This month’s podcast is an experimental music experiment. Inspired by Al Margolis’ concept for podcast #57, and the desire/necessity to collaborate with musicians in distant locations, REMOTE VARIATIONS was born.
Here’s how it works: I recorded an improvised piece, keeping in mind that it would be sent to a collaborator (or in this case, two collaborators) to add to in any way they wanted. After the collaborator has finished with what I sent them, they take inspiration from that experience and create a new piece which they send to me to add to. Those pieces then go together to form the podcast.
My two (remote) collaborators this month were Irman Peck (Philadelphia, PA) and Michael Lowe (Denver, CO).
Irman Peck at Xfest 2020
Irman starts the podcast adding subtle synthesizers to the piece I sent him. Then around 15:45 we get more abstract with Irman’s response piece where he returns to his primary instrument, bass.
Michael Lowe (L) and Dean Sharp in 2011, this was the first time I met these guys!
Things begin to get glitchy and textural around 31:30 when Michael adds guitar to the piece I sent to him. Its fascinating how different two people’s response to the same piece of music can be! At 47:38 Michael’s response piece starts, which I add to on baritone guitar to close out the podcast.
Errant Elf, or Quantum Space… whichever you choose, this month’s podcast is from a live performance with Quantum Elf which took place on December 7, 2019 at the Rotunda in Philadelphia as part of the Event Horizon concert series.
Quantum Elf is Karl Fury (guitar, lap steel) and Floyd Bledsoe (synthesizers). It was a real honor to have these guys sit in with me for this show. I think our performance was pretty epic!
This month’s podcast features experimental musician Tom Law.
Tom uses Max/MSP to create his own instruments and to manipulate live audio. Our collabo gets a bit noisy and has some brutalist aspects; there are some fantastic textures! Open your ears and enjoy the ride.
This month’s podcast features the return of Al Margolis! Al told me he had an idea he wanted to try out, and when Al Margolis asks if you’re interested in trying out an experiment, the answer must be YES.
Al Margolis at work.
Here’s the concept, in Al’s words:
The basis of this session uses the three long drone works composed and performed by Leslie Ross from her drop by drop, suddenly CD on XI Records (you can find this on Bandcamp). I had been practicing my reed instrument playing to these multiphonic bassoon drones, and then decided I would record (in a sort of Exquisite Corpse way) each of my wind parts (clarinet, alto clarinet, alto and tenor saxes) to Leslie’s piece, but without listening to my previous playing.
I was describing this to Craig, and also my desire to perhaps play these pieces live – with one performer listening to the recording in headphones and playing along, and the other performer(s) only playing to what they hear – in other words, the person playing under headphones. (This is something I am still hoping to do live at some point.)
Craig was interested in the concept and being involved and so this is how the podcast recording happened. So “Air” is Craig listening to Leslie and me playing to Craig, without hearing Leslie. “Sea Soil”, for technical reasons we cheated a bit – we both played to the recording and did not hear each other (allegedly). And “Water” has me playing to the prerecorded material and Craig playing to me.
I have to admit that I came in thinking we would just both play drones to Leslie’s drones. I got a great surprise when right away in the first piece Craig did not drone, thus immediately forcing to think outside my pre-conceived box. This actually made for a much more interesting session…so thanks Craig!!!
All our performances on this podcast are roughly the same length as the pieces on Leslie’s CD with very little editing.
We start with our version of “Air” and the mix includes Leslie’s recording in addition to Al and me.
“Sea Soil” begins at 16:30 and is just Al and me, Leslie is not in the mix. If you’d like to hear Leslie’s recording, you can find it HERE. (If you’re adventurous you can play her recording along with ours and make your own mix!)
Finally, “Water” starts at 44:17. Leslie’s performance is back in the mix. This section has some manipulation and processing applied to Al’s and my parts, while the previous two are sonically unaltered.
Al Margolis played tenor sax on “Air” and “Water”, and alto clarinet on “Sea Soil”.
Many thanks to Leslie Ross for the composition(s) and permission to use her recording in this.
Leslie’s album, drop by drop, suddenly CD is available on XI Records. And on Bandcamp: https://xirecords.bandcamp.com/album/drop-by-drop-suddenly
This month’s podcast features composer / multi-instrumentalist V. Vecker (Keith Wecker) from Vancouver, BC playing saxophone and synthesizer.
We first met at Space Out, Outside 3, which was featured on podcast #51. A few days later, Keith came by the studio for a podcast session. The results are pretty experimental, with lots of loops and drones and saxophoning, great for late night listening.
Errant Elf, or Quantum Space… whichever you choose, this month’s podcast is from a live performance with 
If you enjoyed this podcast, please