This month’s podcast is a field recording from the first Sound/Peace (Seeking Harmony in Dissonant Times) performance. The performance took place on November 19, 2017 at the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon, NY and featured Brad Hubbard (baritone sax and flute), Andy Rinehart (accordion and piano), Nathan Yeager (synthesizers) and me (Craig) (guitar and loops).
The Sound/Peace concept takes several performers playing a mix of acoustic and electronic instruments and places them around the perimeter of a space surrounding the audience who are encouraged to bring pillows, lie down, read, draw, meditate etc. The event takes place in natural light as the sun sets, ending as darkness falls. It is an immersive sonic experience accompanied by the changing light of the setting sun.
Here is a time lapse from the first part of this performance:
I’ve wanted to do a podcast with a singer for a long time, but finding a vocalist comfortable with improvised soundscapes is not so easy. Ella turned out to be a great improvisor, who uses her voice in beautiful and unexpected ways, and I find the results of our collaboration sublimely serene. Be careful with this one, it can knock you right out.
This month’s podcast takes a look back at some of the past year’s live performances. I played with some great musicians in a variety of settings in 2017, and could probably fill several podcasts with those recordings. But here are four that represent the range of sonic experiences I had this year.
It starts with a solo performance at Beste Studios in October (thanks to Samantha Beste for the drawing at the top of this post!)
At around 11:17 there’s a duo performance with Dean Sharp on guitar, beats and loops, recorded at Newburgh Open Movement in August.
Then at 26:06 it’s a quartet performance with Al Margolis playing wind instruments, including alto clarinet, recorder and trumpet, Andy Rinehart on accordion, and Steve Roe on the Straddlevarious! This was recorded at a contact improvisation workshop in November.
This month’s podcast features the modular synths of Okkoto. I met Okkoto at a synth meet put on by the Hudson Valley Machine Appreciation Society, where he performed a beautifully minimal set. I was very pleased that he was interested in recording a podcast, and our collaboration produced some deep, textured electronic soundscapes.
This month’s podcast has more modular synths! courtesy of Campfire’s Edge.
Our collaboration produced some super-spacy, soundscapes – they have a sci-fi flavor that I really like, and hopefully you will too (mmm… sci-fi….).
If you want to hear more from Campfire’s Edge, I highly recommend that you check out his EP, The Last Lighthouse. Its a beautifully textured collection of electronic compositions sure to please any fan of this podcast.
This month’s podcast is a return to some more mellow soundscapes. Taken from a couple of solo performances in May 2017 at the Howland Cultural Center. Listen quietly in a dark room for maximum effect.
This month’s podcast features composer/keyboardist Art Labriola, who eschews his keyboards and performs on his modular synths. The resulting soundscapes are a sonic journey to some strange and fantastic places. Prepare your ears for adventure!
Here it is, the 24th Errant Space podcast! That’s two years of spacing out. Let’s celebrate with a double bill!
The first part of #24 features Abelard who plays guitars while I explore my “Errant Bass” alter ego. Just to mix things up, I decided to spend much of the last month getting back to my roots and playing bass guitar. I found the instrument lent itself quite well to the more soundscapey end of the ambient spectrum and this collaboration with Abelard is a good representation of some spacy goodness. It gets a little weird…
The second part of this month’s podcast goes in a completely different direction with me back on the guitar and featuring saxophonist Brad Hubbard playing electronic wind instrument (EWI) and baritone sax. Our collaboration resulted in some lovely mellow ambient tone poems. The first has Brad playing the EWI, creating nice electronic textures. And we wrap it up with Brad playing some beautiful baritone sax.
This month’s podcast was recorded at a Newburgh Open Movement performance on New Years Eve 2016 and features the always inspiring Dean Sharp. This is Dean’s third appearance on the podcast (clearly I like playing with the guy!), each time has been in a differentcontext.
And this podcast is also a little different, as the music was meant to provide an atmosphere in which people could move and dance, and our performance was a sort of collaboration with the movers and dancers.
This month’s podcast (#20!) features the amazing sound artist Jen Kutler who I met at a show at My Life In the Bush of Ghosts. Jen brought over some of her found object instruments (including the Sewing Machine Inductor Synth) for our collaboration and the resulting soundscapes are fantastically otherworldy.