This month’s podcast is a behind the scenes peek into how I prepare for a show.
For a solo electronic performance I need to devise a system to improvise with that will produce (manageable?) unexpected results that I can respond to. (When improvising with other musicians, this takes care of itself.) In this case I had in mind creating a fairly minimal, droney, textural soundscape so used the Strega, which is excellent for drones and the Wingie2/Blippoo Box which is a great source of randomness. I also incorporated some field recordings for additional texture (played on a Kaoss pad), and harmonica to add an element of breath. Everything could be sent to an Eccos delay in sound on sound mode via an effects send to create slowly evolving/dissolving loops.
There are three improvisations presented here, the first two are me exploring strategies for the performance in my studio and the third is the final live performance recorded at Greenkill in Kingston, NY on January 13, 2025.
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.
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!
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:
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…
This month’s podcast sees the return of modular synthesist Okkoto!
This winter, I took a trip up to Okkoto’s studio in the mountains where we spent an afternoon exploring sounds… We ended up with plenty of hypnotic rhythms and interesting textures for your listening pleasure.
This month’s podcast is pretty special. It features Dean Sharp, who was the first collaborator on the podcast (#3), and who has madeseveral 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.
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…
We enter new (sonic) territory this month with percussionist Kevin Cheli.
I’ve always been a bit apprehensive about having a percussionist on the podcast; I could never get my head around how it would work. But, as I keep reminding myself, “there’s only one way to find out!”
So Kevin came to the studio with his vibraphone, percussives and electronics and I think the results are great. There’s a whole new lexicon of textures, sometimes approaching the world of ASMR. Its gets pretty noisy, but there are also melodic moments and lots of beautiful sounds. Open your ears and enjoy the ride.
Xfest was held in August, on a compound near Pond Eddy, NY. There was a basement where, on the morning of day 2, we gathered to do some recording. This podcast is the result.
This month’s podcast is a collbo with 
