It’s been a minute since I’ve done one of these excercises; specifically something I’d once called a ‘structural paraphrase’ (my, my, did I go hard on artspeak with that one 😶). Anyway, please enjoy this very loose improvisative paraphrase (with apologies to CT).
And please excuse the scritchy-scratchy pots—the potentiometer in my volume pedal in particular may be beyond cleaning. (You can help me fix that.)
I’m happy to announce that, following a delay at the factory, I am now shipping the companion cassette tape to Proxemics (BAF003). It’s super limited edition, and the recording on cassette presents an, I think, fascinating, alternative perspective to the music of the album.
“So confounding and strange that simply listening to it makes you feel alive.”
Please note that this cassette release does not duplicate the digital album, but offers a complement to it. In contrast to the digital download album, the cassette album is the room mic recording of the second set only (corresponding to ‘Proxemics I–VI’). The cassette presents a vérité, ‘bootleg’-vibe documentation of the performance as heard by the audience on the night.
Thanks so, so much to everyone who ordered the tape—I truly appreciate your support, patience and understanding. I’m excited for you to hear the noise on tape!
Track listing: Orbital Dusk I (6:04), Orbital Dusk II (4:20), Orbital Dusk III (2:29), Orbital Dusk IV (6:03), Diel Vertical Migration I (6:31), Diel Vertical Migration II (4:38), Diel Vertical Migration III (4:33), Diel Vertical Migration IV (7:36), Metastability (7:24). Total duration: 49:36.
I kept fumbling this one—thus another asterisk [*] on ‘#onetakestudy,’ and thus the title. This one’s very much work-in-progress.
A disprepared ditty bouncing some ideas—well, barely ideas, more fragments of fragments—that emerged from a session with Kaffe Matthews, and a recent gig with Camila Nebbia and Gianluca Elia. It is what it is, but, with a little more work, maybe I can make it into something.
This Thursday (March 6, 2025) at 8:00pm: Camila Nebbia (saxophone, effects and visuals), Han-earl Park (guitar) and Gianluca Elia (electronics) will be performing as part of disfigured rivers vol. 5 in Berlin (contact for venue details). Also performing are Tumulus (amplified saxophone), and Marina Cyrino (flute) and Ayşe Hatipoğlu (’cello).
Track listing: Autopoiesis I (≥ 10:14), Autopoiesis II (≥ 4:29), Niche Shift I (16:09), Niche Shift II (≥ 4:45), Niche Shift III (4:35), Niche Shift IV (≥ 12:52), Autopoiesis III (3:26), Autopoiesis IV (≥ 5:03), Autopoiesis V (≥ 3:17), Autopoiesis VI (3:37). Total duration ≥ 70:14.
Other than Dean Brown, which players have developed a facility for using the volume and wah pedals simultaneously? Whose playing should I be studying?
Judging from some of the responses I got, however, I needed, I think, to provide a little more context.
So please consider this short improvisation that context. It’s a demo of where I find myself right now, and I’d really welcome suggestions for approaches, techniques, models to study. Let me know what you think.
* irt the asterisk on ‘#onetakestudy,’ this one missed the first take. I wasn’t really ready for this, and I made a couple of aborted takes of the first phrase or two.
Camila Nebbia (saxophone, effects and visuals), Han-earl Park (guitar) and Gianluca Elia (electronics) as part of disfigured rivers vol. 5. Also performing: Tumulus (amplified saxophone), and Marina Cyrino (flute) and Ayşe Hatipoğlu (’cello). [Details…] * DM for venue details.
Kaffe Matthews (live sampling alchemical electronics) and Han-earl Park (guitar). Also performing: Matthias Müller (trombone), Matthias Muche (trombone) and Jeb Bishop (trombone). [Facebook event…]
My technique feels a little rusty (been busy again with the ‘extracurricular activities’ that come with my so-called career), but I needed to take a break and get something out there.
This one is a little exercise in shorter cycles, or phrase lengths—a little more regular in its underlying scaffolding. I hope you find something in the noise. Enjoy.
I love, love, love this recording, and the camaraderie of the artists (and helpers and supporters behind-the-scenes) involved in its making. If the trio’s first performance in the spring of 2022, caught between lockdowns and post-pandemic ‘normality,’ was about that strange sense of cautious relief and optimism, then this later performance was something altogether more strident, brash, at times harsh and ugly, confrontational and combative. What I hear is Lara punching you unremittingly in the mid-rage gut; Pat throwing down beats of glitchy robotic wasps, and of impossible danceability; and my struggles with an unfamiliar guitar (a silver rocker) that wants to make it all a little too easy.
During the mix, I came to realize this unapologetically unrefined music was probably unreleasable, but I also came to love it more for being delicate as a slab of granite. Listen to it, and think of us. Enjoy. [Read the rest…]
Download the album, and revel in those buzzing, ugly fusions, microsurround pops and spikes, and queasily in tune warbles and waves.
Download: €8.
Cassette tape* plus download: €12 plus shipping.
Note on the cassette tape
* The cassette tape release does not duplicate the digital album, but offers a complement to it. In contrast to the digital download album, the cassette album is the room mic recording of the second set only (corresponding to ‘Proxemics I–VI’). The cassette presents a vérité, ‘bootleg’-vibe documentation of the performance as heard by the audience on the night.
Funded by Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Community.
Track listing: Orbital Dusk I (6:04), Orbital Dusk II (4:20), Orbital Dusk III (2:29), Orbital Dusk IV (6:03), Diel Vertical Migration I (6:31), Diel Vertical Migration II (4:38), Diel Vertical Migration III (4:33), Diel Vertical Migration IV (7:36), Metastability (7:24). Total duration: 49:36.
