This month, having just passed the five year mark, I’m taking a look back with the intent of creating a sea of tranquility for you to submerge yourself in. The source material is from three sessions going back to 2015. This podcast uses previously unreleased parts from those sessions.
It starts by revisiting a collaboration with saxophonist Brad Hubbard (ES Podcast #24) playing the Electronic Wind Instrument. Brad is a fantastic and thoughtful improvisor, and here he brings some nice synth tones and textures to our musical conversation.
The middle section is from an all day solo performance (installation?) in 2015 during Newburgh Open Studios (ES Podcast #6). These durational performances really let me take my time and slow waay down. I try to get to a similar place in my shorter performances, but its always a challenge. This one is cascading and minimal, it reminds me of watching little waves rushing to shore, or gentle raindrops.
Finally there’s more contemplative improvisation this time with vocalist Ella Ray Kondrat (ES Podcast #34). This recording was literally the first time we played together. I think at the time I edited the original podcast I may have thought it was too raw, but listening to it now I find it has a sort of fragile beauty.
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:
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.