, and got to hang out with him and his roommate Gumby after the show, which was the last night of Champagne the Pain Away in practice, if not in theory. It was a fairly low-key evening, and we got the chance to recoup a bit.

The drive between Moncton and Fredricton was comparatively short, so we took most of the day to lounge around. I was itching to cook, so I used the kitchen at the Galley, the house where the show was that evening, while Haley and the boys took a walk around Fredricton with Carolyn, one of the residents of the Galley. The show was small but enthusiastic - we played with Story, Cud and Mogli, who all of us knew from their tours in the states just a few months ago, and it was like a beautiful reunion show. The crowd was small but almost everyone knew the words to every song, so there was a raucous choir behind almost everything. The folks at the Galley were quite welcoming and they're one of the cleanest, most organized punk houses I've ever seen which some might take as a backhanded compliment but I mean genuinely.

The day after that, Halifax, only five hours of driving. It is impossible to state how stoked we all were, and once we pulled up to the Orphanage and saw Ryley sitting out on the steps we all started screaming in a way that must have scared most of Halifax. We had arrived in the middle of a scavenger hunt and after being nearly tackled by Rosie when her team arrived I was roped into joining midway - the remainder of the challenges included sewing a Harbour Water fest patch onto an article of clothing (mine remains on my shorts in what was obviously a rush-job), "making total destroy" out of a set of cardboard condos representing the encroaching gentrification of Halifax, and having our team quickly consume a Faxe, a local, extremely potent beer. This took us forever since we all stopped outside of the liquor store to come up with the cash for the beer, and the folks inside wouldn't let one of us buy it unless all of us could present ID, so we had to devise a backup plan that caused us to lose the scavenger hunt. Still, lots of fun and a great way to see a small part of Halifax literally minutes after arriving. The show got started a few hours later after an enormous vegan meal, and it was a series of transcendent moments. I got to see a lot of bands live that I had only heard compressed myspace recordings of, and got exposed to a few bands that I'd never heard of before. All in all the show was extremely well booked and sequenced, although the highlights for me were definitely the riotous duo of Carrot and Sweet Potato, singing some incredibly energetic murder ballads, the mosh pit that started during Ants and Anchors' set (playing some truly incredible tunes), hearing the latest configuration of the Official Suckers playing "Straight Kids Playing Dress Up" which damn near brought me to tears, and the aptly named "One-Hand Orchestra," which picked up on Mallory's final song, which included about a dozen people, myself included. The energy was really riotous, Garlic Fingers (a local snack) were thrown, nearly blinding someone, faces were punched, etc etc etc. It was basically a series of peaks that just kept intensifying, and I was really, really glad to be a part of it. After the last band, Buy Nothing Life, played, we all hung out for a few hours in the adjacent parking lot, fueled on by scotch and homebrewed beer, and had an intense series of brutally honest conversations that brought me up to speed with everything going on between the folks in Mallory, almost everything going on in Halifax, etc. After that, the course of the night seemed to make a lot more sense to me. After a Newfoundlander named Larry drunkenly stumbled over and acted creepy for a few minutes, I was able to call it a night and feel almost completely fulfilled.
The next morning, our party split. Andre and Haley went with Story and Cud to their home in PEI, while Niko, Justin and I chose to stick around Halifax for a bit longer. We spent the next two days in various configurations wandering the city with residents and friends of the Orphanage, including Rosie, Ryley, Rowan Bee, Kelly, Tucker and Tay (saw Jake a few times in passing). I got my first tattoo (a stick and poke), drank some great beer from a local brewery called Propellor, and lost my heart to the city and the folks we were hanging out with. I hesitate to gush and make a fool out of myself in this venue, but it was truly, truly wonderful to see old friends again and meet so many great new ones, busk with some new folks and eat some great food. It was also REALLY hard to leave for so many reasons, the least of which was the double shift waiting for me after the 15+ hour drive.
And that's about it. I'm back in New Haven, facing a brutal 45-hr work week next week and occasionally smiling so widely for reasons no one around me will understand. I promise, y'all, I'm not going insane, and let this blog be the best I can do to explain myself.

Post epic-show comedown, again...

2010-05-29T07:07:00.001-07:00

Many of the times I've said the title of this blog post, it is in reference to a house/basement/DIY show, something a little more ragged around the edges but overflowing with heart, soul, and all that goodness. Last night was very different, but a complete success on pretty much every part (which is good because a lot of people put a LOT of work into it, which I witnessed over the course of the past week.)

I'm of course referring to the Big Room/Uncertainty Music collaboration that occurred last night, showcasing dance/movement by Rachel Bernsen, music by Carl Testa, Taylor Ho Bynum, Matthew Welch and Broadcloth, my trio with Anne Rhodes and Nathan Bontrager. Broadcloth performed Elastic, Carl Testa's interactive electronic environment for improvising musicians, which was basically like improvising on a really, really tricked out sonic playground, and was loads of fun to perform. As an improviser doing my own work and working with others, I've found it difficult in the past to interact with electronics in a meaningful way; thankfully, Carl has the background as both an improviser and an electronic composer to make such a thing work (and we triggered/recorded our sounds with Wii-motes, which Nintendo should be paying Carl tons of money for.) Broadcloth also performed a short improvisation which took us in a different direction than we had gone in the past, partially due to the fact that we had a bigger room and different spacing than our normal semi-circle setup for the small rooms and stages we've played before. I'll be curious to see if that direction persists the next time we get together.

I also had the chance to perform Taylor Ho Bynum's "Three Fables from Borgel," based on a text by Daniel Pinkwater. These were some really bizarre, tremendously entertaining (to perform, and judging from what I could see of the audience's reactions, to listen to) songs that really captured the spirit of the absurdist/surrealist children's book they came from, which I'm now determined to check out. Working on these over this past week with Anne and Taylor was really a treat, and I hope opportunities to play compositions like this aren't so few and far between in the future.

Matthew Welch accompanied one dance piece by Rachel, and performed a solo improvisation on his own. Suffice to say he's a monster, the bagpipes have never ever seemed cooler and I'm further building my case to eliminate electric guitars after hearing the extended techniques bagpipes are capable of, and the good old-fashioned shredding when necessary too.

Rachel presented four pieces, one accompanied by Welch, one with electronic sound and light by Carl, one accompanied by a really impressive cornet score by Taylor and the last featuring live bass guitar by Carl, voice by Anne, and a choreography that incorporated them both. I've started to develop an appreciation for dance after spending the last two years accompanying for modern dance classes (albeit for much younger dancers, at Neighborhood Music School), but I'm far from being a connoisseur; I did really appreciate Rachel's choreography in each of those contexts, recognizing some aspects of improvisation in them that I can immediately relate to as a musician. The fact that so many of these pieces were interdisciplinary at heart was part of what made them so engaging to me and to some of the folks I spoke to during the intermission and afterward. There was a nice turnout, especially for an event of this nature, and it seems as though there were a lot of people who were in my shoes as of two + years ago, surprised to see such a strong avant-garde art scene in New Haven surviving and, dare I say, flourishing.

And on top of all that, I met Anthony Braxton. Like I said, biiiiig comedown...

Broadcloth at Take Your Time

2010-05-21T08:31:00.001-07:00

Next week, May 28th, at the Big Room in Fair Haven, CT, Broadcloth will be performing as part of a killer lineup in the premiere installment of a new series called Take Your Time. Below, I'll post the official writeup, but Broadcloth will be performing a structured improvisation alongside live electronics by Carl Testa as accompaniment to one of Rachel Bernsen's dance pieces which are the focal point of the evening. I will also be performing with Anne Rhodes and Taylor Ho Bynum on Bynum's "Borgel Songs," a short song-cycle.

It looks to be an incredibly diverse evening of new music and art, and a fully multi-media experience. Hope to see you there!

The Uncertainty Music Series and The Big Room introduce Take Your Time, an interdisciplinary performance series, featuring new works by Rachel Bernsen, Carl Testa, and special guests.

Friday May 28, 2010 at 8pm

The Big Room - Erector Square 315 Peck St. New Haven, CT, Building 6W, Studio D

Tickets are $12. Seating is limited. Reservations are recommended. For reservations email: thebigroomnewhaven@gmail.com

On Friday May 28th, a consortium of New Haven-based artists will launch a new semi-regular performance series called Take Your Time. In a co-presentation of The Uncertainty Music Series and The Big Room, choreographer Rachel Bernsen and composer Carl Testa will offer the New England premieres of new and recent work in their first shared evening. Rachel will perform three pieces, each a unique collaboration with musician/composers including Taylor Ho Bynum, Anne Rhodes, Carl Testa, and Matthew Welch. Carl will perform a new composition for light, sound, and movement, and present a new piece for trio and live electronics featuring the collective improvisation trio Broadcloth. Bynum, Welch, and Broadcloth will also be performing short improvisations and original compositions.

Rachel Bernsen “has the ability to make even the most simple things completely fascinating. She is an amazing performer and a compelling artist” (Michael Helland, Curator, Dixon Place). Her most recent projects create dialogues between sound and movement; where the musician’s physical presence and role is equally important to that of the dancer, integrally connected to the flow of time and the organization of space. Her work has been presented at such New York City venues as Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, Roulette, Dixon Place, and Issue Project Room. At Take Your Time, Rachel will perform three works: User in collaboration with Anne Rhodes and Carl Testa, Glimmer Glint Glisten (with a live score by composer/cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum), and Singular Present, a collaboration with New York based composer and bagpipes player Matthew Welch.

Carl Testa is a composer and multi-instrumentalist, most notably as the bassist in composer Anthony Braxton’s septet and 12+1tet with whom he’s performed throughout the US and internationally. Testa’s own compositions have been described as “engaging and unique” (Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery) and “human music, with varied emotions and sublime moments” (Richard Kamins, The Hartford Courant). For his performance at The Big Room, Testa will use interactive electronics and computer-controlled lighting equipment to create dynamic environments for both movement and sound. www.carltesta.net

The evening will feature additional performances by Taylor Ho Bynum, called “one of his generation’s top avant-garde figures” by The New York Times; the trio Broadcloth, a unique instrumentation of voice (Anne Rhodes), cello (Nathan Bontrager) and accordion/recorders (Adam Matlock) that plays from notated, graphic, embroidered, and textual scores in addition to completely spontaneous pieces; and Matthew Welch, a virtuoso bagpipe player and composer "possessed of both rich imagination and the skill to bring his fancies to life" (Time Out New York).

The Uncertainty Music Series www.uncertaintymusic.com is a New Haven, CT based creative music series that has been presenting concert events since September 2007. The goal of the series is to provide a venue for local and regional artists that may not have the opportunity to present their work elsewhere. The Big Room is a new studio and performance space providing the New Haven area with a much needed, low-tech platform for interdisciplinary collaboration, experimentation and research in dance and performance.

Coming VERY soon...Ephemeral Stampede!

2010-05-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned this on and off over the past few months. Ephemeral Stampede is an album that has been mostly written and arranged for almost two year now. I had intended to record it all nice-like with a real studio and some session musicians/friends filling out the sound, but after something resembling a complete financial breakdown, I had to bite the bullet and self-record the whole thing. I'm actually quite satisfied with the turnout, and the re-done arrangements reflect what I've been hearing in my head after performing many of these songs live and solo in the last 9 months, which is quite different from the Kurt Weill-influenced cabaret sound I was originally going for. If some sugar-parent wants to give me a great deal of money to re-record these closer to my original vision, I would not say no. But I'm ready to move forward as well, having completed another full-length of An Historic material that I would like to record soon-ish, too (which budget concerns will probably force me to, again, self record and release, as much as I'd like to save my computer the strain of burning endless copies.) So that's that...hoping to self-produce a limited run before tour begins, so that I've got something more current that reflects a little more of the direction that An Historic has gone, since producing CDs is awfully expensive if you don't have the money for an upfront investment. And of course, it will be cheap on Bandcamp too...

Ephemeral Stampede by An Historic is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at gzarapanecko.bandcamp.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.myspace.com/adammatlock.

An Historic Mini Tour with Mallory (help!)

2010-05-14T09:45:00.000-07:00

This might just be the cutest thing ever.

In June I'll be hitting the road for about a week to go on a small northeast tour with Mallory, ending up in Halifax for the Harbour Water festival put together by lots of sweet punks up there like Ryley of Fairy Boy and the Official Suckers. This is my first tour and I'm a little nervous but mostly just excited. I'm lucky to be traveling with Mallory who are not only nice musicians but sweet people as well, so I have high, high hopes.

As you can see, we could use some help in Brattleboro, in New Hampshire, and in Portland, as well as the first date in Moncton, New Brunswick. I've never been to any of these places as a growed-up person, so any help anybody had with venues, contacts, etc would be really sweet. You can contact me through this here myspace thing, or via email at weillwedance at gmail dot com.

thanks!

A Long Time Coming

2010-03-31T15:41:00.000-07:00

The limited free-run of G. Zarapanecko’s Glitterdammerung was reasonably successful. It was free for 12 days, and got maybe 30 downloads total, plus random links on French and Finnish music blogs (though I haven’t a clue if there was anything resembling feedback about the album.) I’m hoping to do a physical tape release soon, with details forthcoming. I’ve also begun early recordings of a new, noisier G. Zarapanecko release, getting back into exploration of synth programming as well as electroacoustic processing. We’ll see where this ends up, many, many months from now, I’m sure. Now the trouble will be finding some poor, interested suckers who’ll actually pay for the digital release now…just another example of me shooting myself in the foot with promotional ideas...

I nervously sent out copies of the first An Historic demo, “My Czerny,” to zines like Razorcake and Give Me Back a while ago, hoping not to get one of those bullshit reviews where the reviewer doesn’t even spin the disc, or stops it after the first song, etc. To my surprise, not only did I not get one of those reviews, but I also received something resembling praise at points – I won’t bother trying to summarize, so here:

AN HISTORIC:
My Czerny: CD-R
This thing had “Beware! Most likely contains ambient and indiscernible home recordings!” written all over it, mostly due to the ambiguousness of the packaging and the lack of much information besides song titles. Instead what we get are some “actually pretty pleasant and tuneful home recordings,” mostly of the, uh, squeezebox/accordion variety, I believe. About half of the handful of tunes here are single-instrument pieces, while the rest feature additional instruments and overall excellent vocal work. Got no idea what it is they’re actually singing about it, but they’ve convinced me, whatever it is. Most likely not gonna make any Razorcake reader’s top ten lists, but was an atmospheric enough run on a night when the rain’s coming down and the wind’s howling around the house. –Keith Rosson (An Historic)

I’ve been busy for awhile recording new An Historic material. My plans to get something finished by an upcoming show fell through, or so it seems, but the project is around the 75% mark, which is relatively exciting. The material here is from Ephemeral Stampede, all home-recorded demos of an album I had written almost two years ago and planned to record in a real studio before everything fell apart financially. This might be the last we hear of this material, or I might some day, much later, re-record these tunes in such a way that more closely resembles my original arrangements. But for now I’m relatively satisfied with everything so far, and just two tunes and a handful of random tracks to finish up. Meanwhile I’ve just about finished writing the material for another An Historic release that will be recorded hopefully in May if all goes well – I’ve been practicing and performing most of these songs solo and I’m going to keep them closer to the solo-arrangements on the recordings, which is a different approach then I’ve taken with An Historic material in the past, mostly because the fidelity of my equipment makes solo recordings sound pretty awful.

An Historic performs April 3rd at the Unitarian Universalist society sometime between 6:30 and 8:00 for a benefit dinner for the Connecticut F.A.D.G.E Fest . (Feminism, Autonomy and Diversity of Gender Expression). April 9th is a performance at the Fucking Discovery Zone with Story, Cud East, Squinch Owl, Tyler Bussey and New Year’s Revolution – 7:00 PM and donations for touring bands. Finally, April 10th is the first Juggler’s Meadow Festival of 2010, with tons of bands and lots of other various stuff going on too – zine stores, free market, workshops, food, etc. Details on that last one TBA.

After some finagling and jumping through hoops, Passing a Penny, the song cycle based on Rob Talbot’s poetry, is definitely still on. More details to come as we approach the May 8th performance.

Finally, after a brief hibernation after our concert at the Stone, Broadcloth will be bouncing back soon. Again, details still forthcoming.

Glitterdämmerung - Available Now and Free for the next 7 days

2010-03-20T08:40:00.000-07:00

Upon the transition of time today, the sky is alight with the first trickles of the metacontext, which will ramp up steadily over the course of the next 22 months.

Glitterdämmerung, the new EP of electro-acoustic ambient music by G. Zarapanecko, is among the earliest missives of this new aeon perceptible by human hearing. All sounds wrestled digitally from the aethyr and manipulated into something resembling "composition," "improvisation," and "melody." Shape suggests narrative suggests structure, but suggestions can be ignored.

Glitterdämmerung is now available at this web portal and will be a free download for the next 12 days. Your exposure is recommended prior to the full flood of glitter at twilight on the eve of 21 December 2012.

Creative Commons License
Glitterdammerung by G. Zarapanecko is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at gzarapanecko.bandcamp.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.myspace.com/adammatlock.

!!!

2010-03-04T19:31:00.000-08:00

It's a bizarre feeling to have my hands in so many projects, each engaging me in a completely different way. Playing in other people's bands is fun figuring out how to engage with other material, usually in a very different style than material I write myself.

Playing with Broadcloth Sunday at the Stone was really a treat for us as players. We had a small space with decent acoustics, and an occasional radiator hiss to punctuate some of our more composed moments. It's still kind of a blur to me but I felt exceptionally present at the time. Thanks again to everyone who we blackmailed into coming - Kinan, a student of Nathan's, was kind enough to record video of the concert (he also recorded our set at Audubon Strings on January 30th, on Youtube and many of my pages), and that will be up shortly. Expect something like a coherent release from Broadcloth in the very near future, too.

Then Monday and Tuesday saw me playing solo sets. Monday was at Cafe 9 as part of the Beatnik 2000 series. What I saw of the bill was interesting and eclectic, with spoken word and some other music. I had to leave early because I had work in the morning and a big day lined up on Tuesday; the first show I ever booked with Fairy Boy and the Official Suckers and Mogli who were touring from Halifax, NS. This was a show that I had been having weird prophetic dreams about in the two weeks. I won't attempt to explain them but they were different from my normal anxiety dreams about upcoming concerts, which usually involve me struggling continuously to get to a concert on time through nightmarish turns of events (kind of like the plot of Umjammer Lammy, the absurdist psychedelic music game on the Playstation.) Feral Flowers and The Book Slave and I rounded out the show, and it was a solid, nearly two-hour marathon of great music. I was pretty captivated by everything, and there was a great turnout, and on top of that all of the potluck food was delicious. On top of that, Fairy Boy, Mogli and the other Suckers Rosie and Thom were all sweethearts, and I had a blast hanging out with them. In a fashion quite true to myself, Jeff/Feral Flowers and I are going up tomorrow to see them play again in Leverett, MA at the Juggler's Meadow. I've got first hand info that it will be an awesome show, also featuring Providence, RI and Amherst, MA-based Mallory.

After that, I'll have an appearance as a performing guest on "The Jef Sessions," Jef Wilson's radio show on WYBC 1340 AM in New Haven, or online at The Yale Radio website, between 1-2PM on Saturday. Carl Testa will be appearing for the first hour.

It's been a busy week for me, and after Saturday I don't have anything lined up for awhile The next thing on my plate is another acoustic show I've booked at the Fucking Discovery Zone, with touring acts Story. and Cud E. who are fellow Nova Scotians playing acoustic solo folk punk. I will play along with other CT acts New Year's Revolution, Tyler/Old Hannah, and Wood Spider. A large and varied acoustic show, with flyers forthcoming. This will also be the second show I've ever played where I've not been the only accordion player - Mogli was the first, and Story. will be the second, and both make fabulous use of their instruments, just in case you should happen to be an accordion nerd like me.

What the hell I've been up to...

2010-02-24T14:11:00.000-08:00

I'll try to keep this brief because as usual there is a lot going on:

Coming up on Sunday, February 28th, is Broadcloth's performance at The Stone in NYC. Previous gigs and rehearsals only got better and tighter, whether performing compositions or doing free improv, and it should be pretty clear with this set how much work Anne, Nathan and I have put into making this group as organic as possible. We've also established a Myspace page for the group, found here, which hopefully will be followed by something more closely resembling a webpage.

The following two days, An Historic will perform in New Haven. Monday is a brief set at the Beatnik 2000 series in New Haven at Cafe 9, which will be a shorter set. I sat in with Jef Wilson's band Schwa on that series less than a month ago, and it lived up to its name, with music, slam poetry/spoken word accompanied by hand percussion - perhaps living up to an aged artistic ideal but certainly not the sort
of thing you see often in New Haven - plus it seems to be fairly musically inclusive, evidenced by my accordioneering being booked for the gig. Cafe 9 is generally considered a dive with good music and decent beer, so it's a win-win venue all around. This usually gets going around 10 PM.

The next day I'll perform at the first show I ever booked. Mogli and Fairy Boy and the Official Suckers will be rolling through on tour from Nova Scotia, and they both represent an energetic, melodic strain of acoustic punk that is quite worthwhile. (Plus Kyle Fairy Boy describes himself as queer-panic folk, which is a better subgenre than I've heard in awhile.) Feral Flowers (aka Jeff P) and The Book Slave will also perform, and that pretty much means shit is gonna burn the house down. A truly diverse cast of musicians, all somehow contained under the banner of acoustic punk. This will be at the Elm City Infoshop (Neverending Books) at 810 State St, and the space will be open at 6:30, with the show probably starting an hour later. Vegan potluck, money for touring bands, etc.

There’s also a good chance that on Saturday, March 6th, I’ll be appearing as a performing guest on Jef Wilson’s radio show, the Jef Sessions, on WYBC 1340AM / 94.3FM. It airs between 12 and 2 PM, and I’ll be a guest during one of those hours. Again, details forthcoming.

All these An Historic appearances will be building up toward the recording of a new EP, which I mentioned a while ago but had put on the back burner in favor of other projects. I wrote four of the songs for this project within a week’s time, with two others falling out more or less spontaneously in subsequent short periods, and have been revising them slowly as I’ve learned them. The EP will contain these new original songs and one or two folk/public domain tunes I enjoy. I envisioned these songs to be as stripped down as possible, in contrast to the layered tunes I’ve been slowly self-recording that comprise the “Ephemeral Stampede Demos” project, which is meant to serve as a stopgap until a later, higher-quality recording can be produced. The tunes for this EP (yet untitled) are mostly accordion and voice, with some having drums and some clarinet overdubbed into the mix. I’ve performed two of them so far at shows, and will be trying the rest out at upcoming gigs.

The release of G. Zarapanecko’s “Glitterdammerung” is quite near, and to top it all off (since, let’s face it, who’s gonna buy it anyway?) the digital release will be free for the first 12 days. Hot damn.

Finally, after much delay, procrastination and setback, the song cycle “Passing a Penny” based on the poetry of Rob Talbot, is complete. The work is due to be premiered at the Uncertainty Series in May with Anne Rhodes singing, along with some other solo accordion compositions I’ve been slowly working at for awhile, which really came together once I got my new accordion last year. The music is best described as alternately manic and melancholic, a duality that describes the poetry (and probably myself better than I’d care to admit) quite well. Save the date – May 8th is going to be a barn burner, and it’s the first of my through-composed compositions to see a performance in over a year.

That's really about it. I ranted about the concept behind "Orchestrion," Pat Metheny's newest album recently on my Myspace blog, and I forgot to cross post it here. You're not missing much. I did so without having listened to more than one or two video clips of it, but really, finding out about the album was a catalyst for some ideas I'd been mulling over for a while anyway...check it out at http://myspace.com/adammatlock if you are for some strange reason a completist about my written word.

...and boy is my left arm tired...

2010-02-08T08:56:00.001-08:00

blog 2/8/10

A lot to talk about: I spent the last week in New Orleans, which I'd never been to before. The music down there is great - I met up with Missa, my once and future busking partner, and brought my accordion down so we could go chasing our glory days on main streets of Western Massachusetts again; in the process, I ended up joining one of her bands for a week, featuring fabulous musicians and songwriters all - Saymus on a baby banjo that was tuned like a ukelele, Sal on guitar and harmonica, and Eli on acoustic bass guitar, with Missa playing trumpet and flute and a guy named Jason who was a whiz on clarinet and alto sax, and we were joined for one gig by Dizzy on the washboard. The music ranged from klezmer to more traditional New Orleans jazz, some old-time and swing, as well as some more ambiguous tunes written by members of the group. All in all, between busking and playing with these folks for a week, I learned about two dozen songs, most of which I still remember. I really appreciated this idea of playing accordion with a rhythm section, as there is a certain percussive quality to pretty much any strummed or picked instrument that is difficult to replicate on an accordion, especially while singing. And I have serious clarinet envy in a city like that, especially how the best players just make it look so damned easy...

I timed my return so I'd be able to see Kayo Dot play their first album Choirs of the Eye and their latest, Coyote, in full at the Stone. My full impressions go up later this week, along with an interview with composer/guitarist Toby Driver, at the Avant Garde Metal webzine, but suffice to say it was extraordinary, presenting two sides of what is very clearly the same band exploring different sonic terrain. It makes me extremely excited for the upcoming release of "Coyote" - and interesting to note that I saw live performances of both this album and their last release, "Blue Lambency Downward," prior to the album's release, which is an interesting perspective to get as a fellow composer-performer, trying to figure out how to realize complex music in live performance. Plus I'm a huge fanboy, so it's really a win win.

February 26th is the digital release of G. Zarapanecko's latest ep, Glitterdämmerung. Finally got the mix to a desirable level and have nearly finished the artwork. There might be a bonus track lying around for the taking too. Enough said for now.

Almost finally, and I forgot to add this to my page, but I'll be playing an acoustic show at the Elm City Infoshop on February 15th, with Brook Pridemore, Liv Carrow and possibly others.

Finally, Broadcloth. Just prior to leaving for New Orleans, Broadcloth had an exceedingly joyous and contemplative set at Audubon Strings on January 30th, which included Gabriel Bolaños Chamorro's "Big Crunch Singularity" and compositions by each of the group. I talked this gig up endlessly, and I would dare say it lived up to the hype, while being extremely different from our debut gig. I want to wait to make any judgements until I have the audio, which Lou Guarino Jr. graciously recorded. Kinan Faham took tons of pictures and took video of the whole performance. You can see a clip here, or search Broadcloth on Youtube for the rest:

Last night we played a set at C.O.M.A., the Citizen's Ontological Music Agenda, and it was a very different beast than last week's set. We played a set entirely of improv, in contrast to the highly composed playing of last week's set, and the result was quite energetic - it didn't hurt that the first set, the duo of Dave Ross on guitar and Shayna Dulberger on bass, was similarly full of energy, and something one might call extreme pointillism, which put us in a good mood. I like all kinds of crowds but this was the first that was having serious uncontrollable physical reactions to the music, which was also good inspiration to an improvised performance. The structure of the night is that two acts each have a set, followed by an open session during which series curator Blaise Siwula pairs off groups of participants from the audience and from the performers, so I got the chance to do some free improv with players I haven't met before, including Dave Ross, Blaise on Alto Sax, and folks whose names I didn't all catch. Anyway, the series is a great and supportive environment for new music, and while we were competing with the Super Bowl, it was more gratifying to know that the people in the audience either really wanted to see and support new music (or just really hated football). At any rate, expect a digital release from this group, and probably, gasp, a myspace page.

Gigs this Weekend

2010-01-25T09:40:00.001-08:00

Friday, I'll have a brief spot playing for the Neighborhood Music School's winter dance concert. This starts at 7PM. The dance itself is called Hubba Bubba (I think) after the gum, which should give you some idea of what a troupe of young modern dancers can do with such images. It's actually quite cool, and I've crafted a semi-composed piano solo to accompany the piece, called "Xylitol."

Later that night, a big spectacle of the NHIC at Cafe 9, with the Brett Bottomley Group in some configuration, Mayhem Circus Electric and the Elm City Guitar Quartet +3. We'll be attempting to renavigate some pieces from Crash, and try a few new ones too. I've become about as zen as I can about playing acoustically amongst 4 electric guitars but there will be a PA at least. It promises to be a raucous set and the press has seemed to enjoy the NHIC live and on record in the recent months.

On Saturday my trio Broadcloth will perform. We've put a lot of work in between this gig and our last, and we'll be playing some fun new compositions in addition to some free improv. We'll be playing two sets and will be accompanied by two guests in the second set (Steve Zieminski on percussion and Gabriel Bolaños Chamorro on guitar). The first set will include the debut of a new electro-acoustic composition in spectral music by Chamorro written especially for Broadcloth. $5, starts at 8PM, at Audubon Strings, a room full of violins, violas and cellos and one composition by Bontrager plans to take maximal advantage of that fact. Hoorah.

A Declaration

2010-01-19T09:04:00.001-08:00

A Declaration
I have often spent a lot of time, effort and brainpower into musical ideas that never make it past the conceptual stage, most often because of lack of resources or know-how - and sometimes a good idea just takes to the backburner because what seems like a better idea is at the forefront of my consciousness at the moment. Case in point - An Historic's full length record, "Ephemeral Stampede", has been written and arranged almost completely for the better part of last year, and the only thing that's stopped me from taking the album past the level of complete pen-and-paper abstraction has been the fact that I'd decided some time ago that I was going to record it in a nice studio. Obviously I don't make enough money to manage this, and the economy has made this less, not more likely since that decision was made; so some odds and ends, pieces of harmonies, chord progressions and lyrics have been sitting around, physically or digitally, waiting to be engaged again...

So finally, on Sunday, I got sick of that. Even though, as usual, I'm up to my ears in various projects right now, I decided that I'm going to self-record and release demos of most of the songs, so that they exist in some tangible form, even if only to serve as a placeholder for a future session. The first tune I did (which is nearly complete) is Ephemerer Ansturm, the title track of the album (only in German...) At the height of its activity, I had 12 tunes lined up for this project, 10 original and two traditional (including Brother, Can You Spare a Dime which I've recorded before), with something resembling flashy arrangements or the closest equivalent my abilities can provide. Details forthcoming, but this will probably exist as a CDR, and maybe, just maybe, if someone likes the demos enough to send a couple grand my way, these will be redone at a later date, somewhat closer to the way they were originally conceived. Expect updates and an MP3 quite soon.

Upcoming Performances and Broadcloth Audio @ Myspace

2010-01-12T18:44:00.000-08:00

Gearing up now for a flurry of performances in the next few weeks, then a brief vacation, then a bunch more after that.

Saturday, January 16th:

The semi-annual NHIC review will be happening at Neverending Books, with two sets and two different groups. I'll be in the second set. Starts at 8-ish, with admission by donation, etc.

Friday, January 29th:

with the Elm City Guitar Quartet +3. CD release party for Crash at Cafe 9. Everything starts at 10 with the Brett Bottomley Group (Brett plays marvelous things on the Chapman stick, and is an NHIC affiliate.) At 11, the ECGQ +3 will be reunited for some raucous rock-ish fun, and at midnight, Mayhem Circus Electric will perform some weird grooves (just don't call it fusion) with some guests, and minus keyboardist Nate Trier.

Satuday, January 30th:

Broadcloth will perform two sets at Audubon Strings in New Haven, CT - one solo, and one with some guests. Details forthcoming, but it's in a room full of stringed instruments, and hey isn't resonance neat? New track from my Myspace player is from our debut gig. (http://www.myspace.com/adammatlock)

Sunday, February 7th:

Broadcloth will perform a set at ABC no RIO for the COMA (Citizens Ontological Music Agenda) series, a long-running improvised music series in NYC. We'll do a set, another group TBA will do a set, and then there'll be an open jam that everyone will likely participate in, so bring an instrument if you're around.

Friday, February 12th:

An Historic. Some kind of acoustic show at the Elm City Infoshop/NEB. It's all very nebulous, really.

Sunday February 28th:

Broadcloth will perform a set at The Stone in NYC, holy shxt I know right? $10, 8PM.

Tuesday, March 2nd:
An Historic, The Book Slave and Feral Flowers support touring Nova Scotians Mogli and Fairy Boy and the Official Suckers for an acoustic punk-ish show - a really diverse and talented lineup - at Elm City Infoshop/NEB. Details/flyer forthcoming.

And breathe...

Lyrics from My Czerny

2010-01-11T07:29:00.000-08:00

yeah, that's right, people post lyrics and stuff don't they?

Briefest Eye:
Can I confide in you/ Loose threads on all my seams
Tell all my troubles to you/ if that is what you please
there's no need for concern/ I will survive this phase
but all I have these days/ is worry

About the war machine/ God and guns and government
the will that claims it's heaven-sent/and the victims on the television news
but if I choose/ two channels down
there's actors paid never to frown

Ain't got it bad/this storm will pass
Ain't got it bad/didn't finish last

I'm sure my day will come/when I get my reward
I'm sure if I was drowning/ I would get dragged aboard
I don't think I've been wronged/ don't feel I've been deceived
but for some good news I would be relieved

Ain't got it bad/this storm will pass
Ain't got it bad/ didn't finish last

If:
Four stools down you spill your drink on the man
he cries angry, runs at the streetlights
to demonstrate scorn, the bar stands in unison
the mood is tense, I creep for the door
I just want you to take me away
but the hope's not enough,
it's not enough

If we could hitchhike together
we'd get far, I swear we'd get far
to the north or the west, wherever the trucks go
we'll find others, make them drop everything
if you'd spilled your drink on me
but the hope's not enough,
it's not enough

If this plan doesn't work I'll take responsibility
buy us bus tickets home, or maybe we'll find a car
drive out to nowhere and hunt for our food
but I'm getting ahead this is all presupposing that
I was the one that you'd spilled your drink on
but the hope's not enough
it takes a little more
the hope's not enough, it's not enough.

Hindsight:

Excuse me
I'm still in this city
Ignored all the warnings
Instead thought that I'd sit here pretty
and cry to myself
as I tried not to drown
It was a spell of bad planning,
I thought If I strapped in
I'd easily manage to
wait out the worst of the
storm that took the crown

It all went downhill from there
You'd better believe I was underprepared
for the sheer isolation you can't overcome
when your only friend is a gallon of rum

I needed to eat but instead I ignored it
I tried to sleep but got no reprieve for it
If I'd left to go somewhere welcome and warm
then it wouldn't be me and this storm

Swore that I'd never get stuck here again
but it's just a cycle
It's just a cycle
and now I'm falling in
Wrote my regrets upon my skin

but the lessons that you think you learn from the past don't always sink in

2
It's been seven
years, lost possessions
some frantic replacements
and chronic obsessions
It was just a storm
But it's one that I'll not soon forget
If I'd the chance to revisit
I'd follow the wise ones
and get while the going was good
no I wouldn't stay
to get my feet wet

But it's easy now to look back
easier still not to cut yourself slack
when you find- yourself at a fork in the road
and the path that you choose has eroded

These voices say nothing that I want to hear
but somehow they know just what - I - fear
I can drink one more glass, they'll continue to moan
I can get it together or die here alone

Somehow I've found myself back here again
I know it's a cycle
it's just a cycle
but the walls are paper thin
to disengage would be a sin

But the gift of hindsight never benefits
you when you need it
and a life can be forgotten when you
can't see past your shroud

and the lessons that you think you learn

(Not like you're gonna steal my crappy words but it's protected under a creative commons non-commercial, attribution share-alike license, so just ask.)

Movie Music - A Rant

2009-12-30T07:36:00.000-08:00

Like many American music enthusiasts, I studied classical piano in my younger years but really only had the interest for more popular-oriented orchestral music like film and video game soundtracks, which combined all manner of "concert hall instruments" with synthesizers, drumkit and electronic percussion, guitars, bass, what have you - a true mashup that is somehow much more tacky than it sounds. But while I liked some of these themes and scores enough to listen to them separately, I usually had no interest in their clumsy application to a film, usually with obvious edits and maximum volume to completely destroy any chance of you noticing how subtle they aren't. Even worse when the film is about some non-Western subject, and the music takes on awkward non-Western instrumentation for the sake of boxing the audience about the ears, screaming "Listen you! We're not in AMERICA any more!"

All this is building up to something, and that's the curious conflict of Avatar. See it - it's probably $12 in theaters for 3D but it's worthwhile for an immersive, probably revolutionary visual effects experience that successfully suspends my disbelief in many moments. The effects are simply that flashy, but with a certain amount of subtlety that makes it all the more convincing. But the less said about the atrocious script, riddled with Action/SF cliches, the better. The less said about the pan-indigenous mashup that is the alien race the Na'vi, with their 10 ft height, feline faces, dreadlocks, accents that are somewhere between southeast Asia and Kenya, etc, etc, etc, the better. The less said about the heavy-handed but still vague environmental metaphors that also have the time to pick up a dash of fantastical reverse-assimilation stories like Dances with the Last of the Samurai etc, etc, etc, the better. But I shall not be silenced on the subject of the music which is so explosively terrible and doesn't even provide a basic function of distracting from bad dialogue. The perpetrator here is James Horner, whose fascination with taking a folk instrument and beating an audience to death with it is well known thanks to the (for some reason) million selling Titanic soundtrack. However since ethnicity is here more ambiguous, Horner's score draws on every continent in a synthesizer's "World Instrument Section," mixing "Airy Panflutes" with "Warm South African Vocals," "East Asian Lutes" with "Oriental Percussion Kit." (These are actual names of synth presets on one of my programs. We are SO post racial...) Actually these recordings probably fat-paid a BUNCH of musicians but boy those sessions must've been boring.

Although I can't be sure; is it more sad that scores like this exist, continuing Western art and popular music's fascination with the "exotic other" that has early documentation with what was long known as the "Local Color" phenomenon? The phrase is used in classical textbooks, describing the decisions of composers like Mozart or Puccini for using imported percussion and pentatonic melodies in operas set in Turkey and China, and it is rarely used as a complement, since it usually reflects only a superficial familiarity with the source instrumentation or melody and some show of coercion to align it with the western orchestra. Or is it more sad that scores like this exist BECAUSE over the past century of Hollywood's fascination with and dramatization of the "other," composers have established particular timbral and melodic cliches that completely bastardize the context they were stolen from?

12/27 Show Location Changed, Cankickers added

2009-12-24T06:48:00.000-08:00

Due to an unlikely coincidence our little show grow out of the Infoshop. The Can Kickers were due to play another show that night that got canceled when the series' booker was sacked. (Bummer too, the Sundazed at BAR series brought some of the widest range of fringe music New Haven has to offer...)

So the folks in charge of this show contacted them about combining the two shows, and they agreed. The flier time is still 5:30 and the location is the Fucking Discovery Zone, which will be temporarily heated by space heater and whiplash punks for the sake of fingers not arthritically impaired by cold...

So, to review:

5:30 PM
12/27/09
Cankickers
An Historic
Mark Leonard
Mike Bird
Filthy Still

Fucking Discovery Zone.
Vegan Potluck.
Donations for touring bands.
hoorah.

Erratic Bits of Activity

2009-12-21T11:07:00.000-08:00

I write, mostly for fun. More often than not the pieces are fiction, short stories and fragments thereof, but my curiosity fuels quite a journalistic streak in me, and has for years. Currently I write an occasional review for the Avant-Garde Metal(http://www.avantgarde-metal.com) webzine. At the end of this month and early next month, my first interviews will be published, with John LaMacchia of Candiria/Spylacopa, Toby Driver of Kayo Dot, and Mirai Kawashima of Sigh. I managed to get some pretty excellent answers to very particular questions, and all I need to do is brush up on some basic HTML formatting.

An Historic is playing a set on a show at the Elm City Infoshop (810 State St.) on December 27th. Mark Leonard, Mike Bird, and Filthy Still will also be playing. The show will start at 5:30, originally to finish in time for the now canceled Can Kickers show at BAR, but someone's working to try and get them another location. Acoustic solo accordion, with original songs, instrumentals and covers, as well as various strains of folk-punk.

My trio Broadcloth, after a very successful free-improv debut at the December 12th Uncertainty Music series, is hard at work on some new improvisational exploits, in addition to compositions by each of us (and whoever else of our friends we can solicit music from.). We have a gig at the Stone (yes, that one) on Sunday, February 28th at 8PM, and this set promises to be a sleek beast, if recent rehearsals are any indication. If any composers happen to read this and are interested in writing compositions or improv structures for a trio of Cello, Voice and Accordion (with marginal recorder skills) please let me know: (weillwedance@gmail.com)

Finally there's a decent chance that I'll have two gigs on the same day January 29th. I'll be playing a new piano composition along to the Modern Dance Ensemble performance of the Neighborhood Music School. Later that night the Elm City Guitar 4tet +3 will play a show in celebration of the release of the CD "Crash." That's Bob Gorry, Jeff Cedrone, Chris Venter and Tom Gogola - Guitars, John Venter, Bari Sax and Bass Clarinet, Steve Zieminski - Drums and percussion, and myself on Accordion and clarinet. This is a raucous group full of energy at its best, and provides some imposing moments as well as moments of real clarity. The show isn't yet confirmed, however.

Less stressful holidays to everyone.

Briefly, a really busy weekend...

2009-12-08T06:36:00.001-08:00

All you wonderful folks have three whole chances to check out some cool stuff I'm involved with this weekend!

Friday, 12/11 - 1 year anniversary Show of the Fucking Discovery Zone, featuring An Historic, The Book Slave, Colorguard, Baby Crazy, Derrick, and Bela Reese. Should be tons of fun - starts at 7 PM.

Saturday - 12/12 - I'm in an improv trio tentatively known as Broadcloth featuring myself on Accordion and Recorders, Anne Rhodes doing vocals and Nathan Bontrager on Cello. Carl Testa will also do a solo bass set - starts at 8 PM

Sunday - 12/13 - A gig with the Yale Tango Orchestra, details STILL tba. But it starts at 4 PM.

The world's most epic juggling act...

2009-11-16T13:19:00.000-08:00

As usual, so much going on at any given moment, and that's rather the way I like it.

I'm less than a day after the final performance of Fiddler on the Roof, which after all the stress and hype that I built up for it in my head, turned out to be relatively fun. It was my first time ever playing with a conductor - since there really aren't all that many opportunities for the average accordionist to do so, even in the classical world, as many pieces for accordion are solo or for small, conductorless groups. And as usual, my ears are better than my eyes, so it's usually much easier for me to follow cues based on what other people are playing, rather than by counting rests and what not. All things considered, I think I've managed alright, even with some true "deer-in-headlights" moments of panic. And to my ears, the accordion sounds so good in doubling with various combinations of instruments - and the score provides ample opportunity for me to play with just about every instrument - useful to me in picking up timbral ideas as a
composer. With that said, I'm not sure if I'd ever want to play with an ensemble like that again - it took pretty much all of my time away from the writing and practicing I wanted to be doing at most times. However, if ANYONE EVER wanted to play Hindemith's Kammermusik No. 1 (op 24), that's a challenge I would leap to - if it is in fact possible to play on a Stradella bass accordion. The accordion part is largely inaudible on the Abbado recording I own.

As I've usually never ceased to mention, I'm appearing in a small role on the upcoming Sigh disc, "Scenes from Hell." The band has finally finished the master (by James Murphy, no less, who is apparently a wunderkind at this sort of thing), and announced a date for the release - January 19th. I've heard early masters and this promises to be pretty much the coolest album ever. I can't say anything the hype machine hasn't already said but seriously - full orchestration,
compiled piecemeal by fans and friends across the world, including yours truly on Bb clarinet, bass clarinet and accordion - this thing is gonna be awesome. This morning, Sigh's posted a track from the album on their Myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/sighjapan) but unfortunately the mandatory Myspace compression doesn't really do the mastering any favors. Still,
it's worth checking out, while waiting for the final release. The album art is especially stunning, too – some of the usual grim depictions of demons, violence, carnage, but done in what appears to be oil paint rather than on a computer. The artist is Eliran Kantor (http://www.elirankantor.com/).

I recently had the chance to meet with vocalist Anne Rhodes (http://www.annerhodes.net/) about the long-promised song cycle based on the poetry of Rob Talbot. Anne did a master’s thesis on the process of collaborating with composers at Wesleyan, and while I have written for voice before, this song cycle is the most in-depth work of that kind that I have yet attempted, incorporating some extended techniques and improvisation alongside some more traditional attempts at melody and texture. Meeting with her was extremely informative, as she was able to give me some more broad ideas about vocal technique and capacity in addition to her specific abilities. We had been talking about this meeting for awhile, and I feel as though this is the last step I needed to take before completing the work. I’m hoping it will be finished by year’s end, and that there will be a performance next spring. I have most of the musicians lined up, too.

Finally, I’ve been working away at some stuff for An Historic. There’s a new album in the works that will contain mostly solo material with minimal overdubs – the yet-untitled album will contain five new original songs meditating lyrically and musically on apocalyptic themes, and a few covers/arrangements of some folk songs as well. Details and format will be forthcoming. An Historic will be performing in the near and far future as well – in December, at the 1-year Anniversary show for the Fucking Discovery Zone, alongside some great local CT acts like the Dead Uncles and Bookslave, among others. Details and time TBA. Finally, next spring I’ll be helping to book a couple of fun Canadians from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and probably playing alongside them too. Fairyboy and the Official Suckers (http://www.myspace.com/fairyboyfairyboy) and Mogli (http://www.myspace.com/moglidavid) will be coming through in March, and Story (http://www.myspace.com/storysong) and Cud E (http://www.myspace.com/cudeastbound) will be coming through in April. It’s still a ways off, and details will be coming soon. Lastly, I’ve been in talks with Steven Asetta and the rest of the horn section of Goose Lane, another great, innovative CT band with some stunning horn arrangements, about the possibility of realizing the basically-completed An Historic album “Ephemeral Stampede,” both in the studio and for some shows. This is still probably a ways off, but we’re all pretty excited about the prospect. Stay tuned for a truly epic juggling act!

Recent Wonder

2009-11-08T18:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I played for the first time at Firehouse 12 with the Erasmus Quintet, a subheading of the NHIC that features Jeff Cedrone and Bob Gorry playing guitars, Paul McGuire on Soprano and Alto Saxophones, Steve Zieminski playing Electro Vibraphone and myself on Accordion and Clarinet. This group at its best plays highy charismatic, vaguely tonal avant-garde chamber music, pulsing and many-headed. I've had the pleasure of seeing music at that space before, and playing there is an even greater experience - Firehouse 12 has a fairly intimate listening setup but one that feels like it almost encourages careful dialogue between listener and performer. Or something. The gig went quite well for much of the set, and we had a fairly good turnout, too. Set two was a different group, the Mayhem Circus Electric with some nice rhythm section work by Steve and Pete Brunelli, and the added presence of Nate Trier and John Venter on keys and bass clarinet respectively. Hopefully this day turned out some recording-worthy items for somewhere down the line. Both groups are relatively young and have yet to be documented adequately.

More recently, the acoustic offshoot of the NHIC met earlier this evening, with myself, Nathan Bontrager and Gabriel Bolanos returning, joined by Paul McGuire with saxes, recorder and shaker and Nick DiMaria on trumpet. We played for roughly an hour and a half, doing some standard NHIC exercises, some slightly tweaked for our grouping. The session produced, to me, some really extraordinary sounds and playing. We were in a a fairly enclosed space and the sheer force of three horns blowing into the center of that room produced some fairly intense textures. We also had some softer moments that produced tons of overtones that are still ringing in my ears several hours later. With acoustic instuments you have just as wide if not wider of a palette of sounds and dynamics with which to appreciate them. We really dug into that tonight, and also turned to our voices and various means of percussion for a final exercise. Several of us think that on the strength of the first two workshops we have reason to try and build momentum towards a concert. We're hoping to recruit a few more into the fold, and perhaps we'll end up having some compositions for the group as well. Stay tuned for more details.

I'm also REALLY digging this most recent Saul Williams release, "The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust." It's got some really insane production by Williams, Trent Reznor and a few others, and classically great wordplay by Williams, including one really intense piece called "The Ritual" with many references to Richard Wright's Native Son. No suprise to me that this direct lyrical engagement of the subject of race, even accompanied by head-shaking electronic syncopation, apparently alienated some of Williams' fan base.

New Stuff Soon!

2009-11-04T11:23:00.000-08:00

Been working so fast recently, and of course not on what I should be working on.

A large chunk of the 2nd movement of "Passing a Penny," the song cycle of Rob Talbot's Poetry, has been completed - leaving 3 completed in draft and one still in limbo somewhere. I'm hoping to have this performed along with a few near complete solo accordion pieces and possibly one more at an Uncertainty Series sometime next spring.

I've also finished the recording of the next G. Zarapanecko e.p. "Glitterdammerung." Production and mastering may take a wee bit longer but it's definitely in the pipelines. Format Undetermined. Check out the first G. Zarapanecko release "Zaratozom and Magnus" at Bandcamp for now, and hopefully with a physical release in the future:
http://gzarapanecko.bandcamp.com/albums/zaratozom-and-magnus.

Also begun work again on a cello-and-accordion duet that has been kicking arond for awhile. Details forthcoming.

Finally, the 4 songs that will probably make a future An-Historic EP (with some bonuses, I expect,) are nearly complete, lyrics and everything. It will take me awhile to learn them now but many of these came out of extended accordion improvs that turned into riffs and melodies, so I've already got them in some form.

Seriously that's it. There are a lot of projects in the works for after that, but at the moment they've been put to bed.

obligatory promotional bollucks - NHIC @ Firehouse 12

2009-11-01T06:55:00.001-08:00

If you live in New Haven and you like weird music, please check this out. Somehow I might be the only one who thinks that the NYTimes article is somewhat unflattering, making us seem like we're a bunch of white dudes philosophically and musically stuck in the past (I hesitate to address that fact directly...) but it will help with publicity, anyway. And the shows promise to be among the more tightly organized of NHIC performances. Both groups participated in some form or another in this year's New Haven Ideat Village festival most recently, and are drawing on some intriguing compositional and improvisational ideas to what is hopefully a rewarding end.

and now, the formalized promotional material....

The New Haven Improvisers Collective will be performing at Firehouse12 on Saturday, November 7th with sets at 8:30 and 10pm.

This performance will celebrate the release of the New CD, Inflection

BUY TICKETS ONLINE AT http://firehouse12.com/events.asp?id=70911

There was a very nice article in the New York times about NHIC.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/nyregion/01musicct.html

There were some strong reviews of Inflection in the New Haven Advocate and the Hartford Courant.

http://www.newhavenadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=15148

http://blogs.courant.com/richard_kamins/2009/10/the-youth-movement-new-music.html

The CD is now available at the following outlets.

Cutler's Records, 27 Broadway, New Haven www.cutlers.com

NHIC Records www.nhic-records.com

CD BABY http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/NewHavenImprovisersCollective

For the performance at Firehouse12, two different NHIC groups will perform.

The 8:30 set features the Erasmus Quartet and its hypnotic electro chamber minimalism. $15 includes second set.

The 10:00 set features Mayhem Circus Electric with some lowdown avant-groove jazz. $10 for set two only.

Tickets and Information at http://firehouse12.com/events.asp?id=70911

Hey wow I'm busy...

2009-10-22T15:49:00.000-07:00

Busy both in brain and body.

Had a great debut gig as An Historic, despite my nerves. The crowd was fun and willing to sing along. I'll be doing another one in early November at the Elm City Infoshop - details forthcoming. In the past week I've also written almost four complete songs (with certain details still nebulous), which is really fast for me. I've even made it through the stage where I hate them and then revise many of them extensively until they meet my satisfaction. Who knows how they'll sound when they turn out?

Also, yesterday morning was the first meeting of an acoustic sub-grouping of the New Haven Improvisers Collective. We had Nathan Bontrager playing cello, Gabriel Bolanos playing acoustic guitar, Anne Rhodes singing, Nate Trier playing accordion and Euphonium, and myself playing accordion and clarinet. Everybody responded well to the thought and we hope to do it again sometime - the lack of drums or electric guitars meant that we had to rely on different strengths than what work in the NHIC at large, and it's definitely going to be some interesting exploring.

Fiddler on the Roof approaches, and damned if I'm not a little nervous...

Finally, I've been thinking a bit about revisions...I like the whole Kerouac idea of "imagine it better and move on," in terms of a creative output, but I'm also a little too neurotic to just learn from my mistakes and not revisit the piece itself. Currently I've begun radically restructuring a lot of drafts of compositions that never made the light of day, like the septet version of "Devil Horn Man" as well as "Smiling, Laughing and Taking Pictures," among others. There are several more fragments and fallacies from my early years that I've been wanting to re-compose, in a sense, almost as though I'm my own arranger. But I realize that after a point that can make you stagnant, and can be an easy way out rather than challenging yourself for new ideas...if anybody has any thoughts about this, I'd love to hear them.

An Historic Debut set and "My Czerny"

2009-10-09T15:52:00.001-07:00

On October 16th at the Fucking Discovery Zone in New Haven, An Historic will play a debut solo set, alongside Bookslave, Wingnut Dishwashers Union, Todi Stronghands and Starla! Ubiquitous, in an all acoustic show. The doors open at 6:30 and there is a vegan potluck - bring cash for acts touring from as far away as Canada. If you need the address, the internet will tell you.

For the occasion, I hunkered down and finished up the oft-discussed demo "My Czerny." A limited run of handmade physical CDs will be available at the show, and the music will be up on my bandcamp page in the next few days:
http://gzarapanecko.bandcamp.com

After this performance I'll be disappearing into my hermit hole to practice the hell out of the Fiddler on the Roof score which is crazy hard, except to play with the Erasmus Quintet on November 7th at Firehouse 12. I'm also hoping to get together with some acoustic NHICers for somewhat different strain of improv, though details are quite nebulous at best.

Hooray!!!

My Czerny by An Historic is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at gzarapanecko.bandcamp.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://myspace.com/adammatlock.

Two upcoming Gigs and Bandcamp!

2009-10-01T20:09:00.000-07:00

On October 16th An Historic will be playing a solo set at a folk-punk show at the Fucking Discovery Zone in New Haven, CT. Other performers and time TBA.

On November 7th I'll be playing with The Erasmus Quintet as part of a back-to-back doubleheader showcasing two New Haven Improvisers Collective groups. I'll be playing the first set, which starts at 8:30 PM. The Mayhem Circus Electric, (which had a debut performance as an open jam during this year's Ideat Village festival) will be playing the second set, at 10 PM. Info and tickets at: http://firehouse12.com/events.asp?id=70911&seriesid=54271

(Earlier that week, look in the NY Times for an article about the NHIC, due to be published on November 1st.)

Additionally, I'll be playing Accordion in the pit orchestra of Sacred Heart Academy's (Hamden) production of Fiddler on the Roof on November 13th, 14th at 7:30 and November 15th at 2:00. It'll be a high-school production but this is a Catholic academy with a significant arts budget, so who knows?

Finally, you can listen to the entire debut album from G. Zarapanecko streaming (and pay to download) at my new Bandcamp page, here: http://gzarapanecko.bandcamp.com/
I didn't realize how this site was setup, so despite the focus suggested in the url, this will probably be the Bandcamp home for all of my projects, unless I get suddenly quite OCD about setting up multiple pages...

Adam the Session Player/Collaborator

2009-08-27T05:50:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-27T05:49:00.000-07:00

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...!

G. Zarapenecko - "Zaratozom and Magnus

2009-07-06T08:46:00.000-07:00

the first official release by G. Zarapanecko, Zaratozom and Magnus, is completed and awaiting a few logistical hurdles before release, hopefully by the end of the month! Here's my attempt at a promotional blurb:

Dark, improv/ambient-oriented electronica with lots of processed acoustic instruments, completely self-recorded and produced. One of the tracks, Apocalypstick, posted on my myspace page a while ago is featured on the album, along with 5 others, to make a 45 minute aural journey through tempestuous inner space, absorbing ideas of musical collage, overtone harmony and a love of Alice Coltrane.

(so I'm not very good at this sort of thing.)

Zaratozom and Magnus by G. Zarapanecko is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Additionally, I'll soon be releasing (via bandcamp and a limited run self-made CD release) the solo performance I gave in March at Neverending Books in New Haven. Coming SOON!!!