Map Ref Vol. 2

110 minutes of dark ambient field recordings from around the world...

Benefit for Logan Firestone, Friday May 16th

We emerge from hibernation with new songs, a new bass player and a new gig!

Stay warm my friends...

Frigid Touch Live at The Grog Shop Sunday, November 17

Frigid Touch Live at The Five O'Clock Lounge Saturday, November 16, 2013

Frigid Touch - Cascade

Chris did a fantastic job putting this new version of Cascade together from a multitude of cameras and resolutions -- nice!

Ignition performed live at the "Sound Your Engine" show at MOCA

Audio evidence of my Saturday afternoon at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland



This piece was constructed from Field Recordings made earlier in the day in the plaza at the Museum from Tim Willis' Monster Trucks.

Thanks to Chris Auerbach-Brown, Kory Dakin and all the great folks at MOCA, as well as Lisa Miralia and Rob Galo for their help.

As always, DO NOT operate heavy machinery while listening, as the music may cause drowsiness, loss of vision, muscle fatigue, death, or worse.

Our new EP is available today!

Frigid Touch: Beachland Ballroom & Tavern July 24 w/Flowers in Flames and Morticia's Chair

Nudge nudge, Snap snap, Grin grin, wink wink, say no more?

All of the pictures from the Frigid Touch gig at the 21 Lounge from Darlene Beiter, set to our song "Take Flight"

Frigid Touch Live

Frigid Touch live at 21 Lounge June 6, 2013



(l-r) me, Chris Foldi, Rob Crossley & Michelle Strong

Take Flight

From our upcoming EP, here's some new #music: "Take Flight"



We'll be playing this song (and many other new tracks) on Thursday night at 21 Lounge in Cleveland

If you're in the area, come on down and say hello -- and bonus! -- the show is free.

once more into the breach

Writing the new songs was the easy part -- playing them live in front of people -- that's scary stuff ;)

Learn how to get your music noticed at ReverbNation.com

Frigid Touch

So... I've been away from the blog for a few months -- that's because I joined a band with my good friends Chris Foldi & Michelle Strong.

We're called Frigid Touch and you can stream/buy our first single "Cascade" on Bandcamp as well as iTunes and CDBaby.



Also available to stream on Soundcloud and ReverbNation.

60x60 East Coast Mix

Apologies for the short notice, but I just received notification of this last night.

A short piece of mine ("Ghosts on the Rails") will be included in the 60x60 East Coast Mix premiering Friday night in the Boston/Cambridge area.

Composer’s Voice concert
Friday, March 1st, 2013 8:00PM
Common Room in Lehman Hall (Dudley House)
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138
$10 Suggested Donation

https://www.facebook.com/events/118547721661885/

-----

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Composer’s Voice debuts in Cambridge with Fifteen Minutes of Fame and 60x60

March 1, 2013 (Boston, Massachusetts) Composer’s Voice concert series will not pull punches for its debut performance at Dudley House in Harvard University. The concert will premiere Fifteen Minutes of Fame Re-Imagining Debussy with Stephen Porter and follow up with a premiere of the first 60x60 East Coast Mix.

Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame: Re-Imagining Debussy is 15 one-minute pieces by 15 composers from around the world, writing specifically for Stephen Porter on the theme of Debussy in celebration of his 150th birthday. This international collection of composers include: Anna Aidinian, Erik Branch, Remigio Coco, Cindi Hsu,Giuseppe Lupis, Steven Markowitz, Serban Nichifor, James Soe Nyun, D. Peters; P. M. Reilich, Juan Maria Solare, Aurelio Scotto, Jose Jesus de Azevedo Souza, Anne-Marie Turcotte, and Darren Wirth.

American pianist Stephen Porter was named artist-resident of the Cité Internationale Des Arts in Paris, and invited to give recitals of the music of Claude Debussy during the composer’s 150th birthday year. (BOSTON MUSICAL INTELLIGENCER) "Stephen Porter has a thorough knowledge of and clear affinity for Claude Debussy’s Préludes...masterful" (BERKSHIRE REVIEW) Praises Porter’s performance of Schubert’s B Flat Sonata,”...the slow movement, broad, grave, and not without its despairing moments, was especially moving... his sense of timing in the coda was perfect, bringing the monumental sonata to a close appropriate to its scale, nobility, and emotional depth...a compelling and moving performance.”

60x60 East Coast Mix is 60 one-minute electronic works by 60 composers synchronized by an analog clock. Each work is performed without pause to total exactly one hour; with the passing of each minute brings a new work by a living composer. Coordinated by Bert Van Herck, this concert will present the world premiere performance of the first 60x60 East Coast Mix. Containing 60 composers who work on the Eastern Seaboard, the 60x60 East Coast Mix was created in celebration of the 60x60’s 10th year. 60x60’s various incarnations have received critical acclaim:

“...60 new pieces of music, each lasting no more than 60 seconds - is quite
mad. But it's this kind of madness that makes the cultural world go round…” - New York Times

"60 short pieces uninterrupted, for an hour total of some very weird and wonderful music"- Fresno Beehive

"sure to delight; or at least some of the pieces will tickle your fancy" - Classical Voice of North Carolina

Composers selected for the 60x60 East Coast Mix include: N. B. Aldrich, David N. Berlin, James Bohn, Michael Boyd, Julius Bucsis, Anne Elyse Burson, David Charles Calabrese, Joel Chadabe, Alison Conard, Christopher Cook, Mike Crooker, David Crowe, Douglas DaSilva, Thomas Dempster, Robert Dick, David Z Durant, Louise Fristensky, Josh Goldman, Melissa Grey, Joshua Groffman, Nathan Halverson, Jaclyn Heyen, TJ Hospodar, Charles Jowett, C.R. Kasprzyk, Benjamin Klein, Joan La Barbara, Michael Bartholomew Laurello, HyeKyung Lee, Elainie Lillios, John Link, Matt Marble, Alex Edward Marse, Charles Norman, Mason, Zack Merritt, Daniel Morel, David Morneau, Tim Mukherjee, Casey Mullen, Kala Pierson, Derek Piotr, Nora Ponte, Tim R Risher, James Ross, Edward G Ruchalski, Judith Shatin, Andrew Smith, Jerod Sommerfeldt, Laurie Spiegel, Eli Stine, Mike Swinchoski, Hans Tammen, Peter Elyakim Taussig, Jeremy Van Buskirk, Bert Van Herck, Robert Voisey, Andrew Walters, Jane Wang, Rodney Waschka, and John S Wiggins.

Balancing the evening with longer works Composer’s Voice will present the chamber works of Jason Huffman, John Harbison, Marti Epstein, and Chris Coughlin.

John Harbison's music is distinguished by its exceptional resourcefulness and expressive range. He is considered to be "original, varied, and absorbing — relatively easy for audiences to grasp and yet formal and complex enough to hold our interest through repeated hearings — his style boasts both lucidity and logic" (Fanfare).

Having been hailed as “engaging,” “dramatic,” “epic,” and occasionally “truly odd,” Christopher Coughlin’s music is best characterized by an extreme attentiveness to melodic contour and emotional depth.

Composer's Voice Concert Series is an opportunity for contemporary composers to express their musical aesthetic and personal "voice" created in their compositions. Started in 2001, the “Composer’s Voice” concert series is presenting its 100th of concert scheduled in NYC for 2013.

Composer’s Voice presents its first Boston, Massachusetts concert 8:00PM Friday, March 1, 2013. Information on the Composer's Voice can be found at the following

link: http://www.voxnovus.com/composersvoice/

Composer’s Voice concert
Friday, March 1st, 2013 8:00PM
Common Room in Lehman Hall (Dudley House)
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138
$10 Suggested Donation

For more information, contact: support@voxnovus.com

Live @ MOCA 12.01.12

Here's the audio from my three sets at the John Cage Musicircus held at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland on December 1, 2012. There were 24 acts playing different parts of the building at different times, overlapping as you moved from area to area within the many floors of the beautiful new building.

MOCA Cleveland issued a call for musicians located in Northeast Ohio (and beyond) to participate in a Musicircus in their new building, scheduled for Saturday, December 1, 2012, from 1 - 4 pm. This event celebrates MOCA Cleveland’s move to University Circle as well as the centenary of composer John Cage’s birth (Cage was born on September 5, 1912).

Musicircus is a concept developed by John Cage. According to his original notes for his first musicircus, Cage states “The idea of this composition is nothing more than an invitation to a number of musicians, who perform simultaneously anything or in any way they desire.”

All performers are treated with equal weight and importance. The length of each musician’s or ensemble’s set, along with their order of presentation, is predetermined in advance by utilizing chance procedures from the I Ching.

Performers will be stationed in as many spots in MOCA's new building as possible, to evoke the “simultaneity of unrelated intentions” which Cage sought when he conceived of this framework. Audience members are free to roam and focus their attention on one musician or ensemble at a time, but they won’t be able to escape the tapestry of sounds which permeates a musicircus.

x-o

Spooky new music for your next Halloween party -- or to clear the room out after the party, either one works ;)

Ghosts On The Rails

Put your ears to the rails and listen as the past comes rushing back.

Redecorating the basement one gear at a time...

Here's part of the basement wall that we worked on yesterday... it's getting there.

Apophenia

This month's new music explores the hidden patterns that are exposed when our brain tries to make meaning out of randomness...



As always, headphones are recommended. Stream for free, pay what you like.

Morbius

I broke out the circuit bent Casio SK-1 and put together a new track ("Morbius") for the "Cheap and Plastic" compilation from Hal McGee that you can listen to below (scroll down to track 45) or go straight to Hal's Bandcamp page to go deep down the rabbit hole. ;)



yes, it's a "Forbidden Planet" reference ;)

Steampunk Zeppelin

A Steampunk Zeppelin, made from recycled plastic...

Map Ref

Map Ref is 10 tracks of dark ambient music based on field recordings -- as always, headphones are strongly recommended...

Textures

This is what it sounds like in my head reproduced in convenient 10 minute slices.

90 minutes of sine wave melodies, sliding formants, narrow frequency spikes, sub-atomic spelunking, deep-breathing exercises, ebb & flow, vague rumbles, the sound of air, ritualism and chaos.

Now all that can be in your head.

You're welcome.

(Headphones strongly suggested)

Sunset

A short time-lapse of a sunset as seen through the screen door.