CUNEIFORM ARTIST NEWS:
SUMMER 2009
Artist News:
Beat Circus p. 2
Bill Brovold p. 2
Birdsongs of the Mesozoic p. 2
David Borden / Mother Mallard p. 2
Graham Collier p. 2
Djam Karet p. 3
Doctor Nerve / Nick Didkovsky p. 4
Forgas Band Phenomena p. 5
Forrest Fang p. 5
Gutbucket p. 5
Hamster Theatre p. 5
Richard Leo Johnson p. 5
Led Bib p. 6
The Mahavishnu Project p. 6
Mats/Morgan Band p. 7
Miriodor p. 8
Positive Catastrophe p. 8
Present p. 8
Radio Massacre International p. 9
Alec K. Redfearn p. 10
Revolutionary Snake Ensemble p. 11
Univers Zero p. 11
Upsilon Acrux p. 11
Cuneiform Artist Websites p. 12
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ARTIST NEWS:
Beat Circus
Boy From Black Mountain update
We're about halfway through mixing the new album Boy From Black Mountain with esteemed producer and engineer Bryce Goggin (Apples In Stereo, Pavement, Bishop Allen, Akron/Family, Antony & the Johnsons, Larkin Grimm, Angels of Light, Thalia Zedek) at Trout Recording Studio in Brooklyn. For a sneak preview, we've posted new mixes for two songs on myspace and facebook.
Boston Phoenix story on Beat Circus
Barry Thompson of the Boston Phoenix interviewed Brian Carpenter just before the new year and wrote this story on the background behind the songs of Boy From Black Mountain and the latest incarnation of Beat Circus.
Bill Brovold / Larval
Richard Pinhas from Heldon and Bill Brovold from Larval were seen on the streets of Paris singing the James Bond Theme song after deciding their waiter was a Russian spy.
Birdsongs of the Mesozoic
Birdsongs of the Mesozoic is currently booking a mini-tour at the end of July to support their recent Cuneiform 2-CD retrospective "Dawn of the Cycads" which documents their complete Ace of Hearts recordings circa 1983 - '87. Original pianist Roger Miller will participate along with charter members Erik LIndgren and Rick Scott on keyboards and current Birdsongs' guitarist Michael Bierylo filling in for Martin Swope. They will play exclusively material from their Triassic era and hope to perform on vintage equipment including a Yamaha DX-7, Memory Moog, and Compurhythm CR -78 drum machine. Prospective dates include gigs in Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, and Baltimore and check the band's MySpace site or website below for details.
The current Birds have been working on new material for a 2010 release and plan to start recording this summer. The group is also getting ready to celebrate their 30th anniversary next year.
www.myspace.com/birdsongsofthemesozoic
www.birdsongsofthemesozoic.org
David Borden / Mother Mallard
I'm included on the Echoes Interviews schedule for May (attached). There will also be a performance at the Johnson Museum in Ithaca sometime this summer. In addition, there will be a DVD release (by Lameduck) of the dance/music pieces I've done with MMPMC lately; some new music by me and images (moving and still) coordinated in live performance of choreography by Ruth St. Denis & Ted Shawn (Tribute to Ruthe St. Denis and Ted Shawn) AND the last piece, "Viola Farber in 7 Movements."
David
Graham Collier
Graham Collier's new book
The jazz composer, moving music off the paper will be published by Northway books on May 21st.
'Graham Collier's radical new analysis of the place of the composer in jazz is nothing less than a complete reassessment of he direction in which the music is developing and a powerful argument for fresh thinking. He focuses on Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Gil Evans, among many other composers, and includes musical examples from his own work.'
Available from Amazon. For more details go to www.northwaybooks.com and thejazzcomposer.com.
Also available at the same time will be Graham Collier's new CD 'directing 14 Jackson Pollocks' which looks at some of the compositions discussed in the closing chapters of the book.
Penguin Praise
Hoarded Dreams is among the 200 in the Guide’s ‘Core Collection: a basic library of jazz records which readers… might consider as their first-priority purchases.’ The review’s first paragraph states ‘It isn’t necessarily Collier’s masterwork, since even more ambitious and more confidently achieved work followed in later years.’
Hoarded Dreams and Workpoints are both in the top four star category which signifies ‘an outstanding record… a splendid example of the artist’s work.’ Four of the others – Deep Dark Blue Centre, Darius, New Conditions and Symphony of Scorpions – get three and a half stars signifying ‘an excellent record with some exceptional music’, while eight more, given three stars, ‘will reward the listener tuned to [their] merits’.
The subheading and these comments are from the ninth edition of The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, published by Penguin in 2008.
Djam Karet
DJAM KARET 25th YEAR ANNIVERSARY TOUR 2009
The award-winning instrumental music group Djam Karet will be performing a few select live performances this year, both in the United States and in Europe, to celebrate their 25th anniversary together. These will be their first performances in seven years.
On August 22nd 2009 Djam Karet will be the headliner at a 3-day Progressive music festival called the Crescendo Festival, located on the beautiful west coast of France. For more then 10 years, this great festival has been held every August in the picturesque seaside town of Saint Palais sur Mer. Djam Karet feels very honored to be this year’s headliner at this important European festival. Djam Karet will also be performing at a few Los Angeles area events in the weeks prior to the French show, the details of which are still being worked out.
Updated information on these performances will be available soon, including times and locations of these Los Angeles performances.
Formed in 1984, they have released 15 albums so far. The group will be performing music from throughout their long career, much of which has never been performed live before. They will also be debuting some brand new tunes as well. These shows are a rare opportunity to see a group that ELECTRONIC MUSICIAN magazine said "Rivals the glory days of Pink Floyd". And ROLLING STONE magazine described as "Pink Floydian dreamscapes intersect with the jagged complexity of King Crimson and the improv-guitar happenstance of the Grateful Dead"
These will be the first live shows by Djam Karet since they performed at NEARfest with Porcupine Tree in 2001, and at ProgDay with Happy The Man in 2002.
Working in their private studio, Djam Karet has been able to create a full and massive live sound by adding an additional player to their live performances. For these performances the line up is: Gayle Ellett (keyboards & guitar), Mike Henderson (guitar), Aaron Kenyon (bass), Chuck Oken, Jr. (drums & electronic percussion) and Mike Murray (guitar). New music and new arrangements of older tunes, are the main focus.
You can find more information at:
www.DjamKaret.com
There are also some new side-projects that are nearing completion:
UKAB MAERD (Chuck Oken jr and Gayle Ellett) are almost finished recording their debut release of Electronic music, due out this summer. You can hear more at:
www.myspace.com/UkabMaerd
FERNWOOD (Gayle Ellett's acoustic World/Americana group) has just finished mixing their second album, and it will be released in June 2009. GUITAR PLAYER magazine described their music saying "The songs are wonderfully melodic and emotionally direct, the diverse instruments are expertly layered, and dynamics are an essential aspect of the orchestrations. Acoustic stringed instruments constructed of wood predominate, and timbre and sonority suggest place and idiom as strongly as the actual compositional structures. Middle Eastern, Asian, African, and European motifs are masterfully interwoven with Americana to form a luscious yet rootsy imaginary idiom that is intriguing, uplifting, and at once familiar and exotic."
You can hear more at:
www.myspace.com/montgomerytsingh
Doctor Nerve / Nick Didkovsky
There's a new Doctor Nerve video posted on YouTube. A new tune (unreleased!), "If You Were Me Right Now I'd Be Dead" was performed at Orion Sound Studios in 2008, and nicely recorded. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=189Z9KkOQcY and see if you have any skin left on your face after it's done.
JavaOne, San Francisco, June 5, 2009
Nick will participate in a discussion/demo of making music with the Java programming language. He'll be showing off his Java Music Specification Language (JMSL), a Java API for making real-time and surreal time music with computers.
With Andrew Brown, Queensland University of Technology; Frank Greco, NYJavaSIG; Robert Keller, Harvey Mudd College; David Koelle, Charles River Analytics Inc.
TILT Brass plays Didkovsky's "Stink Up! Evolved Form"
This premiere is not to be missed! This piece is based on rhythmic modulations, as are all pieces in the Stink Up! series. Tempo changes abruptly each measure, keeping one or another group of instruments’ absolute pulse constant through each change.
Watch Kevin Norton's left hand play in synch with Trumpet 1, Horn 1, Trombone 1.
Watch Kevin Norton's right hand play in synch with Trumpet 2, Horn 2, Trombone 2.
Watch Kevin Norton's feet play in synch with Bass Trombone and Tuba.
June 18th at ISSUE Project Room, NY
Geoff Burleson and Mary Rowell play Didkovsky's If Reptiles Organs Thrive
Flea for Tribeca New Music Festival. Sunday June 7.
If Reptiles Organs Thrive consists of short little movements that are precise fleeting and as one audience member told me after the premiere, "exceptional". But I did not really understand what she meant. Still that's nice.
See you on Facebook (Nick Didkovsky) and MySpace (www.myspace.com/doctornerve) and YouTube (www.youtube.com/doctornerve) and of course our home page www.doctornerve.org
Rock on
Forgas Band Phenomena
FORGAS BAND PHENOMENA
The band played a well-received concert in the beautiful setting of the Chateau d'Auvers-sur-Oise, home of the great impressionist painters, in early April. They are now rehearsing a couple of new pieces, with more to come (Patrick has now composed a full album's worth of music), and will premiere them at gigs later this year. There are plans for at least one in Paris this fall, and another one in Sens in December. Discussions are also underway for performances abroad, but nothing definite as yet.
More info, as usual, at :
http://forgasbp.online.fr
http://www.myspace.com/forgasbandphenomena
Forrest Fang
Forrest Fang’s 9th solo album, “Phantoms,” will be released on Projekt in mid-July 2009. It is the follow-up to his 2000 Projekt release, “Gongland.” “Phantoms” builds on its gamelan-influenced predecessor by incorporating non-Western stringed and percussion instruments that continue to reflect his Asian influences. The centerpiece of the album is a 23-minute suite — “The Hallucinations of Hung Tung” — inspired by the otherworldly paintings of a Taiwanese fisherman and outsider artist.
Gutbucket
Gutbucket's finished up our spring CD release touring in Europe and the States (March-April 2009)! We shared bills with Marco Benevento at Minneapolis' Dakota and Dub Trio in Madison, WI, and taught a master class at the University of Minnesota. The band also hit Chicago, Berlin, Ljubljana, Amsterdam, St. Louis, Paris and beyond! Gutbucket's got one CD release show remaining in Philadelphia at Danger Danger Gallery on June 27. Here's the band performing "C'Mon It's Just a Dollar" on the MS Stubnitz in Amsterdam in March:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MkSsWWStpg&feature=channel_page
Our big summer show will be on Saturday June 20th at Brooklyn's fabulous, eclectic outdoor stage in Prospect Park - Celebrate Brooklyn! In years past, artists as far-reaching as Bill Frisell, Bob Dylan, Yo La Tengo, Deerhoof, Stephen Malkmus, and many others have graced this stage. For this concert, we'll be teaming up with our pals in the string quartet Ethel for an original score of the 1959 Mexican sci-fi film La Nave De Los Monstruous (The Monsters' Ship). We'll also perform music from the Ethel-Gutbucket octet catalog and new Gutbucket originals to open the show. And the show is free!
Individual upcoming news...Saxophonist Ken Thomson will return to his post as resident composer/improviser/teacher at the Bang on A Can Summer Music Institute in North Adams, MA. Drummer Adam D Gold will have a smattering of summer performances with singer/songwriter Greta Gertler and indie-classical group Build. Ty Citerman will perform with fue/western flute/taiko musician Kaoru Watanabe.
For information and updates, please check www.gutweb.com and www.myspace.com/gutbucket
Gutbucket plans to be on the West Coast in the fall, so if other bands are available to share tour dates, please contact us at . We also hope to return to the UK and France...and reach Japan and/or Brazil in the coming year...so please let us know if you can assist us in getting there!
Hamster Theatre
Hamster Theatre will play the Edgefest 2009 Music Festival at the Firefly Club in Ann Arbor, Michigan on Saturday, October 17th at 9:00 pm.
Richard Leo Johnson
Richard Leo Johnson is finished with his 3rd in the fictional character series. "Duval Rey: One Man Band". The CD is scheduled for a Fall release. The CD is a semblance of a blind, creole, one man band, street musician from New Orleans.
He is an inspired character but finds an additional boost to his muse during a chance encounter with Vernon McAlister, the first in the series of fictional characters, created by Richard.
A similar situation affected the savant guitarist Charlie Shoe on the 2nd CD in the series, "Who Knew Charlie Shoe",
Richard's main instrument on the CD is a vintage 4 string tenor banjo. He also plays a variety of other instruments such as harmonica, lard can, kazoo, train whistles, prepared guitar and other assorted percussion. Richad solicited the help of two young musicians from his home town of Savannah GA Max Cristman on drums and Alex Wasiley on trombone.
The music is historical yet modern with haunting, romantic and sometimes comical elements that represent Duval's, (and Richard's) quirky perspective(s).
Duval Rey recorded his songs at a friends studio in Meterie LA on September 27th 1962.
Led Bib
Our new album ‘Sensible Shoes’ is coming out in May and we will be touring throughout the summer in UK and Europe. The confirmed dates so far are:
April 26 -Fuse Leeds Festival - Leeds, UK
May 20 - Album Launch @ The Arts Theatre Club - Soho, London, UK
May 22 - Paradox Jazz Club - Tilburg, Netherlands
May 23 - Bimhuis - Amsterdam, The Netherlands (this will be recorded for eventual broadcast on Dutch public radio)
This show will be broadcasted on the Dutch public radio station called Radio 6. The name of the program is Concert Beyond. The date of the broadcast: 1 July, between 22.00 and midnight.
June 4 - Norwich Arts Centre - Norwich, UK
June 5 - Bath Festival - Bath, UK
June 6 - The Bluecoat - Liverpool, UK
June 7 - The Jazz Bar - Edinburgh, UK
June 8 - Stereo - Glascow, UK
June 9 - The Mint Lounge - Manchester, UK
June 10 - Cardiff Jazz Festival @ Demspey’s - Cardiff UK
June 11 - The Yardbird - Birmingham, UK