Road Reports 2002

Road Reports 2002

(click pics to enlarge)

January 2002: Yellowman!
Except for the SyndaKit concert, since my return from tour in December I've been entirely immersed in the studio composing the music for Yellowman, a play by Dael Orlandersmith. It's an intense and moving theatrical work. I've known Dael for a while and have always been impressed with her monstrous talent and presence - I was quite proud to be asked to create the score. The play opened Sunday, January 13 at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey. More info can be found here:
http://www.mccarter.org/yellowman.cfm
The score is based on blues, both country and urban, as well as abstract extensions of the blues with some sonic textures in use as well. A large part of the score is performed on solo acoustic guitar using the Godin, drawing on music of Robert Pete Williams, Skip James, and Bukka White. The rest uses the rhythm section of Terraplane: drummer Sim Cain and electric and acoustic bassist David Hofstra. We recorded many of the band tracks live as a trio and also only using bass and drums to permit overdubbing freedom later. For the live recording, I used my green Stratocaster with Duncan "vintage" humbucking pickups as well as a mutant built to my specs by Carlo Greco from a 50's solid-rosewood Premier neck on an old Guild S100 body with mini-humbuckers and a rosewood bridge - an incredible guitar for slide, especially when played through the cranked Fender '58 tweed Champ amp. In the studio, guitar solos and overdubs were accomplished using a variety of instruments: the Strat, an Ibanez George Benson, Fender VI 6-string bass, a Fender Telecaster, and a Carr, another strange one - like a mini- ES335. I plan to release the score on zOaR - it should be out by Feb. 15. Theatrical work on this scale is new to me and I've found that an incredible amount of time is spent revising the cues: changing their length and sometimes the entire feel.
When the McCarter run finishes, Yellowman opens at the Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 20 after which it moves to the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut in April and the American Contemporary Theatre in Seattle in July.

More January gigs
Jan. 16 Bobby Previte/E# duo
A conversation that began in 1973: Bobby and I braved the snows of Buffalo in the Music Department there at the State University of NY and began playing together in a variety of situations. This ongoing talk, argument, joke, and confidence has taken us all over the world: to stages and studios, many airports, architectural marvels in Austria, smoky Hungarian nightclubs, Finnish rivers, and more. This night we played at Tonic. I brought the 8string, bass clarinet, and Powerbook; Bobby his drumkit and a Boss Dr. Sampler. Grooves, delicacies, blasts, whispers, thunder.
Jan. 23 Karkowski, Tone, O' Rourke, Myers, Moran, and E#
Another Tonic hit, this time all electronics. Zbigniew Karkowski is an uncompromising and visionary composer that I first met in Buchs, Germany last year. He asked me to arrange something for his trip to New York and we agreed on personnel for the evening. Each did a 20-minute solo and at the end, we all collaborated for a thick noise stew. David Lee Myers opened with his digital feedback network utilizing off-the-shelf effects processors and custom-built equipment. He was followed by Jim O'Rourke using a Synthi to generate remarkable sounds. Yasunao Tone then performed his pieces for kracked CD players sounding like nothing else in the world, sometimes hilarious, sometimes truly frightening. I next performed Living Room using the Powerbook and microphone which worked quite well once the sound engineer turned up the monitors. I was followed by Maria Moran using Powerbook and a variety of electronic gizmos to generate thick dark textures with ties to the industrial realm. Zbigniew finished the string of solos with his deeply massive sonics after which we played together for 15 minutes, leaving the stage to Tone to tie everything up. The large crowd was very enthusiastic and stayed focussed for this long and demanding evening.

February
Terraplane at the Knitting Factory - Feb. 2:
It had been quite a while since I played the Knit - a lot of the vibe of the old place never made it to the Leonard St. location and it was just not so much fun most of the time. Fortunately, for this gig (part of their 15th anniversary) we split the bill with James Blood Ulmer's great trio which includes Amina Claudine Myers on Hammond B3 and Jerome Bigfoot Brailey (from P-Funk) on drums. The band's focus is rightfully on Blood's pungent guitar and soulful voice. Their set was relaxed, rich, and bluesy. For this evening, Terraplane was a "power trio" plus the voices of Eric Mingus and Dean Bowman as Sam Furnace was in California with the Brooklyn Sax Quartet. We only did the electric numbers as this was a shorter set. Highlights for me were the new tunes: Lost Souls and Please Don't with Eric and Dean joining vocal forces - sweet shifting harmonies on Lost Souls.
Eric Mingus at BAM Cafe - Feb. 9:
The Cafe in the Brooklyn Academy of Music is a strange place - it feels more like a theatre masquerading as a cafe. There is no entrance cost so it's usually full: Ft. Greene neighborhood people often drop in as well as the audiences on their way in or out of the various theatre spaces at BAM. There is food and drink available, and in, fact, performing there sometimes has a "lounge gig" vibe to it. Still it seemed like a fun thing to do so we did it. Brian Mitchell was available and added his tasty keyboard work. The evening started with Eric performing some solo poems, just voice, or accompanied by his bass. Soon I joined for duos and eventually the whole band was playing - loud but not overpowering. Good version of Runnin.
The new record, Too Many Bullets, Not Enough Soul, should be out May 15 in Europe on the Southern label.

Terraplane at Centro Cultural de Belem - Lisbon - Feb. 24.
Portugal is one of my favorite countries to visit and a chance to perform in Lisbon is always welcome. The entire Terraplane aggregation was on hand for this show. The CCB is a large and beautiful arts-complex with a fine auditorium. Signals were crossed and the sound company forgot to bring the drums and bass amp to the soundcheck! It took them over 2 hours to finally get everything correct so as a result, we had very little soundcheck and rehearsal. It was probably one of our sloppiest sets ever - at least our trainwrecks were accomplished at full maniac energy. Chaos continued for our return travel: our flight from Lisbon to Frankfurt was delayed and we had less than 30 minutes to get from the arrival gate at the furthest reaches of Frankfurt Flüghafen to its opposite end for our flight to NYC. We hit the ground running, passing through multiple security and passport checkpoints to arrive just in time for our flight, panting and soaked in sweat. Amazingly, all of our baggage made it back with us.

March
Janene Higgins/E# at Vasistas Festival, Montreal - Mar. 1
Janene and I were invited to perform at this multimedia festival at the La Chapelle Theatre in Montreal. It's quite a short flight and so a bit disorienting to feel yourself in truly a different country without the usual rigors of trans-oceanic travel. Janene is a video artist who creates her video pieces on computer from her own footage (which is processed with both digital and analog devices) and edited into performance tapes. She mixes the tapes live adding clips from her Powerbook - the results are shown on 2 simultaneous screens and form a tight feedback loop with my score - composed to the structure of the video but with great latitude for improvisation. The videos are abstract but with some narrative subtext - not obvious, but present enough to create an arc that pulls the viewer in and through. For this event, I brought only the 8-string and Powerbook. La Chapelle is a "black box" theatre with flexible lighting and quite a good sound system. Opening for us was drummer Alexander MacSween performing a solo piece Vocollations for samples triggered by drum pads. We performed two pieces, "Suspension" (with a duration of 30 minutes) and "How I See The World" (10 minutes.) The set was quite enthusiastically received.
It was necessary to clear U.S. Customs at the Montreal airport. The new Bush era has meant a return to the hostile, suspicious, and snotty behavior that was displayed during the last Bush era. Some nightmares just keep returning. When asked by the inspector why I checked "business" for "purpose of travel," I said that we performed a concert. His response, was "Oh -- WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY CONCERT?" I put on my most academic voice and explained that a concert was an assemblage of people in a hall built specifically for that purpose - they would then witness musical or dramatic actions.... I didn't have to get too far before he interrupted me and actually acted like a human being, finishing the interview on a somewhat friendly note. Welcome back to the USSA!

Janene Higgins/E# at Suoni e Visioni Festival, Milano - Mar. 11
Steve Piccolo with his Hilarity Workshop group invited Janene and I as special guests for a performance of Drifting Home, an outgrowth of Spedition/Dirive, as part of this multimedia festival at the wonderfully decrepit Teatro di Porta Romana, a 600-seat room with excellent acoustics unfortunately doomed to become another shopping mall. The group included vocalist/guitarist Luca Gemma, DJ Gak Sato, bassist/vocalist Steve, and guest bass clarinetist Giancarlo Locatelli on 2 songs. For our part of the evening, Janene and I performed Suspension with her own live video mix. Other parts of the program included videos by Armin Linke, Paola Di Bello, and Luca Pancrazzi. I joined the group for the later video soundtracks and an improvisation. There were a variety of technical problems and minor trainwrecks throughout the evening - despite these little bugs, the long program flowed well and was received very well by the full house. The next day, Janene and I headed to Venezia for a much-needed vacation! Venezia is best at night after the tourists all leave. Fueled by excellent food and wine, we could wander the deserted and foggy alleys and canals with relaxed abandon.
Banlieues Bleues - March 15-24 - Janene heads back to NYC and I to Paris for this large and well-established festival that takes place in the northeast suburbs of Paris utilizing a number of venues and taking place over the course of a few weeks. Terraplane was invited to perform in Corneuve and Grenoble and I would also do a solo Tectonics show in Blois and an improvised trio with Ikue Mori and DJ Olive. As part of Terraplane's participation in the festival, Organizer Stephanie Touré asked Dean and Eric and I to take part in workshops with an amateur teenage gospel choir comprising 80 kids, mostly from Africa and the Middle East, leading to a performance, ZamZam! at the end of our time there. The choir is directed by an expatriate American, Sylvia Howard, and an expatriate Italian, Achille Gajo. We rehearsed with the kids on the 16th and 17th - they're mostly quite enthusiastic. On the 18th, we did a talk and improvised performance (joined by Sam Furnace) at a high school. This included a question-and-answer session - the discussion ranged from the nature of improvisation to racism in the world and American politics and its effect on the arts.
Had only one free day, the 18th. Had hoped to do some walking, one of my favorite things to do in Paris, but the cold and pouring rain subdued by enthusiasm for that idea. Did have a chance to visit my friend Charlelie Couture at his wonderful studio/home and also had a meeting with Q of Rectangle Records. Rectangle is finally going into production of Let Her In, a 10" vinyl record of my duo acoustic improvisations with Nels Cline.
The next afternoon, the 19th, I did a short solo Tectonics performance for the France 2 television network to be broadcast on the 20th. The traffic on the Peripherique was horrible as always and we arrived late to the station leaving only a few minutes to set up. As I began to test out my patches and sounds, the director asked for a rehearsal. I tried a compact version of City Of Sand with a guitar-harmonics intro and a guitar-triggered-percussion outro. The director seemed a bit perturbed and asked for the structure. As I explained, he seemed no less concerned. We tried another rehearsal for him to block the camera moves. It was finally decided to just "go for it" - we did two takes with the second weighing in at an action-packed three minutes. It was an amusing experience all-told - I believe that half at the station were horrified and half elated. Had a great conversation about Japanese director Teshigahara with the maquillage girl (who quite liked the music.) Must-see films of Teshigahara are Face Of Another and Woman In The Dunes - both from stories by Kobe Abe and with scores by Takemitsu. That night we could enjoy the performance by Marc Ribot's Cubanos Postizos and the post-gig hang.
Terraplane had its first performance on the 20th. The hall at Corneuve was a cavernous cultural center - like playing in an airplane hangar. The high and hollow stage did not help matters much and the monitor system seemed underpowered. We opened with an acoustic set of Work Or Leave, As It Falls, and Slow Drag then switched to electric and invited up Hubert Sumlin. I was thrilled that the festival was able to organize Hubert's appearance with us. At 70 years old he's still filled with high-energy enthusiasm and remains brilliantly inventive as a guitarist. As Ribot said, "He gave guitarists the right to get weird." With Hubert, we played Healing Feeling, Evil, Sittin' On Top Of The World and a shuffle in E. Terraplane continued with intense versions of Twistin', Feel Each Day, and Long Dark Sky and the best versions yet of the new songs Please Don't and Lost Souls. Hubert rejoined us for the encores of Rails and Dust My Broom. By all reports, the sound in the hall was absolutely wretched but the audience was very welcoming.
Tectonics solo - Morning of the 21st, headed to Blois by car with the organizer, Jerome. Blois is about 2.5 hours from Paris toward the south in the chateau country on the Loire River. It's an area of fine wines and food and many tourists. The concert was held in a small auditorium at the local library with perhaps 50 people in attendance. I managed to "thin out" the audience a bit - I've always believed that "if no one leaves, you're not doing your job" - apparently I was working overtime for this gig. Still, I was quite happy with the set and found new sonic terrain to explore - the Max patch worked especially well this evening when triggered by the soprano saxophone (I still cannot figure out the source of the unpredicability of the patch's operation.) After the concert there was a short question-answer and discussion with topics ranging from my technology and compositional and improvisational approaches to the nature of the NY "downtown scene" and the political feeling in America and how it affects artistic ventures.
Ikue Mori/DJ Olive/E# Trio - Our performance for Banlieues Bleues is held at a theatre in the suburb of Noisy-Le-Sec. The soundcheck is scary: the setup is smooth, all of the equipment works perfectly, and the sound is superb - typically all bad signs. We arrive on stage for the performance to find that my Powerbook has crashed - ah, back to normalcy - I restart and we hit. The set proceeds as if "inevitable" - the sound onstage remains super-clear and we fill it with detail - it's often hard to tell when one person's sound begins and another's ends. We're truly excited by the results and the audience certainly is as well. Our encore is concise and noisy.

Terraplane at Grenoble Jazz Festival - We have a brutal 6:45 wake-up and leave the hotel in 2 large vans for the Gar du Lyon where we take the high-speed TGV to Grenoble, a beautiful town in the Alps near Switzerland. After checking in at the hotel, we join the promoters for a fine lunch in an outdoor restaurant in the park near the theatre where we will perform. Soundcheck is again smooth - the crew is completely on, the equipment is all as it should be, and the 600-seat theatre has great acoustics. Paris warmed us up for this evening: the set flows smoothly and energetically with Hubert and the band in top form. We were called back for a number of encores and left the theatre in a fine mood. Hubert's manager, Toni, gave us all Hubert Sumlin T-shirts which we all wore for the performance - Hubert was thrilled. Awaiting us at a nearby restaurant was another great French meal. Perfection. Even our pickup for the return train to Paris is at the relatively civilized time of 9:30. Arriving in Paris, one van takes Dave, Sim, and Sam to the airport to return to NY and the other takes the rest of us to the hotel and then to the Espace Paul Eluard in Stains for the final concert, ZamZam!
Stains is a fairly run-down suburb - the sidewalks decayed and many stores closed though the culture-center was surprisingly well-equipped with a good-sounding theatre. Trying to find a pre-concert coffee, I wander for about 30-minutes before finding a little Turkish place - I was directed upstairs to the back room and thought I had been transported back to Istanbul. The room was smoke-filled and crowded with card-players on this Sunday afternoon. My appearance was greeted with some raised eyebrows but it was not an unfriendly vibe by any means. Had a great espresso and headed back to the gig. The choir sang some traditional tunes with Eric, Dean, and I providing handclaps, background vocals, or. in my case, soprano saxophone obligati. Dean directed three numbers including Charles Mingus' Freedom. Eric conducted an improvisation which included one of his intoned poems. I had prepared a new piece Taming Power Of The Small (with a short text from the I-Ching) for this project but found that I had made it much too complicated with the assumption that the choir was more advanced musically. During the rehearsals, I greatly simplified the piece and developed a strategy to make it work with the varying levels of the kids. This involved creating a repetitive chant with the words and core melody as well as conducting them in different textures. The result was hypnotic and antiphonal. They seemed to enjoy it and I certainly enjoyed working with them. Will look forward to hearing the recorded results. That evening had one final wonderful French meal and packed up. A 6:30 pickup the next morning brought me to CDG for my flight back to NYC.

April

April 9 - This first report is not of a concert but a demonstration and march organized against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank of Palestine. 3000 of us turned out on a freezing Sunday afternoon at the Brooklyn Boro Hall and walked en masse down Atlantic Avenue and over the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall in Manhattan. Many carried banners and flags, some wore costumes. The energy and enthusiasm were high - I ran into a variety of people that I knew from various scenes - always a good thing. There were the usual "old left" left-overs with their same tired lines and propaganda. It's unfortunate that they personify the "opposition" for so much of the media and the public - they mostly offer self-serving agendas and are pretty useless. Represented in the march were Jews Against The Opposition - a good group that is increasingly visible - it's important that more Jews publicly announce their support for Palestinian self-determination and an end to the humiliation as practiced by the Israeli army. The infantile vendettas of the brutal war-criminal Sharon must be stopped. Only by ending this "Masada" mentality can the Israelis forge regional bonds of neighborliness with the Palestinians, and Arabs. Of course, no one is blameless except for the victims: the Arab governments have used the Palestinians as pawns in their own geo-political games and extremists on all sides make handy use of violence to further their own ends. Artists should be on the forefront of forging alliances for peace.
April 10 - Depart for Europe - a fine day spent in Brussel and then to Frankfurt where I delivered the score and parts to "Calling" to Bernd Leukert at the Hessischer Rundfunk. This 32-minute piece for orchestra will be premiered on July 5 at the Sendesaal at the HR in Frankfurt as part of the Darmstadt Festival. I've spent many many hours working on this piece over the last year and will be anxious to hear it. Peter Rundel will conduct - he's worked with Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien, and conducted Racing Hearts for the HR in 1998.
Performed in Esslingen in duo with Saadet Türköz on April 14 as part of the KlangSeiten-Festival: Experimentelle Kunst im Grenzbereich von Sprache, Tanz und Musik. Also performing were Phil Minton, Alexander Frangenheim, Benoit Lachambre, Michael Riessler, Nigel Charnock and the Virus-Streichquartett. Our set took place at the Dieselstrasse, a club that I had visited previously in 1988 with Semantics. The house was full and very attentive and gave us a warm welcome at the beginning and an enthusiastic response at the end, calling us out for two encores. This duo continues to evolve - every concert is completely different. We certainly still have places in the set where we're searching for connection but there were also long beautiful stretches of "inevitability" within the continuous 60-minute improvisation. Both encores took on completely unique characters - for the last I only played Bb clarinet - it's timbre works so well with Saadet's voice. Thanks to organizer Renate Luxemburger for her enthusiasm, logistics, and hospitality! The next day it's back to NYC.

April 21 Benefit to End the Israeli West Bank Occupation - the Knitting Factory, NYC
Marc Ribot and I began planning this event last fall, soon after the Sept. 11 attacks. We felt that one could not look at the current world situation without examining the role of the West Bank Occupation by Israel. As Jews, we felt it was even more important to make a statement, foster discussion, and perhaps raise some money for important causes: the Palestinian rights organization Al-Mezan, the Israeli peace organization Gush Shalom, and the joint Palestinian-Israeli relief group Ta'ayush. Opening the evening was a stunning duo by Marty Ehrlich and Mark Dresser followed by Kathy Engel's moving account of her visit to the West Bank. Frank London/Anthony Coleman/Brad Shepik/Newman Baker were up next followed by Ammiel Alcalay's reading. David Soldier and Eszter Balint performed a fiddle duo after which Roy Nathanson with Marc Ribot performed. Next was the Palestinian vocalist Nahed. Accompanied only by the clarinet of Kinan Azmeh, she performed a haunting and powerful song followed by Kinan's jazzy trio. Barbara Barg read a short piece in her inimitable drawl - touching, humorous, and politically astute. Next Zafer Tawil played an absolutely riveting and virtuosic oud solo after which he switched to hand drums and I joined him on 8-string for a psychedelic and rocking duo. Ghassan Fawzi read an intricate piece tracing an arc of history and poetic metaphor to make a powerful statement after which DJ Muta Massik performed her unique mix of Arabic music and hip-hop. Jennifer Charles/Oren Bloedow/Sebastian Steinberg played two songs followed by the atmospheric duo of percussionist Raz Mesinai/Shazad Ismaili. The evening finished with a rousing duo of Marc Ribot and Sebastian Steinberg. The Knit was packed for the event and the audience was very enthusiastic, hardly diminishing over the evening's five hours. The management saw fit to have added security for the event including a pat-down at the entrance. This was not unwelcome. Pictures of the event by Oz are online at: http://oznik.com/art/020421.html
April 23 E#/Reinhold Friedl duo at Podewil - Berlin. It was a late night and early morning after the benefit so I was fairly exhausted when I boarded my flight to Wien - slept most of the way then switched to a small Canadair Jet to Berlin. A brief and efficient soundcheck in the afternoon then food and coffee prepared us for the show. The duo with Reinhold continues to evolve - we played a very compact 40-minute set filed with dynamic shifts and exotic textures. this was the official launch of our duo CD Anostalgia on the Grob label. The evening continued with the trio of Jim O'Rourke meets Mirror: Christoph Heeman and Andrew Chalk -their set was delicate with sustained and extended textures. We all had a fine and relaxed breakfast together at the hotel the next morning after which I headed to a studio in Kreuzberg where Reinhold and I began mixing duos that we had recorded at Tonic during March of 2001.
April 24 Ensemble Modern performs Tessalation Row - Konzerthaus Berlin Kleiner Saal. Headed over to the Konzerthaus for soundcheck with the Ensemble. Also on the program were a hypnotic solo percussion work by Xenakis and ensemble pieces by Michael Gordon, Steve Martland, and Elliott Carter. The group performed Tessalation Row with incredible rhythmic precision - a bit of the swing was sacrificed but it was a pleasure to hear the mathematical relationships so clearly manifested. I only wish the amplification had been increased to bring out a bit more of the "bite."
April 27 KrashArea at the Donau Festival, Korneuberg. After another day mixing with Reinhold and a meeting to plan Hortus Conclusus (an opera collaboration with writer Claudia Tittel based on Walter Benjamin's last night on earth), flew to Wien. A pleasant afternoon spent walking at random and enjoying the pastry and espresso of a typical Viennese outdoor cafe. Rea arrives from Tel Aviv that night and David Krakauer from NYC the next morning. In the afternoon we head to Korneuberg for soundcheck. Nothing is together: the stage and lighting not finished, half of the drum parts not arrived and the wrong guitar amp - time to kill. The site itself is wonderful albeit freezing, 10 meters from the Donau river (wish I had remembered my camera!): the concert takes place in a building once used for outfitting boats - not great acoustics but still a nice hall. The house is full with an excited crowd. Our first set has great moments but we haven't locked in with our orchestration. After some discussion, the second set is perfect, filled with textural shifts, rhythmic juxtapositions, thundering grooves and crescendoes. After the concert, they bring us to a bizarre Tex-Mex restaurant for dinner, somewhat unexpected in rural Austria. The next morning, we fly back to NYC. One of the great features of the Austrian Air Airbus 330's is the video monitors in each seat with a channel that allows one to monitor cameras in the nose and bottom of the plane, affording sometimes spectacular views of the outside world.
April 30 - Electronic Music Foundation Festival - Flea Theater - NYC Tribeca's Flea is appropriately named, quite small but beautiful with very good sound equipment. The evening begins with a series of solos by talented percussionist Ben Chadabe revealing his ear for timbres and microrhythms. After his set, I perform a short version of Living Room followed by a Tectonics set. An intermission is followed by an improvised duo between Ben and myself - it covers a wide range of sonic territory and builds to some surprising intensity.

May

May 5 Haco at Tonic NYC
Haco led a unique band in Japan in the early 1980's called After Dinner - strange, delicate, powerful, beautiful. I was a fan after first hearing one of their records in Zurich in 1983. I later met Haco in Japan some years ago and we agreed that it would be great to collaborate on something. Ron Anderson (guitarist of PAK, Molecules, and work with Ruins) organized this event which also included percussionist Ken Yamazaki. The first set was mostly Haco solo. Using her wonderful voice, mandolin, and a variety of small electronics, she manifested cracked pop songs of great emotional weight and sonic trompe l'oreille.
After this too-brief 30-minute performance, Ron, Ken, and I joined her for a series of short duos. I played clarinet and my old Fender VI 6-string bass. Second set was an improvised quartet that broke down to smaller and quieter subgroupings and ranged to loud dense psychedelia. Our encore was a Beefheartian rave-up. A fun evening alltold.

May 18 Zafer Tawil/E# at BAM Cafe
Zafer is a virtuoso on many instruments and trained in Arabic classical music. Tonight he brought oud and hand drums. We opened with a duo for oud and bass clarinet, quite traditional. I mainly played the role of bassist for this piece, occasionally rising up to provide melodic obligati for his improvisation. Switching to the 8-string, Zafer moved to percussion. He has a unique method of playing both the traditional darbukka together with a frame drum to provide fully orchestrated rhythms.
This evening marked the debut of my new Glissentar, an instrument created by Godin Guitars in Quebec. It's an 11-string fretless instrument in double courses except for the lowest that evokes the sound of oud. It uses nylon and composite strings and I tune it: CGCFAD. Over the course of the next 90 minutes we tried the various combinations of instruments, creating trance-like grooves and delicate counterpoint and generating a good amount of intensity for this setting, a large and somewhat glitzy-looking cafe inside the Brooklyn Academy of Music with an audience both eating and drinking. We were surprised by the attentiveness of the sizeable crowd.

May 29 - Terraplane + at the Knitting Factory
Our first gig in a long time in NYC. One high-energy set at the Knit with special guest Hubert Sumlin and both Eric Mingus and Dean Bowman singing. Hofstra and I didn't bring tuba and tenor so I played guitar and David played bass on As It Falls and Slow Drag. Set list: Clank, As It Falls, Slow Drag, Twistin'; with Hubert: Healin' Feelin', Sittin' On Top Of The World, Dust My Broom; with Dean and Eric: Please Don't, Lost Souls. For an encore we played a slow blues with Hubert. The audience was very welcoming!
The day before, Hubert and Toni came over to Studio zOaR for Hubert to lay down solos to two new Terraplane songs, Oil Blues (sung by Eric) and Stop That Thing (sung by Dean.) Hubert's playing was stinging and evocative and worked off the lyrics (written by E#.) Hope to finish these tracks in June and then record the rest of the as-yet-untitled record in August. Not sure which label it will be on at this point. The project will include Please Don't, Lost Souls, and three instrumentals.

June 21 E#/Saadet Turkoz at Nurnberg Jazz Festival.
Nice weather as we took off from JFK so I was expecting a smooth flight. We entered a strong tailwind off the coast of Maine and were immediately subjected to incredibly violent turbulence with the plane lurching, shaking and dropping. The wings of the Airbus 340 were flapping like a giant turkey and people were getting quite upset with some screaming (which did not help the general ambience.) The pilot finally got on the PA after about fifteen minutes of this to assure everyone that this activity was well within the tolerances of the plane, that there was nothing to worry about, and it should only last another half-hour or so! Fortunately, things smoothed out after another ten minutes and the rest of the flight was fine except for a five-minute bumpy sequence later on.
Picked up at Frankfurt airport, had a two-hour drive to Nurnberg, slept the afternoon away in my hotel, and headed off to soundcheck, fortified by a double espresso and a freshly-made cherry cake from a local bakery. Our venue at the festival was the K4, a cultural center that used to be a rock club called Komm. Carbon performed there in 1994. In those days the scene outside (and inside) the club was fairly sordid: lots of stoned-out junkies, one of whom (I assume) stole my E-Bow after we left the stage before returning for our encore. I was not happy! Our set on this festival evening was much more pleasant. The K4 represented substantial improvements over the old Komm with a great sound-system and excellent facilities. Our continuous set of 50 minutes was very well received by the packed house and we performed our version of a Kazakh shamanic song for the encore. A nice hang with old friend Fred Frith at the restaurant after. That night in the hotel, I was treated to a magnificent 4 AM concert by a nightingale parked in a nearby tree.

July Tour - Part One: "Calling" at the Darmstadt Ferienkurse für Neue Musik
My six days in NYC after Nurnberg were spent taking care of dense-pack errands and working on small tasks in the studio. It was also necessary to tweak the french-horn part for the upcoming performance of CALLING. Fly out of JFK on the 29th upgraded to Business Class - I'm very grateful for the nice seat and have a good sleep. My first day and evening in Frankfurt are free so I read (James Ellroy "The Cold Six-Thousand," Terry Bisson: "Pirates Of The Universe," "50 Miles of Elbow Room - Vol. 2") and create some new patches on my GT3 effects unit optimized for the Godin LGX3 guitar that I'm bringing out for the first time for the three gigs in this small tour.
I have an early interview Monday morning at the Hessicher Rundfunk. The interviewer, Michael Rebhahn, asked intelligent and pointed questions which made the process quite enjoyable. I spoke a little about my compositional process for this piece and my thoughts about the orchestra itself as a medium for the manifestation of sound including the notion of the orchestra as a hugely flexible synthesizer unfortunately saddled with an ancient and arcane operating system.
The first (and only!) rehearsal for CALLING was at 5 that afternoon. Having not examined the emailed schedule closely enough, I was shocked to find that there was only a little over two hours to examine the entire 30-minute piece filled with rhythmic complexities, extended techniques, and virtuosic passages. The conductor, Peter Rundel, certainly did his homework though and the orchestra is populated with highly competent players. Rundel concentrated on trouble spots and I felt fairly confident by the session's end.
Wednesday was scheduled for the recording of CALLING at the HR Sendesaal with the session to commence at 9:30 AM. Tonmeister Christoph Franke presided over the desk (a 24-bit Sadie system) together with the director Bernd Leukert. Bernd has been a friend for many years and in terms of the presentation of my music, the greatest champion I could ever have! He brought Racing Hearts to the HR as well as Tessalation Row to the Ensemble Modern, both for performance and recording. His plan is to release the three together as a CD production on the HR's label. Christoph was also Tonmeister for the Tessalation Row recording in 2000 and is a fine engineer with incredible ears. Because of the short rehearsal, the strategy is to record CALLING in sections for later editing. The work is systematic and proceeds well though there is great concern on all of our parts that the recording will not be complete by the 2:00 PM scheduled finish. The pressure of the situation has a positive effect and the recording is completed at 1:54. I feel that not only are the parts played "correctly" but even played with fire and spirit. We're very happy and not a little surprised! Again, Peter's work is perfect, refining sonic details while never losing the larger view of the work at hand.
I head over to nearby Darmstadt on Thursday and am given a brilliant tour of the town by Bernd. His wonderful company and great knowledge makes for a most enjoyable and edifying afternoon. We visit the Mathildehohe, an artist's colony created in 1899 for seven artists of the Jugendstil- the residents, all successful in a number of disciplines designed and built their own houses and much of the furnishings. Their work extended into industrial design with one foot in tradition and one into the future. We also visited the Orangerie, site of many legendary Darmstadt concerts.
Darmstadt itself took on mythical status after the seminal concerts of the early 1950's. The festival had its premiere in 1945, soon after the end of WW2. The central office buildings were given to the composers to work from - these buildings were the home of the SS bureaucracy and the site of mass murder-suicide as the war ended. Both as a way to reclaim the beautiful villa from its stained history (and also because the musicians will often take the more marginal real-estate that no one else wants!) it became the home of the Festival. As a student of Feldman and Hiller, I would often hear Darmstadt spoken of in the reverent tones of a Muslim speaking of Mecca. I couldn't imagine myself ever making the pilgrimage, but here I be! Was I hearing the sound of my former teachers rolling over in their graves? I'm quite sure Hiller would have been proud and a little surprised but I don't think Morty would have been too kind in his response to this turn of events: an audience for my music sitting in red plush seats!

The opening event of the Festival was at the Sporthalle. By its name one may assume that this room was much more suited to games than music. I had been warned about the acoustics but was pleasantly surprised at my first entry to the room. CALLING was to complete this evening on a program commencing with a premiere by Sebastian Claren and a memoriam for Luigi Nono composed by Wolfgang Rihm. I had met Sebastian and his wife Julia at a dinner at the home of Bernd and his wife Clare, also an old friend and a wonderful radio-journalist in her own right. I met Wolfgang Rihm for the first time at the dress rehearsal and very much enjoyed his gracious intelligence. I've admired Rihm's music on many occasions, especially the string quartets recorded by Arditti. The dress rehearsal was to be recorded by the HR as part of the production but Rundel asked the players to reserve some of their energy for the actual performance. Claren's piece was a cello concerto, "To The People of New York" - it combined seething sound masses with whimsical moments. Rihm's piece included a second piano situated at the side of the hall. It ranges from transparent delicacy to heavy explosions of sound, one hears timbres and passages transformed across the orchestra, both instrumentally and spatially.
After the intermission, the premiere of CALLING - a time I've anticipated with excitement and dread since Bernd's first telling me of the commission. In many ways, I find it much more difficult to sit passively in the audience and hear one of my compositions than to be onstage performing. When one has listens "in the distance," a certain warped objectivity may take over and one first hears the warts and the mistakes, whether your own as the composer (especially those!) or those made by the performers. Fortunately, for this performance, we decided to amplify the piano to better manifest some of the subtle sonic effects, and I sat with the house sound engineer, cueing him for the level changes. The audience response was mostly quite enthusiastic - there were, of course, some boos - I've always felt that if no one walks out, you're not doing your job.
Here are the program notes for CALLING:
"Composed between the summer idyll of Civitella Rainieri Foundation in Umbria 2000 and the grim winter of New York City 2001/2002. A transmission, an infection, an inheritance. The Old English battle herald "hildecalla" The Old Church Slavonic "voice = glasu." A challenge, a censure. The characteristic note or cry of an animal. A demand for an investigation. Testify. Radio waves or over a wire. Signals across synaptic contacts are essentially pheromonal. To predict. Convokation. To charge, to act, to announce."
There is a vast set of feelings and thoughts encoded into the music composed for CALLING - there may not be a one-to-one correspondence between events and sounds that I experienced during the process but there are certainly connections. The almost-medieval trumpet-driven psychedelia of Section I is for me a sardonic commentary on the "new feudalism" that has encompassed the world thanks to corporate greed and unenlightened politicos. As it morphs into a hocketed groove, there is a sound of hope. Sections P-S are simultaneously ecstatic and cries of anger and pain. I've also tried to remember the tranquility and joy I felt living at the Civitella-Rainieri Center where this piece had its genesis. There are hints of the birdsongs and weather sounds that I listened to while there in Section E. In terms of the technique of construction, a few simple rhythmic motifs and a few core pitches are used to generate much of the music. As always, I make use of rhythmic unisons with both diffraction and spectral transformations.

July Tour - Part Two: Italia!
After a cold week in Germany, I'm very much looking forward to Italy - the warmth and vibe and especially the food and coffee! Short flight to Rome from Frankfurt. Meet Jackie Liebezeit on the plane - former drummer for Can. He's performing this night with Bill Laswell, Jah Wobble, Graham Haynes and Harold Budd at the same festival that we'll be playing. The festival site is far away from our hotel so we (Eric Mingus, Sim Cain, road manager Alberto and I) opt for a relaxed dinner rather than catching the concert. The next day, we head out to the Villa Ada late in the afternoon for soundcheck. The venue is a beautiful park on the edge of Rome. I performed there with Gtr Oblq three years before - I remember the mosquitoes quite well! This day is a little cooler and we don't have any of the little pests bothering us as darkness falls. The sound crew is great and soundcheck is very smooth. Our set is energetic and lots of fun. We play songs from the new Mingus record "Too Many Bullets, Not Enough Soul" which is finally out in Europe plus selections from Eric's previous "Um Er Ah." I'm enjoying the Godin - the sounds are diverse and sweet, especially the piezo pickup. This guitar does not have the suppleness of my favorite Strats but it's great in its own right. Friends from NYC Eric Zim and his wife Maria are at the concert (Eric designed the cover to "Tocsin") as well as friend and guitarist Mike Cooper.

We head to Avellino the next day: a too-early train to Naples and then we're driven up into the hills, about an hour from town. The roadside views are quite spectacular, from Vesuvius near Naples to the hills and valleys of Avellino. Our performance is in a school courtyard. The sound in the space is a bit echo-ey but the equipment and crew are top-notch and we have another good set preceded by an amazing dinner - a huge variety of delicious seafood accompanied by a famous local wine "Foxtail." After the concert, I'm driven to my hotel in Naples by guitarist Marco Capelli as I have an early train up north. Mingus and Cain stay in Avellino and continue the tour as a duo and trio with keyboardist Brian Mitchell.
It's quite difficult to reach consciousness in the morning - I fall asleep at three and have to rise at six to get to the station. I'm treated to a spectacular view of the Mediterranean sunrise from the taxi. The train is late reaching Milano for my connection - mad dash with my gear through the packed station and make my train with 30 seconds to spare - I'm drenched in sweat as Milano is boiling. No air conditioning in this regional train but the open windows and high velocity are refreshing (except for the occasional fertilizer-laden field passed.) Finally, I arrive in Desenzano Del Garda, a small town in the north on Lake Garda. The tourists here are almost all Italian - it's nice not to be surrounded by Uh-muhriken accents. This festival is called "What Is A Guitar?" and is curated by guitarist Luca Formentini - a fine musician and gracious host. The concert takes place in an old cloister and church which has been converted into a restaurant and meeting hall - progress! After soundcheck, a fine meal in the restaurant - there are many specialties from both the lake and the sea, beautifully presented and tasting great. Fueled on the fine wine that Luca produces plus a caffe ristretto doppio, I explore the woody piezo textures of the Godin as well as it's resonant feedback. I try some new approaches in my improvisation - lots of counterpoint and chordal mutations as well as the usual textural, rhythmic, and density strategies. The audience is very welcoming and I sign a lot of autographs after. We have a relaxed post-concert hang in an outdoor cafe and after three hours of sleep, I'm off to Milano Malpensa for my flights to Frankfurt and NYC.

July Tour - Part Three: NYC!
July 20 - Al Mashreq All-Stars at Lincoln Center
The day after returning from Europe I jumped right in to preparing for the July 20 concert of the Al-Mashreq All-Stars. This event was part of the Lincoln Center Summer Festival. Because of my past activities collaborating with Arabic and Middle Eastern musicians, I was asked to be "music director," a job which included conceptualizing the project as well as composing, arranging, and coordinating the diverse talents that would make up the ensemble. The group was to include singer Natacha Atlas; Bachir Attar, leader of the Master Musicians of Jahjoukah from Morocco and player of the rhaita, guimbri, and flute; Graham Haynes on cornet and flugelhorn; the Bedouin musicians of oudist Muhammad Abu-Ajaj with Musa Al Hajuj- vocals and Sultan Abu Takfa- sumsumiya; DJ Mutamassik- turntables, electronics; Palestinian oudist/vocalist Marwan Abado; Chicago drummers Michael Zerang and Hamid Drake; Zafer Tawil, the Palestinian multi-instrumentalist; and myself on 8-string guitarbass, bass clarinet, 6-string bass, and Powerbook.
Our rehearsals were long and arduous but not long enough! I wished that we had at least another day to work on the music. There was a wealth of material representing each player. One of the main issues was how to most efficiently communicate the musical ideas and structures as some of the musicians read music and were familiar with a variety of styles, others were not. Still, openness abounded and by the final hours of the last rehearsal I felt that we were indeed becoming an ensemble.
The concert was at the LaGuardia High School auditorium - the best room in the Lincoln Center complex for electrified music. We had a beautifully spacious stage, great equipment, and a fine crew plus a sold-out house of over 1200 people. The concert commenced with a free-time intro with Zafer soloing on q'anun over the ensemble unison melody that I had composed. Next, Abu-Ajaj and his musicians sang one song as a trio with the rest of the ensemble joining them for a second song. Their music has a lilting quality with the sweet drone of the sumsumiyah providing both harmonic underpinning and rhythm. Next was Bachir Attar's song "In New York, " a version of which we recorded for our eponymous duo CD in 1989. I set up a shifting and harmonized drone with EBow and electronics on the 8string with Bachir improvising an intense maqam on rhaita. Hamid, Michael, and Zafer kicked the drums in with a deep groove and we were off. Graham Haynes composition "The Griot's Footsteps" was the next piece and was based on Gnawa music. The odd-meter bassline gave my fingers a stretch! The piece builds over its 10 minutes with 4 different ostinati over which the trumpet and violin improvise. Marwan Abado next sang an incredibly moving song accompanied by his own oud-playing. The audience was hushed and then exploded in applause. We continued as an ensemble with his piece "Do You Do How!" which begins with unison lines then finishes with a collective improv which melded into DJ Mutamassik's solo which was then transformed by the entrance of Bachir's rhaita. Gradually, the entire ensemble joined in for an indefinable mix of hip-hop, middle-Eastern sounds, and NY noise. Zafer next played a solo oud piece that displayed the connection between maqam and the flamenco syles of Andalucia. The whole group joined in for his piece Bela (named for his young daughter) which mined vamp territory. After Zafer's piece was Natacha Atlas' feature, a song called "Rah" from her CD "Ayeshtemi." She sang a beautiful maqam over bass drone followed by the intro on cornet and violin by Graham and Zafer. The song has a deep dub funk groove and there was a percussion break in the middle with ensemble members contributing sounds. "Rah" was followed by a percussion duo by Hamid and Michael, beginning abstract and displaying the incredible interaction they've perfected in years of playing together and then morphing into a 6/8 rhythm over which Bachir played a slow twangy melody on guimbri. Over this, Graham played a gorgeous flugelhorn solo with the ensemble playing a slow unison melody to bring the segment to an end for my solo which was played on the 8-string and Powerbook - I used the EBow to play a sinuous melody which triggered dumbek samples. This kicked us into my composition "Al-Mashreq" written to be a finale for the concert. It ranges from stop-time melodies to a heavy ostinato over which Natacha improvised as did Bachir on rhaita. This brought the concert to an end.
Throughout, we could feel the intense attention of the audience so we were not to surprised by the strong response. Still, we were truly excited and amazed by the sustained applause and standing ovation. We returned to play one more of the Bedouin songs led by Abu-Ajaj and the evening was complete (except for the late late after-party at the Moroccan restaurant Souk.)
July 23 - Butch Morris' "Skyscraper" at Bowery Poetry Club
Butch's conductions are always exciting- he's created a very personal language to spontaneously compose with an ensemble, making great use of the individual creativity of the players and their potential as a unit. Over the years I've enjoyed many both as an audience member and a player. I was thrilled when Butch asked me to perform as a soloist in this edition. "Skyscraper" makes use of not only his conduction techniques but written sections that are rich and sonorous yet pungent, all at the same time. I brought the Godin electric. We played two sets with the same compositions in each yet Butch's conduction created great variations. The Bowery Poetry Club is a new joint run by poet Bob Holman with a good vibe and decent acoustics and obviously, dedicated to the word. Still, Bob is a friend of good music and many of us plan to make full use of the venue.
July 26 - Terraplane at Tonic
I decide that we should play this one late set as a quartet. We play some things from the Yellowman score including a wildly harmolodic version of "Working At The Mill," some classics including Freddie King's "Sidetracked" and Willie Dixon's "All Your Love," plus a number of things from Blues For Next. There's also a new steel tune: a mix of surf and blues, as yet untitled but referred to at the show as "Serf Music For The New Feudalism." The set ranged from out-of-tune sloppy train wrecks to massive power. Both we and the audience had a good time.
July 28 - Ensemble Modern at Lincoln Center
"Tessalation Row" is performed again by the Ensemble and I'm very happy with the sound - we worked for quite a while EQ'ing for the hall (the Drama Theatre at Laguardia) and the results are the pay-off. Still, it was not an easy day: at dress-rehearsal, the second violinist found that because of the incredible heat and humidity, one of his tuning pegs was swollen into position rendering the instrument unusable. A replacement was found for him but just before the performance, he had great trouble with the pickup. All was finally fixed and they were able to proceed. The evening opened with a percussion piece by Guo Win-Jing which made inventive use of cymbals but was a little thin in content for its length. Next was Helmut Lachenmann's "Trio Fluido" from 1966 - German modernism at its peak. After intermission, "Tessalation Row" opened the second set and was followed by Elliott Carter's "Triple Duo," a piece of incredible virtuosity. Because the composer was in attendance, the Ensemble played it with extra fire, taking it at a higher tempo than normal. The audience gave Mr. Carter an extremely warm welcome. It was a thrill to meet him as I had studied a number of his pieces while in school and was always impressed by their intelligence and structure. Carter is well into his 90's and displays incredible grace and humor.

August - on tour at home
August 5- Nels Cline/White Out/E# at Bowery Poetry Club
Nels found out that he'd be coming to NYC not too long ago and asked me to set up somehting in this format. This new Bowery venue was available on short notice so we made it happen. The set began late because of a 9pm showcase that went way overtime. We began with a 15 minute guitar duo that went through many transformations. The Godin LGX continues to impress me with its sound and feel. White Out then joined us for a 30-minute improvisation that also continuously morphed. The room sound is quite good but the hollow stage is very live - as a result, we all played carefully, never allowing sonic climaxes to max out for too long.
August 9 - Tim Barnes/Alan Licht/E# at Tonic Benefit
Tonic, one of our favorite NYC venues, will be doing some extensive renovation work later this month designed to make better use of the space. To defray some of the costs, they threw a party and asked a number of people to perform including Calla, Jim Black's Human Feel, Markus Miller, Tom Surgal, Raz Mesinai and DJ Jim O'Rourke.
For this event, percussionist Tim Barnes, guitarist Alan Licht, and myself did an improvised trio. I brought the Godin LGX and Bb clarinet. Tim is a fleet percussionist with a kit capable of producing many timbres and Alan also has many sounds and techniques at his fingertips combined with the power of rock dynamics. We opened the evening with a first piece lasting nearly 30 minutes with many dynamic shifts and frenzied fuzz freakouts. We then played a quieter piece and one short loud jagged finale.

Sept.1 - Benoit Mandelbrot/Emily Grosholz/E# at Cornelia St. Cafe, NYC
The pianist Rosalyn Tureck took ill and had to cancel her participation in this edition of Roald Hoffmann's series Entertaining Science, a presentation combining scientists and the arts. I was asked to fill in for her on short notice and was thrilled to have this opportunity.
Mandelbrot's discovery of fractal geometry was revolutionary and a huge influence on many fields - it was certainly a major revelation for me and resonated deeply with my long-held beliefs about the relationship between order and chaos and how they might be used in the manifestation of music. Mandelbrot's essential work, The Fractal Geometry of Nature, became an important reference work and inspiration for a number of compositions including "Larynx" and of course, the various pieces that appeared on my Dossier LP "Fractal" (later collected on the CD collections "Monster Curve" and "Sili/Contemp/Tation" - these are all unfortunately out-of-print.)
The Cornelia St. Cafe is a longtime fixture in the West Village - a good restaurant upstairs and a long, narrow performance space in the basement where jazz and folk music is presented. Decent acoustics and sound equipment, good lighting, and a warm vibe. The evening began with Mandelbrot's presentation with slides. He discussed his work with fractals and a brief history of philosophy, science and math leading up to this discovery. There were many interesting tangents - his 45 minute set seemed too short by far. After an intermission, Grosholz read a few of her poems - erudite, emotional, sometimes humorous, and all dealing with mathematical and philosophical themes and references, sometimes obliquely. I finished the evening with a version of my 1984 composition "Geometry" extended with improvisational sections. This piece was the first one written with my Fibonacci-derived tuning system and using the ratios for rhythms and structure as well. I used the Godin acoustic with the Boomerang plus my MXR compressor and TS505 Tube Screamer - both pedals quite ancient and sounding wonderful. This setup was plugged into the house Fender Princeton amp as well as directly into the PA providing a full sound, not too loud but with plenty of sustain and presence and allowing for a clear hearing of the overtones generated by the various techniques. In the manifestation of the piece, without waxing didactic, I tried to clearly illustrate the relationship between the geometrical and sonic concepts. The 25-minute set ranged from delicate filigree to crashing chords, extended tapping, difference-tone feedback, and microtonal counterpoint. The full house was very appreciative. After the concert, we repaired to the dining room for a fine meal and good conversation. I was continually impressed with Mandelbrot's exposition on various esthetic issues as well his telling of his work at IBM back in the antediluvian '70's in the earliest days of computer graphics and word processing.

Sept. 13 Solo Tectonics at the Whitney Museum.
This event is part of the SoundCheck series in the cafe/sculpture courtyard area of the Whitney Museum. The room has large glass windows, shiny plaster walls, and a stone floor. One might expect a difficult time with the sound so one is not disappointed. Matters are made worse by substandard sound equipment - it's amazing to me that a world-class museum such as the Whitney does not allot the small budget necessary for decent tech. The staff are all incredibly friendly and helpful but the bottomline is that the equipment does get in the way of the performance. First set is rough - it's hard for me to hear the music - both literally and figuratively - because of the diffusion of the sound. Matters are made worse by a computer-crash about 10 minutes into the set. Fortunately, the audience seems quite focussed and attentive and by the end of the set I feel that I've found my way in. Second set is much more direct and I don't even consider the sound, just immerse in the process. Some interesting realms explored layering low multiphonics on the bass clarinet.

Sept. 17 Kazuhisa Uchihachi + Christian Marclay, Shelley Hirsch, Bobby Previte, Ned Rothenberg, E# at Tonic NYC
Kazuhisa asked if I could arrange a concert during his stay in NYC and so I asked a number of our mutual friends to play at Tonic. For the first set it was decided that Kazu would create combinations of players to do short improvisations with a sextet at the end. For second set, we would all improvise together, entering and exiting freely. The second set worked much better overall with many dynamic moments and great listening and playing from everybody. The evening proved somewhat difficult for me as my Powerbook refused to wake up from "sleep" mode when we hit the stage. I tried all of the usual strategies but nothing worked so played both sets sans computer. It turned out that the motherboard was not seated properly - this was fixed a few days later after working desperately to solve the problem and then taking serious steps to back up all of my data with the hardware and generous assistance of Perry Hoberman.
Sept. 21 Terraplane at Bowery Poetry Club NYC
Sam Furnace was unable to make this hit so it was Sim, Dave, Dean, Eric and myself. The room is very live and the stage boomy so we decided to play a little more quietly than usual and began the set with Alma's Train and Workin' At The Mill from the Yellowman score. We were burning right from the get-go so the set just flowed on out with Clank, a great version of Slow Drag, our best performance version yet of Train, Long Dark Sky, Twistin', and finally a long and wild Lost Souls. On the Monday previous to this show, we recorded basic tracks for the next Terraplane CD for Please Don't, Lost Souls, some as-yet-untitled new instrumentals as well as drum parts for Oil Blues and Stop That Thing, both featuring Hubert Sumlin.
Sept. 26 Ronny Someck/E# at Jewish Community Center, NYC
Heavy rain all day makes for heavy traffic in NYC so it makes getting up to the JCC on the upper west side a long journey. However the snail's pace gives an opportunity to relax and dig the rain. Arriving at the JCC, there is the appearance of heavy security - they want me to open all of my cases. I refuse, saying that I'm performing. They just let me pass (so much for security! As much as I don't want to be bothered, I am amused at how "social engineering" works and how a skillful saboteur could get through. I suppose if I looked "Palestinian," it wouldn't have been so easy. Of course, the stage equipment is incorrect - the engineer had not examined the rider but the staff is very cooperative and friendly so after some brief finagling, I have a working stage setup and we get levels. We perform a number of pieces from both Revenge of the Stuttering Child and A Short History of Vodka as well as a few new poems. The event celebrates a new American edition of Ronny's poems, "The Fire Stays In Red." I brought the Powerbook, 8-string, and bass clarinet and decide to play things loose and try different approaches to the pieces. We build up a good flow and the set passes very quickly. Being wary of the generally Zionist vibe of places like the JCC, I paste a small Palestinian flag on my 8-string (as much as I abhor the manifestations of nationalism, sometimes it is necessary to bring confrontational cues to the forefront.) No one comments on the flag - they either didn't notice, didn't care, or didn't realize that it was a Palestinian flag ("Gee, I guess he's Armenian or something....")

Sept. 30 Mike Cooper/Lukas Ligeti/E# at Bowery Poetry Club
Mike is an old friend and great guitarist living in Rome. His roots are simultaneously in folk music, blues, Hawaiian music, "old school English improvising," and noise. Mike is also a member of The Recedents with Lol Coxhill. For this tour, he's playing a lap steel and a variety of small pedals and electronic devices plus various objects. Composer/drummer Lukas Ligeti and I have collaborated on a number of occasions in the past so I'm looking forward to this meeting and Lukas' deep African-inspired rhythms. I bring the Fender VI bass and a Bb clarinet. We begin a bit tentatively, jumping around from gesture to texture but after about 10 minutes we begin to build up our first vamp and this sets the tone for the rest of the evening. I lock into Lukas' sound in a way that I haven't before, and we set up continuously- morphing grooves and counter textures to Mike's scrapes, wiggles, slides, and feedback.

October - on tour at home
Oct. 2 - Deep Singh/Loren Dempster/E# at Tonic
Offered a set for this date, I decided to try something out of the usual and invited Loren Dempster and Deep Singh for an acoustic improvised set. I wanted an opportunity to try my new Dell Arte acoustic guitar as well as play some unamplified bass clarinet. I'd met Singh when he played with Chris Rael's Church of Betty on the same bill as Orchestra Carbon performing Radiolaria in March of 2000 and was absolutely impressed. Running into him often in the neighborhood, we would discuss the idea of some future collaboration. I had heard about Loren Dempster through percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani. Recently moved to NYC from the Bay Area, Dempster performs with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and is a stunning virtuoso with a great arsenal of extended techniques. Two days before the concert, we met once at my studio and improvised for about 90 minutes broken into short pieces and ranging through many sonic areas. The gig itself went extremely well. We played 4 longer pieces and one short encore to a medium-size but very concentrated audience. We were all pleased and surprised at the coherency of our listening together and plan to repeat this.
I reserved judgement on the Dell Arte after this gig - it's not a loud guitar but has beautiful tone within its' dynamic range. I used a Boss SE70 as a preamp/EQ/compressor to firm up the low frequencies and sustain. The Dell Arte is modeled after the 30's Macaferri guitars made famous by Django Reinhardt and the his Paris groups.

Oct. 3 - Leo Kottke/Cindy Cashdollar-Artie Traum/E# solo at the 92nd St.
This concert, dedicated to the memory of John Fahey, was part of the NY Guitar Festival curated by David Spellman and took place in the beautiful auditorium at the Y, a room of excellent acoustics and somewhat daunting decor with its' plush interior and huge gilt letters around the circumference of the ceiling with such names as Einstein, Dante, and Shakespeare. (Time for a bit of graffiti around the edges.) I opened the concert with a short interview on stage by host John Schaeffer of WNYC and then performed a single 15-minute piece in Skip James D- tuning, "How Takoma Records Ruined My Life (Tribute To John Fahey)". The title refers to Fahey's brilliant autobiography "How Bluegrass Music Ruined My Life." My interview of Fahey appears here.

In this solo situation (with the help of a great crew and acoustics plus good tech), the Dell Arte acquitted itself superbly - harmonics ringing, single lines popping with great clarity, chords sounded with stinging attack and sustained depth. Two-handed tapping sounded expecially good. The piece included sounds and progressions referring to works of Fahey's filtered through my own personal vocabulary and technique. The capacity audience of 900 was wildly enthusiastic. I felt somewhat unsatisfied by my work this evening - the energy was right and the playing good but I might have made better compositional choices in ordering the modules that make up this piece of music. Listening to the CDR the next day, this instant assessment was born out. After my set, Cindy and Artie played a mellow collection of blues, traditional numbers, and Fahey pieces. Cindy has a very sweet touch on dobro. Finally, Kottke mesmerized the crowd with his sly humor, engaging stage manner, and virtuosic fingerpicking. I remember being blown away when I first heard his Takoma LP "6 & 12-String Guitar" back in 1969. He's now using a Rainsong 6-string acoustic - it's made of graphite and he likes its consistency. Picking it backstage, I found it eminently playable but the voice small and almost TOO even for my taste. I like a guitar that bites back a bit!

Oct. 16 Raz Mesinai/Shaazad Ismaili/E# at CBGB Lounge
Been a recluse in the studio trying to finish the new Terraplane (guitar overdubs, editing, rough mixes) so this invitation to do an improvised performance with Raz and Shaazad was most welcome. I'd never performed in CB's Lounge before and the place is comfortable but with only mediocre sound equipment. I brought the LGX, pedals, and Bb clarinet and opted to plug direct into the PA; Raz had frame drums; Shaazad an electric bass with various pedals. Stage sound was loud and a bit out-of-control. This made for some interesting feedback effects on the frame drums which Raz worked beautifully. There were times when it was impossible to tell who was playing what - any of the sounds could have come from any of us. We free-ranged though textures and hints of grooves. Definitely to be repeated! This was the first time I had played with Shaazad - he commands a wide range of sounds and textures whether on fretted electric bass as he played tonight or on electric upright or acoustic. He's also a fantastic kit drummer - I was quite surprised to see him playing set with the group Barbez in September (a dark and sardonic cabaret rock group well worth seeing and hearing.)

Oct. 18 Terraplane at Bowery Poetry Club
Terraplane instrumental quartet with Lance Carter subbing on drums for Sim (Sim and Eric Mingus on tour in Europe, Dean Bowman on tour with Charlie Hunter.) Lance is a powerhouse drummer known for his longtime work with the legendary Sonny Sharrock as well as with Cassandra Wilson and Bob Musso's Machine Gun. Our set is loose and fun - considering that we've never performed with Lance, he's completely in tune with the flow. After four tunes, we invite Marianne Nowottny to sit in with us. She performed a mesmerizing earlier solo set - a highlight for me were two songs in which she accompanied herself on harmonium. She has a lovely dark and haunting voice and improvised words to a slow A- groove as well as creating a perfect vocal part for Twistin'. We finish the set with Willie Dixon's All Your Love and Freddie King's Sidetracked. During Clank, an intruder alarm went off and stayed on for most of the song - it added a certain intensity - one person asked me if it was intentional.

Nov. 6 Ronny Someck/E# at the Traveling Jewish Theater
Leave the apartment in pouring rain at 5 in the morning to get to the airport - JFK security is the usual dog-and-pony show and after sniffing the molecules in my Powerbook, I'm deemed not-an-enemy-combatant and cleared to fly. A little bumpy getting out of the low-lying bad weather but then we have a mostly smooth flight to San Francisco. Catch a little sleep on the plane and in the hotel then head to soundcheck. As in the last NY show, I try to vary my approach to the various pieces, especially those that don't use prepared sequences. Again, there's good flow and the sold-out house is quite welcoming. Ronny has a few new poems in the set, very powerful.

Nov. 8 Solo Tectonics at the Community Music Center
The 7th is off and spent recording a solo piece on the 8-string at the studio of Henry Kaiser and then enjoying a magnificent concert of Ornette Coleman's trio with Denardo Coleman and Charnett Moffett at the Philharmonic. My concert the next day was organized by Matt Ingells and friends from SFSound and took place in an acoustically friendly space used for chamber music concerts and music classes in the Mission District. Opening was Bran...Pos, a solo project of Jake Rodriguez using voice and electronics to create intense soundscapes. Tectonics relied less on prepared grooves this evening and more on spontaneously generated ones. I found myself resonating especially well with the bass clarinet. The next day was spent walking along the Pacific shore south of the city marveling at the 30-foot waves, a byproduct of the stormy weather. Another short night and off to the airport and return NYC.

"The Prisoner's Dilemma" - Duo tour with Bobby Previte
Bobby and I have been friends and musical adventurers together since we first met in Buffalo in 1973. We finally recorded a duo CD, "The Prisoner's Dilemma," for the Grob label from Koln and booked a small European tour around the release.

Nov. 13 - Jazz Festival du Nevers -
The sleep deprivation experiment begins! I have a day-and-a-half to complete various things and get a bit of R&R (a VietNam War term for "rest & relaxation") before leaving again. Bad weather again so lots of traffic to JFK not to mention serious turbulence in the air. I actually love rainy weather, just not when I'm flying. Serious jetstream tailwind contributes to the bumpiness but we're in Frankfurt in a little over 6 hours where I have a short layover then a quick flight to Paris followed by a 3-hour car ride to Nevers. A bit of sleep in the plane, a little more in the car (with hallucinogenic dreams as I approach a state of wakefulness as we leave the Autoroute), and an hour more in the hotel. Double espresso and ready to go!
The concert takes place in an old and beautiful opera house, slightly decayed, with a capacity of about 200. Excellent acoustics and stage crew. The opening group is very definitely "le jazz" and loved by the audience though they played an overly long set that thinned out the crowd. We are definitely NOT "le jazz" and perform triage, emptying out the house even more but of course, reserving those with open ears who loved our set. Rather than perform the shorter pieces created for the CD, we improvise a set-length soundscape of approximately 70 minutes, sometimes delicate and pulsing, sometimes raging. Bobby uses his electronic drums with effects; I use the 8-string, bass clarinet, and Powerbook. A bit of post-gig hang, a too-short night of sleep, and up at 6:30 for the train to Koln.

Nov. 14 - Stadtgarten Koln -
It's a little putt-putt train to Paris then a mad dash by taxi from Gare du Lyon to Gare du Nord which then leaves us plenty of time to kill. Settle in to a station cafe keeping an eye peeled for the scammers and thieves. Arrive in Koln for a quick change at the hotel then off to the Stadtgarten, a club unfortunately modeled after the Knitting Factory - they do little promotion for the concert and do little for the happiness of the artists performing there. Still, Gerhard the sound engineer is helpful and pretty much on top of things and we get a decent sound on stage despite backline problems. The SWR bass amp has an intermittent input jack and the Marshall JCM900 that I'm provided with sounds trebly and brittle - I specify "The Twin" from Fender on my tech rider but promoters often disregard the rider. A good Marshall is an incredible experience but I find them so unpredictably variable that I choose to avoid them. Between hall acoustics and the variation even within identical amplifiers, I find that I'm often surprised, both positively and negatively by my sound on stage. Opening for us is a solo tuba set by Carl Ludwig Hübsch whom I met last summer at ArtOmi. His set is sonically rich and inventive, virtuosic but not showy. We assume the stage to find my Powerbook is dead and unstartable. I later discover that the adapter outlet plug does not make a good connection with the power supply cable and the battery has run down during Carl's set. We play our set sans computer. Very different from the Nevers set - the audience is completely with us. Felix Kopotek of Grob meets us at the concert and brings us the new CD - the production is beautifully packaged and we're quite happy to have it in our hands.

Nov. 15 - Odeon - Goppingen
A civilized start-time and a relaxing train along the foggy Rhine valley winding our way to Stuttgart and then to the small town of Goppingen, internationally known for the Marklin model trains manufactured there.
The Odeon is a converted power-station, impeccably laid out and with superb acoustic room sound despite the high stage and ceiling. Combine that with a great sound engineer and perfect backline, and we're very much up for playing. Two long sets, the first begins hot and ends pensive and introspective; the second burns throughout. We're creating musical kernels that could very well be expanded into more composed pieces for another CD. We're overwhelmed by the consummate hospitality of our hosts Rudy, Susanna, and Sabina (actually everyone involved in the production is wonderful.)

Nov. 16 - Domicil - Dortmund
A jazz club run by a cooperative of members, the Domicil is a comfortable basement space with close seating to the low stage. Good room sound though big problems with ground hum in the system, especially in the guitar amp. I use the H & K bass amp only - it has a valve front-end and the cabinet has a horn so it sounds fine and responds well. Two sets, both pretty raging, to a full and enthusiastic house. Post-gig hang at the club, back to the hotel for a brief rest, then off at 7:20 in the morning for the long train to Zagreb, arriving at midnight. We arrive in time to drop our gear at the KSet Club and say hello to Mark Dresser, Denman Maroney, and Matthias Ziegler who have just completed the final encore in their set, also part of the No Jazz Festival in which we are participating. We run into Peter Brotzmann and Jon Dobie, guitarist from B-Shops For the Poor and Sonicphonics - I recorded with them for Dossier in 1990.

Nov. 18 - KSet - Zagreb
The day is free to wander in downtown Zagreb. The club is a student-run culture center, lots of computers and a good espresso machine. Soundcheck is very efficient - I use a '70's silverface Fender Bassman with a HUGE 2-15" cabinet - it sounds INCREDIBLE! Our set is a little strange - we don't necessarily find agreement in it though as a result, some of the music is very compelling. This is certainly an aspect of this longstanding musical relationship and friendship - we continue to amuse, engage, and enrage each other. Our finale is superloud and over-the-top.

Nov. 20 - Eremitage - Schwaz
We spend the 19th in a seemingly endless train ride, finally arriving late at night in Schwaz in the Austrian Tirol. The next day is a relaxed time walking in the hills and eating apple strüdel and terminating in soundcheck at the Eremitage, a small club/restaurant run by Leo and with a dedicated audience. The walls are covered with photos of leading musicians of the "loft scene" of the 70's, all of whom have spent time in Schwaz. We play two sets to an excited response. The acoustics of this small space allow for a comfortable balance between resonance and detail - one of our best evenings in terms of musical structuring of our improvisation.

Nov. 21 - Wien - Sargfabrik
An early train to Wien arriving just in time for a quick change at the hotel and off to the Sargfabrik, literally a former coffin factory converted into a performance space, restaurant, bar, and apartments. Alex is at the soundboard, an old friend from the days of Carbon gigs at the B.A.C.H. The room is boomy with monstrous low end but still, the sound is decent. The room is packed and many old friends turn out. We receive sustained applause for a set that I would characterize as thrilling but unsubtle.

Nov. 22 - Lienz - Deep Blue
Another early train to the little town of Lienz in the mountains of the Tirol, 10 km from the Italian border. This is my fourth visit to Lienz and it's great to see old friends Hans and Zigo Mutschlechner, Annalise, and Egon.
We're performing at an underground club called Deep Blue (with appropriate submarine decor including a number of illuminated fish tanks with varieties of tropical fish) as part of the organization Ummigummi's November festival with Tin Hat Trio and James Blood Ulmer on previous days. Excellent equipment and a stone cavern combines to give us an effortless sound onstage - full and rich yet clear and detailed. We do two sets and an extended encore. Perhaps because of the Alpen roadhouse setting, our set is very rocking, even flowing into a strange harmolodic surfabilly sequence. The young audience is inspiring - they're actually dancing at times. Back to the hotel late and up at six for the train to Mainz. The cold light of daybreak is eerie and beautiful on the mountains.

Nov. 23 - Mainz - AKUT Festival
We arrive at the station in the late afternoon with only enough time to drop things at the hotel and rush right to soundcheck which we accomplish quickly. This is my third visit to this festival having previously appeared with Carbon and in duo with Frances-Marie Uitti so it's quite nice to again see many old friends, especially Michael Rennebeck and Gabi. The hall holds 400 and is fairly reflective but as long as we keep a moderate volume on stage, the sound is good. Once the set begins, we're both plagued with the problem of the impression that our volumes are radically changing thoughout the set - at various times we each feel as if we're crushingly loud, at other times inaudible. Since we're both using stage amps and not relying on the monitors, the source of the problem remains mysterious - perhaps we're hearing the front-of-house sound as mixed by the engineer. It seems to be arbitrary and is somewhat distracting. Despite that, we burn through a 60-minute set comprising many of our "greatest hits." Again, a super response from the attentive crowd and we play a brief encore. More reunions after the concert then a late hang with the other musicians for this night: the Preier-Preinfalk Project, an accordion/reeds duo; and NYC's Paradox Trio with special guest Theo Dotti, a Bulgarian virtuoso on the kavali, an end-blown flute.

Nov. 25 - Cosenza - Teatro Cinema
The 24th is a free morning for a quick trip to the Rheingau where we see the monastery where The Name of the Rose was shot and eat mohnkuchen. Off to the airport for flights to Roma then to Lamezia where we're picked up and driven to Cosenza, 60km away, arriving around 10:30 at night. The young promoter from the city's cultual organization, Mario, brings us to La Gulia, a tiny mom-and-pop restaurant where we eat an earthy and delicious meal of vino rosso, eggplant, local cheeses, grilled spada (swordfish), and broccoli rabe, finishing with homemade liqueur made from fresh fennel, finochettio.
The next day is chill then off to the teatro at 4:30 for soundcheck, a fairly surreal event. The crew is slow and seemingly unfamiliar with music and sound equipment. Our carefully-drawn stageplot is ignored and everything proceeds one step forward, two steps back. The teatro itself is beautiful with a deco-ish vibe and a well-built stage and the backline equipment is absolutely correct. We do finally get everything set up and sounding good and break for another great dinner and a quick trip to see the 11th century castle overlooking the town.
The concert started off quite magically - textures from Bobby and sparse melodies on bass clarinet (inspired by seeing Wayne Shorter on television the night before in Germany.) After about 12 minutes, we built up the electronic sounds and density and I switched to guitar at which point they turned the stagelights way up (absolutely not needed or wanted) and blew the circuit breakers. We figured that was the end but they did finally get it going and we played a decent set though thrown off our flow by the interruption. Unfortunately the audience was only 50 people in this 400-seat theatre but they were very enthusiastic. The low attendance was because of the lack of advertising. Apparently the organization's publicity people were arrested 2 weeks ago for their involvement in G8 demonstrations and jailed as subversives by the local fascist magistrate so they could hardly do anything to get the word out. Another intersection of the new art and the new politics. Our hosts, Mario and Paola, were absolutely wonderful and helpful throughout.

Nov. 26 - Otto Jazz Club - Napoli
Arriving at the train station, we're met and taken first to the hotel in a typical demonstration of Neapolitan chaos theory in action: both auto and pedestrian traffic demonstrating only the slightest regard for both the laws of driving and impenetrability, then off to lunch, and then to the club to peruse the set-up and check out the equipment. Of course, the tech rider has been ignored and nothing is ready. Though we're not surprised, it's still irritating. We make a list of needed equipment and draw another detailed stage-plot and go off. Returning 4 hours later, we find that nothing has changed. After a fair amount of discussion and moving things around, we're able to get a close approximation of our set-up. Bobby still needs snare stands for his drum pads - they drift in with various local drummers over the course of the next few hours.
It's a rainy and chilly Tuesday night and by the time of our first set at 11:30, the club is moderately full though there feels to be a slight pall over everything as we begin. Our first 25 minutes has a great feeling of inevitability - I always begin now on the bass clarinet as it helps ease our way into the jetstream. In the second half of the set, Bobby plays more electronic textures as I switch to the 8-string - I'm feeling a bit disconnected rhythmically. After a short break, our second set is more succinct and driving. The audience response is strong though muted. Part of the problem is the setting - it's truly a "jazz club" with red velvet walls and the audience seated at small tables. We're also tired from the ordeal of trying to create a working set-up and the long wait to perform. Still, our hosts are very gracious and accomodating but we're taken aback at the end of the night at the news that they don't have our cash guarantee but will bring it to the hotel in the morning. Normally in Italy (or anywhere!), one does not allow such a thing. Still, we can't see fighting it and accept this with a "let's see" attitude and indeed, Antonio does arrive with our payment and to get us to the train station for our trip to Bologna.

Nov. 27 Bologna
We arrive in Bologna with enough time to relax a bit at the hotel before proceeding to soundcheck. The club, in a converted factory, is only a few months old and well-equipped. Soundcheck is quickly dispatched and we're off to a magnificent dinner in a town known for its cuisine. The house is packed when we return and we perform two sparkling sets to great response. We have a reasonable departure time for the morning so it's possible to enjoy a bit of sleep and breakfast. The promoter has assured us that the clubowner will bring us and our equipment to the station but he doesn't arrive. We telephone after 15 minutes and he acts quite surprised at the notion of these tasks. We fortunately are able to get a combi taxi and get to the station in time to have an espresso before boarding.

Nov. 28 Milano
Arriving at the hotel after the short train trip from Bologna, I discover that the Powerbook battery refuses to charge up and by the time we get to soundcheck at the restaurant, way out in the suburbs of Milano, the computer is dead. I assume that the power supply is the problem and after a few phone calls, realize that it can't be dealt with until the morning. The promoter, Giovanna, is an enthusiastic host and together with the owner of the restaurant where we'll play, do their utmost to make us comfortable. Soundcheck is quite efficient and we're soon upstairs enjoying a gourmet Italian vegetarian dinner.
We perform two sets and the intimacy of the setting plus the attentativeness of the audience make for an excellent concert with dynamics ranging from whispers to screams. We get surprisingly wild compliments from a woman of 75. We return to the hotel late and I'm up at 8 to try and find a computer store that sells Apple products, to no avail. We're soon on the train to Lausanne, passing through Alpine vistas of dramatic snow-capped crag.

Nov. 29 Chorus - Lausanne
At Stresa it's discovered that our car is on fire, most likely the brakes. After a 30-minute delay to investigate and deal, the train proceeds. When we reach Brig, we have to evacuate the malfunctioning car and run into pianist/composer Sylvie Courvoisier, also on tour and on her way to her hometown of Lausanne. She tells me where the Apple store is and I'm able to find a new supply and get this machine up and running again. Reaching the venue, a city-owned jazz club, we again find that the promoter has failed to obtain any of the backline gear specified in our rider and can only reiterate how "he's not responsible." Since the concert is already paid for directly to our agent, we take the attitude that if there's no backline, there's no concert and we'll just enjoy this last evening of our tour in some other way than performing. Veronique at the club prepares us a delicious dinner which we enjoy in a relaxed fashion while the promoter heats up the telephone trying to make up for his neglect. At some point, he and Lionel the sound-engineer disappear, returning 90 minutes later at 9pm with various pieces of gear from which we're able to again cobble together our setup. We find some completely new zones to enter and feel surprised and satisfied at the progression of the music over this course. This last concert of the tour is summation and preview. I get to my room at 2:30 and up at 5 to get to the airport in Geneve to make my flight to Vienna. Though cramped, the small Canadair jet is quite swift and we land 15 minutes early. I spend this day off, the 30th, making up for lost sleep!

Dec. 1 - Vecery Novej Hudby - "Sharp Matters" - lecture in Bratislava
Morning train to Bratislava, Slovakia. The border is a reminder of days past - surly customs agents, long lines out in the cold, then a cramped little putt-putt into the city. Confusion on arrival as this train does not arrive at the station specified by the organizer of this festival of Evenings For New Music, composer Daniel Matej. I do figure out where I need to go and just as I'm hoisting my gear into the next train, Daniel arrives, having also just found out at the other station where I was likely to be. We drop the gear at the venue, I check in the hotel, and run back to set up and prepare for my lecture (yes, espresso.)
The talk is to cover various aspects of my work: the theoretical, the technical, improvisation, socio-political points, compositional strategies in SyndaKit, and selected relevant background history and experiences. As part of the talk, I perform a short Tectonics set to demonstrate my instruments and computer interface. The talk is translated into Slovakian. Because this is accomplished in short segments, I'm forced to think in concise blocks as well as speak very slowly. This proves to be an interesting exercise in conveying information, short on lateral flow but long on signal-to-noise. Some good questions from the audience. The hotel was built in the late 60's - early '70's and is a shining example of Communist "luxury"- the Jetson-ish decor is somehow in vogue again as is the 70's music running non-stop in the elevator, lobby, and restaurant. The elevator does not inspire confidence but the 14th floor room gives me a grand view of the city.

Dec. 2 - Vecery Novej Hudby: Tectonics, SyndaKit, improvisation with Vapore Del Cuori
We spend a good portion of the day setting up and doing sound check though there is still some time to explore the old city and the Old Town Square filled with merchants selling homemade foods and handcrafts (plus the usual touristic kitsch.) The concert begins with SyndaKit, here adapted for the five players of VDC plus E#. Daniel performs on turntable, processed acoustic sounds, CD's, and voice. The group also includes flutist Marek Piacek, pianist Peter Zagar, synthesist Martin Burlas, and clarinetist Ronald Sebesta. Both Daniel and Marek had pieces on the most recent State of the Union. This 30-minute version begins with glissandi and soon locks into telegraphing fast unisons phasing into hockets. The middle is drony and the ending splits the ensemble into separate rhythmic strains. Fantastic audience response. Tectonics is next and I try to cover a good portion of the sonic territory defined by this project without it sounding like a pastiche. Strong version of Krkd at the end melting into feedback. After an intermission we improvise together. The varied background of the players of VDC provides textural counterpoint to my own vocabulary. The 40-minute piece has surprising shifts and intensity. A huge response so we do a 3-minute manic encore. After breaking down the equipment, we retire to a 24-hour pizzeria that has a strange old-school underworld vibe. The 3rd is spent exploring the city, the 4th begins with a 2-hour bus ride to Wien airport, one hour on a 737 to Munich, and 10 hours on an Airbus 340 to NYC, fighting 180-mile/hour headwinds!

December - On tour at home
Dec. 11 - Orchestra Carbon performs SyndaKit at Tonic
Buckets of freezing rain and intense wind as we load in for a partial soundcheck in the afternoon. This weather is to continue plus we have the late set so I'm pessimistic about the turnout for this show. So it's a surprise when the club looks and feels pretty full at our 10:30 start-time. Everybody sticks very close to the "rules" making for a hard-driving version of the piece with some beautiful respites in the form of quiet loops and subliminal textures. The orchestra this night included Sim Cain, Jim Pugliese - drums & percussion, Curtis Fowlkes, Julie Kalu - trombones, J.D.Parran, Sam Furnace - saxophones, Tim Smith, Evan Spritzer - bass clarinets, Kato Hideki - bass, Lin Culbertson - electronics, Anthony Coleman - piano, and E# - 8string guitarbass, soprano sax.

Road Reports 2001Writings Road Reports 2003

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