Contents: Nathan Hubbard Skeleton Key Orchestra: Track 1 (for RC) Lisle Ellis, Marcos Fernandes: Parlance Gunther's Grass: Vulcanian Permanent Flow: Kalkengel Curtis Glatter: Bala 1 Damon Holzborn: E. Digest Ellen Weller, Bob Weller: Excerpts from Suite of Dreams Trio Maghreb: Field Day Erik Griswold, Scott Walton, Nathan Hubbard: Susan's Stretto Obscuricon: Vitriol robert m: A Remixed Offering of Interconnectedness Nathan Hubbard Skeleton Key Orchestra: Track 2 (for AB)
Nathan Hubbard's tracks series is an ongoing set of compositions conceived for large ensemble using modular notation and open instrumentation. In general, these are shorter pieces with open possibilities for interpretation, often based around repetitious figures and overlapping textures. Track 1(For RC) is dedicated to composer/guitarist/trumpeter Rhys Chatham. Based around a central loop played by two like instruments, it deals mostly with rhythmic possibilities of overlapping loops in multiple meters, using three levels of activity pulse, vamps and section material. Track 2 (for AB) - Track 2 is dedicated to composer/woodwind player Anthony Braxton. It deals with similar issues as Track 1, without the pulse concept and with cells to be read in any clef. Lisle Ellis and Marcos Fernandes deliver a spirited dialogue on bass and percussion. Gunther's Grass began in 2005 as a collaboration between Marcelo Radulovich and Christopher Adler, to bring together two ancient drone-based instruments from across the world, the medieval European hurdy-gurdy and the Lao/Northeast Thai mouth organ khaen. Permanent Flow contributes an out-take from their 2004 Accretions release featuring live improvisations by Joscha Oets, Andreas Wagner and Greg Stuat. Bala 1: As an homage to East Asian nobility and primitivism, Curtis Glatter delivers a percussion solo with a "call" of gentle expressionism "answered" by a hailstorm of percussive fire. Sound artist Damon Holzborn sculpts layers of sound, working with programmatic and abstracted audio materials. He extracts a rich palette out of small musical moments, pulling at a sound to discover unexpected textures inside of it. E. Digest is distilled from materials collected for the inSite 05 project Ellipsis, curated by Hans Fjellestad. Ellen Weller and Bob Weller paint an Impressionistic piano and soprano sax dialogue while Trio Maghreb are Tracy McMullen, Al Scholl and Marcos Fernandes who offer a track from their upcoming release wherein they explore open and structured improvisations, minimalism and the blues. VITRIOL: Jason Robinson, Al Scholl, Justin Grinnel, Curtis Glatter and őTenshun on turntables offer up an electro-acoustic improvisation featuring the shimmering production die cast by Nathan Hubbard. Once again robert m reinterprets an existing work, this time going back to a piece recorded live at Spring Reverb '04 with Ernesto Diaz-Infante, Marcos Fernandes, Rent Romus and robert m. A bit rawer and more "noise" oriented than previous efforts, it traces the continuing evolution of robert m's music.
"What holds these loose strands together is a marshalled attempt by the collective to resist categorization and focus on musical exploration in a fresh way. And in this they are very successful..."
- e/i
"Although these musical offerings are diverse and international, they are warmed through with a virtual campfire sensibility, which lends a natural and organic feel to even the most electric/eclectic selections,...The whole exercise feels remarkably unselfconscious and uncontrived, as if such cross-fertilization were a decades long tradition." - The Wire