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.
3.31.2010
3.20.2010
Glitterdämmerung - Available Now and Free for the next 7 days
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.
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.
3.04.2010
!!!
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.
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.
2.24.2010
What the hell I've been up to...
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.
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.
2.08.2010
...and boy is my left arm tired...
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.
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.
1.25.2010
Gigs this Weekend
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.
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.
1.19.2010
A Declaration
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.
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.
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