Just wanted to let you know I’ll be playing 2 shows this weekend (Long Beach and DTLA) with Chris Schalrb’s wonderful Psychic Temple project. It’s very interesting music that falls somewhere between the gaps of folk music, modal jazz, and the modular improvisation of Terry Riley. You can preview the music we will be performing on the show here.
Also my Alt-Classical EP is “officially” going to be released this coming Tuesday (02/16/11). You can download a copy for free at my SoundCloud and Bandcamp pages and it should be showing up at all the usual online sites (iTunes, Emusic, Rhapsody, Zune…) in the next few weeks.
my new Alt-Classical EP is coming out in january and while i’m finishing up the liner notes here is the first track. click below for links to the download and score.
Fearless Leader was partially inspired by a quote from the Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti: “Now there is no taboo; everything is allowed. But one cannot simply go back to tonality, its just not the way. We must find a way of neither going back nor continuing the avant-garde. I am in a prison: one wall is the avant-garde, the other wall is the past, and I cannot escape.”
this piece was originally conceived as a modular improvisation (in the style of Terry Riley’s Tread on the Trail) but didn’t work as intended (modular improvisation and the resulting rhythmic syncopations didn’t mix well). the orchestration also went through quite a few revisions and for a long time i considered it the black sheep of my PBE repertoire. i guess it goes to show that sometimes you gotta stick with something until you get it right.
Fearless Leader (2006, revised Spring 2007)
clarinet, trombone, vibes, keyboard, electric guitar, bass guitar
this track is released via creative commons: attribution, noncommercial, and share alike which basically means to me feel to download, remix, mashup, deconstruct, etc… as long as you give me credit and don’t sell it. if you do i will have my critter army hunt you down and hug you until you change your ways.
a week ago i thought i was actually done with the alt-c album. well… almost. i thought i was done mixing had a few tracks mastered and was feeling pretty good about the whole thing, that is before i started listening to the music on a variety of other sources (earbuds, car stereo, ipad speakers). [...]
this recording has been a long time in the making and i have avoided blogging much about it until i knew i was close to being able to release it. a lot has happened since i started recording it in 2007, but in many ways that is the reality of making DIY music; you go ahead one step at a time.
as i have alluded to in a previous post i’m in the final stages of mixing and in general it’s very strange to be spending so much time listening to recording sessions that are from a few years ago. i feel like i’m spending all my time hanging out with a holodeck version of my band that i start up on my macbook every morning. the other day when i was talking to scott mcintosh (clarinet) i hadn’t realized that we really hadn’t spoken for a few weeks since i have been listening to him play every day.
the most surprising thing about editing and mixing music is the strange intimacy you develop with the performances. during the process you become aware of everybody’s musical strengths and weaknesses which goes far beyond our relationship as bandmates in rehearsals. it’s a strange place to be in, repeatedly listening to a single moment of time when in reality the all of the band have moved on with their life (i have to remind myself of that in rehearsals). as for editing and mixing my playing, having that kind of self awareness is problematic and is a big reason why i need to take a 3-6 month break between each stage of the process (recording, editing, and mixing) so that i can get some emotional distance from my own performance (and in general each composition). it’s not easy and i’m not usually happy with my trombone sound, but the good news is that on this album i finally have found a ‘good enough’ trombone sound where i don’t cringe everytime i hear myself play.
at this point of the summer it feels like i have been rehearsing every day (with my holodeck band) and i’m getting pretty excited as i get closer to taking this recording from ‘rehearsal’ to ‘performance’. i’m also looking forward to finally being in a place where i feel comfortable sharing more about my DIY process and the how this album was made
