Hey guys –

So here’s where I give you some insider tips. . .exclusive info. . .about this new album out NOW on NNA Tapes!

This material was created with Don Godwin. . .some of it I took from demos for the project I did with William Basinski for Ecstatic Music Festival, other stuff I grabbed from a recording of a live piece I did with students at Middlebury College – it’s a composition that’s not available anywhere. We played it a few times and it’s just kind of lost. But there were some recordings. . .the first few minutes of Side A is from this piece called The Cave I did with some students there.

Side B is kind of nuts. It’s me at the Millay Colony – recording onto a 4 track cassette machine. I was trying to get a solo piece together. Of course it was sounding sick when I played it just to myself – then I started recording it every day for about a week. It got worse and worse by the day. This performance was the one that was just not quite as good as the ones I’d played before. Plus I did some singing while I played. The singing sounded so weird and kind of damaged – almost not part of the performance that I started to like it. It’s as if a drunk guy is talking into the mic – maybe the bootlegger is running his mouth off while I play. I liked it. . .it’s definitely NOT FOR EVERYONE.

I will have a few of these at the Brooklyn Museum when we do 100 Disciplines.

Thanks to NNA – this release is cool – I’m happy it’s out.

 

OK – I’m a little late to announce this on my website – but I’ll give you additional EXCLUSIVE material here. For anyone who still reads websites.

Probably over a year ago I approached Adam Shore from Red Bull Music Academy with an idea to do a major piece with at least 20 musicians, all drummers, playing intense rolls on their drums – all of them close miked. I created a few demos. . .

Adam trusted my vision and it’s the first commission that Red Bull has ever done! I didn’t realize this until I read the press release. Incredible – thank you. . .

So we’re premiering this thing at the Brooklyn Museum on May 3rd. . .it’s free. . .there are two performances – one at 2pm and one at 4:30pm. The piece is about 50 minutes long and it has evolved quite a bit from the original idea – but it still has 20 musicians and most of them are percussionists.

I don’t want any spoilers here but I decided to reach beyond things I’ve done before. . .and try to create something as insane, melancholic, lyrical and brutal as possible. Huge thanks to Adam Shore, RBMA and Matt Evans for all the help with this. . .almost there!