A CD release is a special event, representing the culmination of lots of work from many people. It's also a moment with some gravity-- you're sending a piece of your work out into a world that may be appreciative, critical, or indifferent in turn. I got to experience it twice recently...
The first album is from a trio I was part of back in Phoenix. The group is called Easy Worship Operator, and the album is called what looks like air. We're an electroacoustic free improvisation group-- we each play an assortment of acoustic instruments, but they're all fed into a computer that gently shapes (or mangles) the sounds into something else entirely. We played lots of small gallery venues and festivals throughout Arizona, but when I joined the KSU faculty in October 2008, we weren't sure how (or even if) we could make the group continue. Happily, we recorded the album this past May, and I spent a good deal of the summer mixing it and getting it ready for release. You can stream the whole thing (for free!) and download it at easyworshipoperator.bandcamp.com. That page also has a link to purchase the album on CD from our Kunaki site. (Anyone interested in great ways to release music on the Internet without tangling with record labels would be well-served to check out bandcamp.com and Kunaki.com.) The tracks are all improvised with no overdubs, and range from gently ambient to pretty violent. Any dance students looking for music for choreography might want to check it out...hint hint...
The second album is the New World Records release of the complete Links Series of Vibraphone Essays by Stuart Smith. Stuart has been teaching for several decades at the University of Maryland at Baltimore County, and is a leading American experimental composer. There are 11 Links; I recorded Links No. 3 last January in Baltimore. Working with Stuart was amazing, and his wife and publisher Sylvia is equally dedicated and talented. The 2-CD set was released last Tuesday; my copy should be arriving any day now, and I can't wait to hear it. The collection of other performers on the disc is impressive (I'm especially chuffed to be right next to Steven Schick, who recorded Links No. 4), and every element of production, from what I can see at this point, is top-notch. You can find out more about the album (and read Steven Schick's excellent liner notes) here.
I'm writing this from Phoenix, AZ; in two days, my doctoral foreign language test at ASU will be finished, and I'll be heading back to Kent. See you all soon!
--Bill Sallak (Assistant Professor/Dance Music Director/Moderator)
Wow! I just streamed a couple of tracks just now and I am really impressed. Soothing and ethereal mixed with aggressive and fierce with a dash of "What the hell was that? Don't tell me, I like it too much!" Great job Bill!
ReplyDelete