Tag Archives: contemplative improvisation

Errant Space Podcast 111: Noise Reduction

This month’s podcast was recorded live at the first installment of the Noise Reduction series.

Its a collaborative improvisation with synthesist David Mason.

The performance took place in the rear chapel space of Prophecy Hall, a former Dutch Reformed church in Beacon, NY. Its an interesting space to create in, and I hope to do more there in the future.

The Noise Reduction series aims to provide a space for quiet sounds, where horizontal listening is encouraged.

David Mason and me (Craig) performing at Prophecy Hall (photo: Gavin Hecker)

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Errant Space Podcast 111: Noise Reduction
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Errant Space Podcast 106: Bows and Bends

This month’s podcast features three live recordings from 2023, all of which include either bowed, or circuit bent instruments.

It begins with a performance with conceptual cellist Irman (who also contributes some keyboard) which was recorded at Telephone in Pittsburgh, PA.

Then, there’s a recording from drone day 2023 featuring Tamalyn Miller on horse hair fiddle and Thom Uliaz (burnkit2600) on circuit bent electronics.

Finally there is a very quiet performance that took place across a table next to the kitchen in a civil war era boarding house at XFest 2023 in New Hampshire. This one features the circuit bent Casio MT-240 of Cryptwarblr and I am playing a Bastl SoftPop. Both of us are using the instruments internal speakers.

Cryptwarblr’s Casiotone MT-240

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Errant Space Podcast 106: Bows and Bends
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Errant Space Podcast 104: with Jesse Beaman

This month’s podcast features composer/keyboardist Jesse Beaman from Austin, Texas.

Jesse was out on tour in the area, and had a free day to come by the studio to record. What you’ll hear here is the first time we ever played together, I find the results quite beautiful and minimal.

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Errant Space Podcast 104: with Jesse Beaman
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Errant Space Podcast 102 with Fronds & Fringe

This month’s podcast features Fronds & Fringe, a duo of sound makers from Philadelphia, PA.

Rebecca and Irman came to my studio the day after playing a show in town to record this podcast. I really enjoyed our collaboration, its rare for me to do a studio podcast with more than one musician. There was a lot of good playing and listening happening, and we covered some strange sonic terrain together.

Fronds & Fringe performing at Quinn’s.

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Errant Space Podcast 102 with Fronds & Fringe







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Errant Space Podcast 101 – with David Rothenberg

This month’s podcast features composer/clarinetist David Rothenberg, who came to the studio with his bass clarinet, field recordings, samples and electronics for an afternoon of sonic exploration. The results of our collaboration are surprising and delightful!

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Errant Space Podcast 101 - with David Rothenberg







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Errant Space Podcast One Hundred

This month brings the 100th Errant Space podcast!!

To mark the occasion, I organized a live event featuring eight past podcast participants which took place on July 1, 2023 at the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon, NY.

photo: Sandy Santra

It was a three hour performance with the performers surrounding the audience, who were encouraged to listen while horizontal. The musicians played in rotating groups of three. This podcast is taken from that performance.

These are the musicians who participated in the experiment:

Al Margolis (piezo micro sounds)

Dean Sharp (processed percussives, samples)

Katie Down (glass and metal instruments, flutes)

Thom Uliasz (TV synthesizers)

Bonnie Kane (saxophone, flute, processing)

Sandy Santra (piano)

Neil Alexander (piano + processing)

Andy Rinehart (piano, accordion)

and me (Craig) (guitar, processing)

We had a fair number of audience members come through during the performance, you’ll hear people moving about on the recording. For best results, listen while laying down, it will almost be like you were there…

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Errant Space Podcast One Hundred







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Errant Space Podcast Ninety Nine: with Bernhard Wöstheinrich

This month’s podcast features Bernhard Wöstheinrich, from Berlin.
Bernhard came to my studio to record before his performance at the Third Tuesdays: Electronic/Experimental Music Night, it was the first time we’d met and we promptly began making sounds together. I find the results of our collaboration have a dream-like quality, as if floating through surreal, ever-changing environments. Be sure to listen in headphones, Bernhard’s sound is amazingly spacious!

Bernhard performing at Quinn’s.

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Errant Space Podcast Ninety Nine: with Bernhard Wöstheinrich







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Errant Space Podcast Ninety Seven – with Dean Sharp (drums!)

This month’s podcast is pretty special. It features Dean Sharp, who was the first collaborator on the podcast (#3), and who has made several appearances, but on all of those he focused on guitar. This time, he’s gone back to his roots and plays drums(!)

While I’ve dipped my toes into the water, with percussion(ists), this is the first time I’ve had a drummer, playing drum kit on the podcast, and our recording session was a bit of a breakthrough for me. As an ambient musician, I’ve always been somewhat drum-phobic, but Dean is a fantastic listener and has a good understanding of what I do and I think our collabo, while not strictly ambient, resulted in some beautiful improvisations.

Dean Sharp in action, at Quinn’s in Beacon, NY

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Errant Space Podcast Ninety Seven - with Dean Sharp (drums!)







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Errant Spaces Podcast Ninety Six – with Scary Mountain Wizard

This month’s podcast is a collbo with Scary Mountain Wizard who brought his hybrid modular synth/guitar rig over to the studio for some ambient explorations.

I’m very pleased with this one, it has a nice mellowness and there’s a feeling of gentle exploration. At times it gets very slow, almost to the point of stillness…

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Errant Spaces Podcast Ninety Six - with Scary Mountain Wizard







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Errant Space Podcast Ninety Four: The Friday Experiment

This month’s podcast is a live performance recorded at The Friday Experiment at Gateway City Arts in Holyoke, MA. It was an interesting show – an evening of continuous ambient performances featuring Craig Douglas, me and Bonnie Kane. Our sets overlapped by a few minutes, so the end of one performers set would become the start of the next.

Presented here is my portion of the evening. I really like the shape of this one, it covers a lot of sonic territory. That’s why I’ve posted it unedited. Its a good example of what an Errant Space performance can be.

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Errant Space Podcast Ninety Four: The Friday Experiment







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