The Sound Genetic

PBK & Wolf Eyes - Rabid (Unreleased Album), 2005

2011-11-07T22:05:00.000-05:00

PBK: The lost PBK/Wolf Eyes album! Compositions inspired by the Cronenberg film. Later released by Olson as "Live Frying", so rare I don't even possess a copy of that one! I conceived of this as a full-on collaboration with Wolf Eyes using sources John Olson gave me in 2004. PBK mix on all tracks. Dilloway didn't like the cover painting by Harry Williams. Some tracks were released on "Under My Breath" on Waystyx.

DOWNLOAD (mp3 320 kbps 77 mb + cover)

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V/A with Artemis K, Hal McGee, Mystified, PBK, Travis Johnson, Etc. - International Email Audio Art Project Volume 7, 2011

2011-01-28T20:05:00.007-05:00

The latest edition of Hal McGee's ambitious International Email Audio Art Project, volume 7, includes one solo PBK track as well as collaborative tracks with Artemis K, Hal McGee, Mystified and Travis Johnson. A special treat is the return of 80's tape network legends, the long-lost Solomonoff & Von Hoffmannstahl!

DOWNLOAD via the Internet Archive: http://www.archive.org/details/InternationalEmailAudioArtProjectVolume7

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V/A with Artemis K, Hal McGee, Runar Magnusson, PBK, Etc. - International Email Audio Art Project Volume 6, 2011

2011-01-16T07:48:00.008-05:00

DOWNLOAD via the Internet Archive: http://www.archive.org/details/InternationalEmailAudioArtProjectVolume6

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PBK & Will Soderberg - Unauthorized Vol 2 (Studio Sessions Extras, August 2005), 2011

2011-01-03T23:17:00.009-05:00

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PBK & Will Soderberg - Unauthorized Vol 1 (Live At WHFR, Detroit 11/13/2005), 2011

2011-01-02T23:22:00.010-05:00

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PBK - Appeal, 1989

2010-12-03T21:54:00.008-05:00

Download links removed: this will soon be reissued as a 2xcassette release on Impulsy Stetoskopu in Poland.

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PBK & Artemis K (Acclimate) Live Videos, 1998

2010-12-03T20:14:00.004-05:00

The following video clips are from the same concert in 1998 as the first long track on "Acclimate Live Transmission" posted here. Videos are courtesy Artemis K.

Das, Jeph Jerman, John Hudak, PBK - Chain Mail Collab, 1988

2010-11-23T22:20:00.007-05:00

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

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V/A with Hal McGee, John Wiggins, Le Scrambled Debutante, PBK, Yannick Franck, Zanstones, Etc. - International Email Audio Art Project Volume 2, 2010

2010-11-15T21:33:00.005-05:00

PBK:

"60 one-minute compositions by a host of international underground musicians, noisemakers and sound experimentalists. Hal McGee compiled this series of free net-releases, titled 'International Email Audio Art Project', a 21st century tribute and extension to the concepts of the Mail Art movement that began in the 1960's, but really peaked during the 80's/90's, those same decades that ushered in the Cassette Underground. The Tape Network, in my opinion, a moment in music history that anticipated the open sharing of self-made music, and music in general, on the Internet, was the last manifestation of the Mail Art movement. As physical mailing waned due to the Internet, artists like myself looked to the Web for the next incarnation of the concepts embodied in Mail Art. But it never arrived. It appeared that many musicians were simply going to use the Internet to promote their work in ways that echoed the corporate and/or corporate-blueprinted indie labels. Some sites, such as the TapeGerm Collective, (which McGee is also active in) were moving in the right direction and taking a very proactive approach to web-based collaboration and interaction, even as fans of the experimental sub-cultures, mostly musicians themselves, became more and more directed towards the fetishization of music product in the form of limited edition cassettes and vinyl. So this project, for me, restores faith in and reveals even more the possible potentials of freely networking for ALL ears via the Internet!

Despite the apparent randomness of the order in which the tracks are presented, without prejudice, i.e., in the order they were received, the brilliant 'exquisite corpse' style that emerges when listening to it is fresh and inspiring. This edition, Volume Two, contains the beautifully strange electroacoustics of Adrian Beentjes, curious vocal incantations of Julia LaDense, lo-fi guitar experimentation via Bret Hart, feedback biomechanical-sounding improvisations of Hal McGee, and that still leaves 56 more tracks... inspiring! Certainly there are a few jarring moments and some things that don't seem like a solid fit, but that sort of diversity was ALWAYS the case in the cassette network. I do not see that as a drawback, rather, exemplifying for me, the tremendous amount of personal creative energy moving in many different, but simultaneous, directions. There is much to find of interest here, friends of mine such as Allan Zane, John Wiggins, Travis Johnson, Yannick Franck of Y.E.R.M.O., Zan Hoffman, many others and a track of my own titled 'Stars In The Human Mind'."

DOWNLOAD via the Internet Archive: http://www.archive.org/details/InternationalEmailAudioArtProjectVolume2

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PBK - Living Archive Collection, 2010

2010-11-02T21:18:00.005-04:00

PBK Living Archive Collection

1. Blast Lung from Rework Odium
2. Common Language from Listening To The World Vibrate
3. Contradictory Terms from The Artificial Nerve
4. Crime Of Trespass from Life-Sense Revoked
5. Near Future Myths from Headmix
6. Tremble Over You from Mantis Fog Desert (with Zan Hoffman)

This collection was assembled by Phillip B. Klingler to accompany the Artist Spotlight feature at The Living Archive Of Underground Music.

View the PBK page here

Visit the main Living Archive site

DOWNLOAD: http://www.archive.org/details/PbkLivingArchiveCollection

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Zanstones - We'll Drive Ol' Scratch Away (Featuring PBK, Agog, Ditto, Runzlestirn & Gurglestock, John Wiggins), 1996

2010-11-02T20:52:00.006-04:00

DOWNLOAD via the Internet Archive: http://www.archive.org/details/zh27478

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Here Be Monsters-Thousands Are Still Asleep (Featuring PBK, Agog, De Fabriek, Kazuhiro Ohtsuuka, Minoy, Mystery Hearsay, etc.), 1992

2010-11-02T20:44:00.003-04:00

DOWNLOAD via the Internet Archive: http://www.archive.org/details/zh27376

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V/A with PBK, Drone Forest, Big City Orchestra, Etc. - Gone In 60 Seconds, 2010

2010-11-02T20:21:00.008-04:00

PBK:

"I contributed two tracks to the 'Gone In 60 Seconds' free net-release from August 2010. Compiled by Ilya at 'I Heart Noise', this fascinating compilation contains all one-minute tracks including some by my friends Big City Orchestra and Drone Forest."

DOWNLOAD: http://ihrtn.com/2010/08/02/download-gone-in-60-seconds/

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PBK & Artemis K - Acclimate Live Transmission, 1998

2010-10-30T21:34:00.037-04:00

PBK:

"Both live concerts represented here were recorded in the same year, but contrast startlingly different sides of the work Artemis K and I did together.

The first performance is from May 1998 and we were opening for ConDemek. It was Dirk Serries (aka Vidna Obmana) who first introduced me to ConDemek's music when he recommended their excellent 'Disgorging Elements' from 1987. Artemis and I met the group in Paris at the Experiences Festival (11/96) and we became fast friends. So, when they were going on tour in '98, Artemis made arrangements for them to stop in our town: Flint, Michigan. We played at The Back Room, now called The Loft, and this bar has a storied history in Flint. Many bands coming through mid-Michigan had played there, some historic punk bands, some Detroit natives such as a young, flat-top wearing rapper named Kid Rock, Insane Clown Posse, etc. More recently when Wolf Eyes played in Flint on several occasions we convened afterwards for drinks in this bar!

The first track, as Artemis has pointed out elsewhere, was the opening improvisation of a 90 minute concert performance. This is all soundscape and noise/drone with very little of the overt rhythmic/melodic content that Artemis was interested in establishing in this band. There are some vocal snippets (an obvious one from Lynch's 'Eraserhead') and in the latter half a low-frequency rhythm fluxes throughout the piece. This was recorded on a live mic, so you can, at points, hear the audience.

(Recently, Artemis K has produced some video clips from this performance which I have posted here. I was very pleased to see these clips and I'd forgotten that he had arranged to have it videotaped. In my opinion, this was our best live concert.)

I always find it interesting to think of that time (mid-to-late 90s) in relation to playing live noise in Michigan. What is now taken for granted just over a decade later, i.e. a local 'noise scene', did not at this time exist. So, the things we did in public, performing live abstract music, were pretty much unprecedented around these parts.

The second performance was recorded at the same venue, only two months later, in July. Artemis had contacted Kid606 and Lesser through the Vinyl Communications label, so when they were doing a national tour, he set up a gig for them in Flint. In opening for these underground glitch bands we apparently decided to do a set based around Artemis' rhythmic sequences. This is quite different from the performance in May. In this case, my improvising of random noises doesn't exactly mesh well with Artemis' heavy rhythms, at times the squalls I'm creating swallow up his sequences. Artemis K's compositions definitely owe something of a debt to Cleopatra/Wax Trax-style industrial music, with a nod to Gary Numan's influence as well. To be honest, the melodic and rhythmic content in these tracks seem to perhaps have been composed with the thought of including a vocal track. I know Artemis was trying out some vocal material on his solo work at the time. At times it seems like we are so out of sync that my sounds are corrupting the directions he is moving in. But this becomes the most interesting aspect of these recordings, in my opinion, the clash between extremely rigid sequence-based rhythm/melody and freely improvised noise fluctuations. These tracks were not recorded with a live mic and there are no audience sounds."

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Mystified & PBK, The Implicit Order, KR-Ohm, Kwalijk - Collusion, 2009

2010-10-30T21:05:00.008-04:00

PBK:

"Thomas Park is Mystified, a distinguished American dark ambient/experimental music composer. This free net-release from 2009, "Collusion", is an all-collaborative album that features remixes of Thomas Park's compositions. The three tracks I created are radical reworkings of Mystified's space/drone textures. Free to download at the link below."

http://www.archive.org/details/ca308_m

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C. Reider - Fragment Three Re-Works (Recycled Music of PBK & Vidna Obmana), 2010

2010-10-30T20:17:00.013-04:00

PBK:

"Superb remake/remodel of my split tape release with Vidna Obmana, originally from 1991 (on ND Records). C. Reider, a longtime friend and collaborator, has had a notable history in the U.S. underground noise and ambient scene, his Discog is HERE. Reider has authoritatively restructured the "Fragment Three" tracks to reveal profound new dimensional aspects. This free net-release is, for me, one of the highlights of 2010!"

DOWNLOAD via Vuzh Music: http://www.vuzhmusic.com/releases/fragment.html

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RAPIDSHARE.COM

2010-01-18T17:45:00.002-05:00

RAPIDSHARE HAS GOT TO GO!

In their efforts to push users into "premium"(i.e. paid) accounts, quite often a free user cannot even get into the cue to download a link. I'm very disappointed with this service at the moment, but I also recognize that the Rapidshare site is probably the most utilized site in the world for bloggers and I myself have been a premium user for several years.

I am in the process of transferring all of my music links to Mediafire, a service which is much better for free users. Eventually the links will also be mirrored at the Internet Archive for the sake of longevity.

Thank you for your patience and I'll have this problem resolved in a week or so.

PBK - Mutation Theory, 2006

2009-10-31T23:17:00.013-04:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

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Disco Splendor (PBK & Minoy) - We Shit Art; Disco Splendor Sampler, 1987/88

2009-10-18T01:34:00.015-04:00

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The Sound Genetic Cassette Series

2009-09-27T12:44:00.011-04:00

The Sound Genetic reissues eight tapes from early in PBK's recording career, the years 1987/88. The material has been remastered for the best possible sound. Because of the age of the original master tapes they could not be used for dubbing, so each tape is a first generation recording dubbed from digital. The first wave of tape reissues focuses on PBK's recordings in collaboration with tape underground legend, Minóy. The absurdist noise of hoax-band, Disco Splendor, The Minóy/PBK official collaborations and the first PBK "solo" tape, which includes contributions by Minóy & analog synth artist, David Prescott. Most of these tapes are unknown and were distributed to only a handful of listeners, they are very rare, and not one of the Disco Splendor tapes is listed at the Discogs site. These on-demand cassettes will be offered as a limited edition of 100 copies each. All have similarly stark black and white cover compositions, a nod to the early cassette network DIY culture. Second set of tapes to be released in November. To order go here: http://sgcassettes.blogspot.com/

Minóy / PBK - Cloisters 1987

PBK - Descent 1988

Disco Splendor - The Politics Of Aggression 1988

Disco Splendor - The Odor Of Patriarchy 1987

Disco Splendor - New Wage 1988

Disco Splendor - Heteroglossia 1987

Disco Splendor - Correct Music 1988

Minóy / PBK - Chansons Mystiques 1988

PBK - Asmus Sources, 1989/1996

2009-09-02T21:34:00.025-04:00

PBK:

"Asmus Tietchens' first album was released on the French label, Egg, in 1980. His music had evolved out of a sort of quirky electro-pop style to later become these really deep, dark soundscapes, rather frightening at times. I loved his mid-80's work: 'Formen Letzter Hausmusik' (United Dairies), 'Aus Freude Am Elend' (DOM America), and 'Notturno', on Esplendor Geometrico's record label, were all in my record collection. Tietchens' music was both old-school and new, his work correlated to the proto-electronicists of the 50's, but he brought it forward into the post-modern through his fascination with complex electronic processes that re-imagined the source material, creating an extremely abstracted composite of the original.

He and I were in contact as early as 1988, we did some trading back and forth, corresponding by mail, and we decided to collaborate. Late in 1989 I began preparing source material for our collaboration. The resulting CD, 'Five Manifestoes', was released on Realization Recordings in 1992.

'Asmus Sources' compiles many of the textures I created for 'Five Manifestoes'. My sound sources, manipulated and re-processed by Tietchens, were the ONLY sounds used to create the final compositions. This, to my knowledge, was the way he always worked on collaborations.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about 'Asmus Sources' are the textures I created in 1996. I have included here three sources I sent to Tietchens for a proposed second collaboration. At the time we agreed to work together again and I sent this source material to him, but he later wrote to say that he could NOT work with the sources, that he couldn't achieve satisfactory results with them. He sent one short audio track he had worked on, it's never been released before now, and I've included it here as the last track on the album."

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PBK & Artemis K (Acclimate)- Edge And Effect, 1998

2009-07-17T21:36:00.026-04:00

PBK:

"The story of my collaboration with cousin, Artemis K, was related in a previous posting here. During the time he and I worked together, from 1996 to 1998, several tapes were released and 'Edge And Effect', from 1998, was my contribution. This was our first full-length release.

By 1998, my cousin and I had done many live improvisations under the influence of LSD, Mescaline and other psychotropics. Quite often we would perform concerts at his house with friends looking on and those concerts would last for hours, so there was a lot of material to choose from in assembling this release. I chose the best of our more abstract material and opened the set with a very fine rhythmic track mixed by Artemis that eventually appeared on an album titled 'Miscreant'.

I'm really proud to make this release available, if only for historical credit. This noise was created in Flint (one hour north of Detroit) during a time when there was no noise 'scene' in Michigan- Wolf Eyes, Hive Mind, Cotton Museum, Sick Llama, Mammal, etc. were either in infancy or didn't exist at all."

REVIEW: "This project of Artemis K and PBK assaults the listener with a combination of swirling rhythmic noise and atonal drifting sound. ACCLIMATE sift through the debris of our culture and unearth some of the sickness and grime that pollutes the air around us. Bits of subtle melodies seep in around the cracks, and snippets of found dialogue find their way through the dense sound fog. These guys are no strangers to post-industrial sound collage, and this debut full-length release from ACCLIMATE is a fine work that manages to be unpredictable and jarring, yet highly listenable. Looking forward to that CD release now..." Godsend Magazine

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Rob Backus "Bright Moments" Final Episode, 1990

2009-06-12T22:16:00.024-04:00

Bright Moments w/Rob Backus
WIDR, FM (Kalamzoo, MI)
Final Episode "The Scream" December 1990

1. Ray Charles-Hit The Road, Jack
2. Ray Charles-Tell The Truth
3. Little Richard-Tutti Frutti
4. Pat Boone-Tutti Frutti
5. Little Richard-Jenny Jenny Jenny
6. Los Lobos-Jenny's Got A Pony
7. Link Wray-Rumble
8. DJ John R.-Excerpt
9. James Brown-Everybody Needs Somebody To Love
10. John Coltrane-Nature Boy
11. Institutional Radio Choir w/Carolyn Johnson White-Lift Him Up
12. Stewart Dybeck Interview
13. Wynton Marsalis Interview
14. Betty Carter(?)-Some Other Time

PBK:

"Unpacking boxes after my move to Puerto Rico in 1992 I rediscovered a book I had titled "Fire Music, A Political History Of Jazz", published in 1976, a very interesting book about the harsh socioeconomic realities for free jazz musicians that drove their art form more and more towards commercialism simply to make a living. The author was Rob Backus and the short biography said that Backus was a creative stalwart of the Kalamazoo scene in my home state of Michigan. On a whim I called information in Kalamazoo and, to my surprise, Mr. Backus' phone number was listed there. We spoke on the phone for a long time and began a correspondence that lasted several years. Backus sent me dozens of cassettes with things he'd been listening to and music he'd made with his free-jazz group, Struggle.

This tape is one that Rob sent to me, a dub of his final broadcast of the "Bright Moments" show he hosted on public radio in Kalamazoo. I know, musically speaking, this may only be of esoteric interest to followers of this blog, but I'm including it for a couple of reasons. First, there's a lot of profound thought expressed in between the music here (please do give it a listen). Secondly, Rob's upbringing in a mid-20th century 'mostly-white' community in Michigan is quite parallel to my own. The impact of African-American music on both of us had long-lasting implications, and I think his metaphor of "the scream" makes a lot of sense as to why R&B and jazz music touched us in such profound ways. Plus, there's a pretty fucking interesting interview excerpt here with Wynton Marsalis where he explains why music, to him, has no color boundaries and how the reference to "black" music is so condescending.

Though it was not possible in my own post-modernist approach to levitate to the emotional heights approached by someone as brilliant as John Coltrane, I found inspiration in his ability to apply 'new wave' concepts to a genre already known for it's pure innovation and my later discovery of Sun Ra's tremendous creative activities cemented, for me, the possibilities inherent in musical 'abstract expressionism'. So, personally, I found the African-American narrative in sound exploration, from John Lee Hooker, George Clinton, James Brown, to Miles Davis and the AACM (and on and on and on) to be extremely profound and moving. The word "inspiration", in it's etymological origin, means "breathed upon" and I can certainly cite endless examples of how the "brea(d)th" of African-American music has moved me personally.

One more point I want to make, and this is in relation to the free jazz movement and the struggles the musicians endured to make a living and get their music released. From Rob Backus' Fire Music:

'BILL DIXON: By now it is quite obvious that those of us whose work is not acceptable to the Establishment are not going to be financially acknowledged. As a result, it is very clear that musicians, in order to survive, create this music, and maintain some semblance of sanity, will have to do it themselves in the future.'

This totally correlates to what has gone on in the noise underground here in the U.S. It's still not possible to make any semblance of a living from our music and I've been at this now for nearly 25 years! What has happened in our community, however, is exactly what Bill Dixon speaks of in the above quote: the DIY ethic has maintained the momentum of the movement. The younger generation, those who've embraced this peculiar aesthetic, help keep it's legacy alive by discussing it's history, writing about it, reissuing crucial albums and providing basements and other acoustic spaces in which to present it in the live format. The internet has also gone a long way towards keeping the music alive and this blog is only a single example of it's potential. The new generation has it's faults, just as the old school did, the whole noise movement was born out of a sort of post-modern dilettantism, but on the whole I find the new guard to have a better grasp of the origins and precursors of the movement and are able to incorporate their ideas in more concentrated and satisfying ways. As interest in this musical subculture grows, the fan base grows, and who knows what the future holds in terms of it's socioeconomic possibilities?

Rob Backus: "Music is the best of all possible worlds, no boundaries, and represents the highest aspirations of the human spirit."

DOWNLOAD (mp3 320 kbps 213 mb)

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Zenith Radio Broadcast PBK Special, 1994

2009-06-12T21:43:00.010-04:00

ZENITH Radio, Radio Centraal 103.9 FM, Antwerp, Belgium - PBK Special 08/10/94

1. Untitled (Asesino)
2. Concupiscence (Assemblage)
3. Fantomas (Fragment 3)
4. The Fall Of Romantic Simplicity (Monument Of Empty Colours w/Vidna Obmana)
5. Manifesto 5 (Five Manifestos w/Asmus Tietchens)
6. Outside Of Time (Life-Sense Revoked)
7. Poison Sweets Of Love (The Toil And The Reap)
8. In His Throes (In His Throes)
9. Honour And Desire (Domineer)
10. Sweet Aabandon (In His Throes)

DOWNLOAD (mp3 320 kbps 126 mb)
waiting for download link

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PBK & Hands To - Verfall, 1988

2009-05-24T20:27:00.019-04:00

PBK:

"From the moment I first heard Jeph Jerman's work I was fascinated. His trio, City Of Worms, a sample-based loop project, was the first thing that impressed me. But it was his solo project, Hands To, that really caught my imagination, especially an album titled "Mose Wreck" from 1987. Jerman taught me a lot about deep listening, he found many ways of achieving bootleg quality lo-fi sounds and used them extensively in his work. In my opinion, Hands To took the notion of sound deconstruction and subliminals to a new artistic level- there was nothing cliche about his work, it was a new way of constructing totally abstract compositions. He was also a true improvisational artist as evidenced by the skronk and free jazz recordings he did with Big Joey and Blowhole. Jeph Jerman is a prolific genius and continues to make brilliant music today.

I was interested in incorporating my own synth-based sounds with Hands To's damaged field recording drones. The tracks on Verfall, our first collaboration together, define what I refer to as "noise-field works". These are sound structures that have a basic abstract-noise background in which indefinable sounds push through, punctuate and create peaks in the structure. These environments don't stray too far from Jerman's sound source origins, but contain enough looping and swirling within the drones that the structures, at times, become sort of proto-rhythmic. It is difficult to identify the sources used to create these soundscapes, I hear orchestral samples, slowed voices, synthesizer tones, electroacoustics, etc. The result is a very good (early) example of what I now refer to simply as 'noise-ambient' music."

UPDATE: Download link is removed as of 6/3/09. I am very pleased to announce that Verfall and it's companion piece, Melachoir, from 1989 are to be released as a forthcoming double cd by Cathartic Process in 2009. This is going to be a beautiful limited edition release. I will keep the readers of this blog informed of the details.

DOWNLOAD (mp3 320kbps 112 mb zip file includes covers)
~~http://rapidshare.com/files/238753436/PBK___Hands_To-Verfall_1988.zip~~

PBK - Under My Breath Remixes, 2009

2009-04-03T23:13:00.011-04:00

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Various Artists - Informator 001 Czech Underground Before the Velvet Revolution, 1987

2009-01-29T19:13:00.017-05:00

PBK:

"In the late 80's I developed a close friendship with Peter Moreels who ran the Belgian label, Corrosive Tapes. I contributed music to several of his compilation releases. As Peter was winding down his activities in the cassette underground he asked if I might distribute some of his releases on my own PBK Recordings label and I agreed to carry the "Heart-Beat" releases and the "Informator" series of Czech underground recordings. These unknown tapes are an important document of the real underground music in Czechoslovakia before the fall of the iron curtain. Most impressive is the fantastic scope of the underground music scene during this repressive time with styles ranging from acapella music to post-punk, industrial, jazz, noise and more. This glimpse into the Czech Republic of 1987 reveals a strong and varied creative center which reflects the soon-to-come overthrow of the communist government."

DOWNLOAD (mp3 320 kbps 174 mb + covers)

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PBK- Vivisection, 1988

2008-12-14T10:00:00.018-05:00

PBK:

"By the time of 'Vivisection', in 1988, I had been composing noise-based music for nearly two years, but I was anxious to find a better realization of my sound. My music from this time sort of represents a flipside approach to the Japanoise aesthetic of power-electronics. This isn't power-electronics at all, though the first 10 minutes of track 1 won't convince of that. The noises are not created simply by over-amplification. The looped sounds, some obviously from shortwave radio, create structures, but the individual sounds are isolated in a setting where each is allowed to reveal itself in a slowly unfolding manner playing against all the sounds around it. The result is often rhythmic and hypnotic, yet also stern and forbidding. This minimalist/maximalist noise music is the setting for many of my early releases, 'Die Brucke', 'Asesino', 'Warfare State' and the like."

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PBK & Minóy- Cloisters, 1987

2008-12-13T22:34:00.026-05:00

PBK:

"I am one of the few people who actually met Minóy in person, this was in 1986, and we worked very closely together for a year, completing about 10 full length tape releases. There were two different projects we worked on together, the hoax noise-band, Disco Splendor, and our collaboration proper, Minóy/PBK.

Minóy was a very interesting person, quite eccentric, and when I met him he'd already established a big reputation in the U.S. cassette underground. The New York Times had interviewed him for an article on the profound 'home taping' movement. Many artists from the 80's I met through my association with Minóy: AMK, Zan Hoffman, John Wiggins, Al Margolis, Hal McGee, Big City Orchestra, etc. At the same time Minóy was working with me, he was also collaborating with dozens of others, he was extremely prolific and his output of completed releases numbered in the hundreds.

When we first began working together he said let's call our project "Disco Splendor" and asked me to set up a new post box address for it somewhere other than Torrance, California, the city where he lived. This was easy since I lived an hour away in San Bernardino. The idea was to keep the project anonymous. I started networking tape releases without establishing to the recipients exactly who we were.

Das of Big City Orchestra played Disco Splendor tapes on his radio show and said he loved them. We began to get good press reviews. When Minóy realized that the Disco Splendor project was gaining some attention he decided to abandon the name and reveal who was behind it, from then on we used the name 'Minóy/PBK'.

Minóy

Minóy was very obsessive and he could stay up for days and nights on end, recording sounds and vocals from one cassette deck to another over and over. As heavily overdubbed as some of his compositions seemed to be, he never used a multi-track recorder. He was certainly brilliant, but used the cheapest of materials to create his compositions: a guitar, shortwave radio, Radio Shack mixer (crucial for the reverb mode switch which could make very strange analog echoes) and a Casio CZ-101.

Minóy was manic-depressive, so he told me, and he was on a lot of meds for it- when he was up he was giddy and could stay awake for long periods working on his recordings, but when he was down he suffered terribly and would stay in bed for days, if not weeks, on end. He was a large-framed man, but with a fragile personality condition... His remarkable and unique approach to isolationist noise music made him an underground legend to the few who heard him, but he dropped out and disappeared in the mid-90's and no one seems to know what happened to him.

'Cloisters', being a Minóy mix, includes a lot of Minóy trademarks, the howling, anguished vocals, the remaking of song standards, in this case 'Me & My Shadow' on the track 'In Shadow', and the strange fuzzy lo-fi sound courtesy of running the entire mix through that old Radio Shack mixer. Enjoy!"

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Jim O'Rourke Mixtapes, 1989

2008-12-07T08:35:00.043-05:00

PBK:

"Rummaging through boxes I came across two mixtapes sent to me by Jim O'Rourke in 1989. At the time, Jim was an eager 19 year old music student at DePaul University. He also performed and recorded in my friend Dan Burke's industrial music project: Illusion Of Safety.

Jim would call me on the phone every week or two when I lived in California. We had many conversations about music, discussing different genres/composers and he'd send mixtapes and cd's for me to hear some of the things he'd been listening to. He was a huge fan of Van Dyke Parks' 1968 LP, "Song Cycle". He was also very excited, at the time, about Godflesh who appear on the C-60 tape here. He sent me Godflesh's "Streetcleaner" cd and compared them to "Red"-era King Crimson.

We were quite close for a couple of years. He contributed a beautiful solo track to my "Assemblage" comp. tape in 1990. Later he even asked to produce an album for me, but I declined, mainly because I couldn't see what role a "producer" would play in creating one of my albums.

O'Rourke sent me several mixtapes of electroacoustic music, below are the playlists and links for two of these, they give some insight into his listening tastes in the late 80's, long before he worked with Faust, Wilco or Sonic Youth. There's a lot of great stuff on these tapes. The Parmegianni and Bayle tracks are absolutely awesome. The Paul Dolden compositions are impressive, his compositional method is, apparently, quite rigorous as he uses up to 400 overdubs to achieve his massive sounds. The Robert Ashley track, with it's psycho-sexual overtones, is unique and haunting. Enjoy these in typical mixtape style, with no track separation!"

Tape One, Chrome C-60:

A1 Olivier Messiaen-Liturgie de Cristal From Quartet For The End Of Time
A2 Olivier Messiaen-Louange a l'eternite de Jesus From Quartet For The End Of Time
A3 Luigi Nono-A Pierre dell 'Azzuro Silencio for Bass Flute & Bass Clarinet with Live Processing
A4 Robert Ashley-Purposeful Lady In Slow Afternoon

B1 Mauricio Kagel-Musi for Lupforchester 1971
B2 Giancinto Scelsi-Pt IV of Quattro Pezzi for Orchestra 1959
B3 Godflesh-Christbait Rising
B4 Godflesh-Pulp
B5 Luc Ferrari-Und So Weiter for Piano & Tape
B6 F.B. Mache-Terre De Feu 1963

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Tape Two, Chrome C-100:

A1 Bernard Parmegianni-La Roue Farris 1971
A2 Jaques LeJeune-Deux Apercus Du Jardin Qui S'eville 1983
A3 Ivo Malec-Reflets 1961
A4 Phillipe Mion-Soupcon Delise 1980
A5 Francois Bayle-Toupie Dans Le Ciel 1979
A6 Pierre Henry-Divinites Paisibles from Le Voyage 1962
A7 Bernard Cavana-Goutte D'or Blues 1985 (from Musiques Contemporaines pour Saxophones on Adda, France)

B1 Paul Dolden-Below The Walls Of Jericho ('88/'89)
B2 Paul Dolden-In The Natural Doorway I Crouch ('86/'87)
B3 Paul Dolden-Caught In An Octagon of Unaccustomed Light ('87/'88)

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PBK & John Wiggins- Where Pathways Meet, 2001

2008-12-06T20:44:00.015-05:00

PBK:

"When I posted the "Listening To The World Vibrate" cassette remaster I promised to enlighten the readers of this blog to the compositions I had collaborated on with John Wiggins. For those too young to remember, RRRecords released two crucial experimental music lp's by Mr. Wiggins in 1986 & '87. Long out of print, maybe not a lot of people ever even heard them, but I did and I was a huge fan from my first days in the cassette underground. John Wiggins is better known these days as a film and television soundtrack composer, and maybe best known as the composer of the theme for Howard Stern's cable television show on the E! Entertainment Network.

Starting around 1994, and through to the late 90's, I became very interested in improvisation and free jazz. I wanted to create a sort of futuristic jazz music, very synthetic sounding, but organic in construction, and I had been working for some time on this idea. John helped me to realize my ambitions for this and these six compositions are the result. The tracks have never been released, except for one which will come out on "Under My Breath" in 2009."

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UPDATE:

Looking through my archives I came across a tape consisting of collaborative tracks which I had completed in 1999 using John Wiggins' source material. I remastered these tracks and now you may download them in addition to the previously posted material. The three untitled tracks are unedited PBK live-mixes, very long tracks (one nearly 23 minutes!), meandering in a sort of stretched-out way, with the patterns disappearing then reappearing and fluxing through... No aspect of the mix is more important than any other, all the sounds intermingle as in ambient music, even though the sonic activity belies passive listening. Download below:

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waiting for download link

PBK- Narcosis, 1990

2008-11-30T19:56:00.035-05:00

PBK:

"This album, "Narcosis", was created during the very productive, though personally tumultuous, year of 1990. After working closely with Vidna Obmana on two collaborative releases, I found myself still trying to define the concept of "ambient noise". (please see the "Depression And Ideal" listing for further correlations) One answer was that ambient noise could be environmental sounds, or 'field recordings'. But that didn't suit me personally for two reasons: 1. because I wanted to have a very strong hand in the improvisational aspects of composing, and 2. I didn't want the kind of imagery that would result from self-referential associations to field recordings. If I was going to use any kind of location recordings in my compositions, they were going to have to be used in a unique way. Only later in the 90's, when I began collaborating with Slavek Kwi, aka Artificial Memory Trace, did I have the confidence to use environmental sounds in my work.

I wanted my sounds to be largely unidentifiable, but definitely machine based. I became very interested in composing via sets of self-driven sequencers running simultaneously and at different speeds. I would set up various sounds and samples rather randomly and live-mix everything straight to a metal cassette master.

In retrospect I can definitely see "Narcosis" as a response to Vidna Obmana's co-opting of my ambient style. When he returned to Belgium in 1989 and started using all of the same equipment and methods I'd showed him in creating my ambient compositions, this pushed me in a different direction. Where Vidna Obmana worked very carefully, I was flippant, any type of sound might be used. Later the poster for my performance in Paris, France (1996) listed: "PBK: Trash Electronics et Crepitements".(i.e. 'cracklings')

To me, Vidna Obmana's music was more typical ambient music because the imagery was always about nature and had sort of cosmic, or 'new age' themes, especially as he began to work with guys like Steve Roach whose whole career seems to be dedicated to those ideas. I hated pastoral imagery and wanted my music to correlate only to the world(s) of art, philosophy and science. Having grown up in the automobile factory culture of Flint, Michigan, "noise" made sense to me as a reflection of my personal experience living in the cradle of a dying industrial culture which I hated yet drew inspiration from. The compositions on this recording fall somewhere between industrial noise, mechanical drone and space music, a form later referred to as 'assault ambient' by one critic(Glen Thrasher)."

REVIEWS: "...This latest release by PBK continues his exploration of, ummm, noise. Flowing, churning, developing abstract noise textures. I've no idea how they were created or manipulated: they possess an authentic identity of their own somewhere between electronic, mechanical and environmental noise. PBK's aim is to use this unpromising material to reeducate our ears, show us that noise really is nice. His music has ranged in the past from the musical to the unlistenable, but this cassette is neither: it really does stand on its own merits, as a new listening experience. Post-apocalypse ambient atmospheres." EST

"Those of you familiar with PBK's work don't need a review, if you've enjoyed earlier releases you'll love this. In a sentence, his noise-based compositions are some of the most exciting (high degree of cognition and emotion) out there. It's always hard to describe this sort of minimalist/maximalist music, so I won't even try." H23

"Unlike many of today's bands, PBK can rightfully assume the position of "industrial" music with this release. Mechanized power electronics... like a factory of machines. Approaches a sort of computer-based ambience at times." Godsend

"PBK has really developed a finesse over the years. Narcosis is another carefully done tape of electronics. This is also one of his spacier works, evoking images of alien landscapes, orange flames licking the night air, and strange beats roaring and disappearing. The sound quality and production are excellent." File 13

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PBK- A Noise Supreme, Early Solo Works 1986-89

2008-11-22T07:42:00.019-05:00

PBK:

"On tour in 2004 I played a show in New Paltz, NY and Al Margolis showed up. One of Al's claims to fame is that he ran the legendary Sound Of Pig label in the 80's, probably the major showcase for cassette underground music during that time. I had my share of tapes released on Sound Of Pig and one of them was called "Poetry And Motion" from 1987, which featured some of my earliest soundworks. Al brought along a few copies of that tape to the show and somehow Adam Mokan, who was on tour with us, got ahold of one of these.

Apparently Mokan shared "Poetry And Motion" with Steev Thompson (aka Roxanne Jean Polise & Warmth) who was running the XDEY label. Steev really liked the tape and asked me if he could re-release it as a limited edition cd-r. I agreed on condition that I could re-configure the track list and remaster the compositions, so this project turned into "A Noise Supreme". (title borrowed from my 1989 tape release)

The earliest tracks here are the ones that use drum machine rhythms, 'Big Thumb' and 'Tribality', these are some of the very first things I recorded in 1986, experimenting and sorting out what direction I wanted to go in. It wasn't long before I stopped using the drum machine. This compilation definitely touches on all aspects of my early work, from the slow evolving drone masses of 'Appeal' and 'Underground', to the more cosmic fluxing textures of 'Fata Morgana', to the breakthrough tracks, 'Receiver' and 'A Noise Supreme', both from 1989, which point towards the noise-isolationist style of composing revealed on my first cd release, "Macrophage/The Toil And The Reap"(ND Records, 1992).

Many thanks to Steev Thompson for the excellent cover graphic which I've kept from the limited edition release. (original release on cd-r in an edition of 100 numbered copies)"

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PBK- Exclusion Zones Tour CD, 2004

2008-11-08T21:04:00.018-05:00

PBK:

"I toured the east coast of the USA in the summer of 2004 with my Japanese friend, Yasutoshi Yoshida, aka Government Alpha. This extremely limited edition release was given away to friends and fans on the tour. Here you'll find collaborations with Govt. Alpha, Nocturnal Emissions, Wolf Eyes, Aube, C. Reider and Dale Lloyd.

A couple of the tracks ('World's Gone Askew', 'Fire Across Our Divide') were included to promote the "Under My Breath" album, which, at the time, was slated to be released on the Russian label, Electroshock. As too much time had passed and Electroshock kept delaying the release, I eventually asked for the rights to have it released on another label and "Under My Breath" will now be available on Waystyx in 2009. (well worth the wait...)

"Exclusion Zones" includes several tracks unavailable elsewhere: my collaboration with Nocturnal Emissions titled 'Blackmask'; the 20+ min. noise epic, 'Art Amiss' (all sources from a live performance at the Flint Noise Festival in 2004); and the extended live mix of 'Fire Across Our Divide' performed at The Dreamland Theater using Aube and Wolf Eyes source."

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PBK- Listening To The World Vibrate, 1995

2008-10-29T20:40:00.023-04:00

PBK:

"Today's offering is my 1995 release: "Listening To The World Vibrate". There were several well known experimental music colleagues of mine who did not appreciate what I was doing with the sort of music collected on this release. Asmus Tietchens, whom I had already collaborated with on "Five Manifestoes", could not use the source material I gave him at this time, he found it unworkable. Dirk Serries, aka Vidna Obmana, expressed a lot of reservations about this music as well. One guy who got it, however, was John Wiggins. Wiggins understood what I was attempting and we proceeded to collaborate together on some things in this vein (which I'll post later on).

And what was I attempting? I was looking for a sound which I heard in my head as a futuristic kind of free jazz. The elements are there- rhythmic patterns, solos, even choruses, but they are abstract and in the end don't sound much like any jazz music I've ever heard. In retrospect, I think I was creating a rather unusual form of "glitch" electronica. Oval's first album came out in 1993, Terre Thaemlitz's in '94, Pan Sonic's in '95. I was unaware of of these artists at the time, yet it seems like our concurrent aesthetics were sort of in the same line of thought. They exemplified a way of (ab)using musical/computer equipment in extreme ways to create new sound sources.

"Listening To The World Vibrate" sounds very little like anything else being done at the time. It is isolationist in the extreme, which makes sense to me since it was composed while I lived in Puerto Rico where there was no "noise" scene (at the time) and I felt very disconnected from the dominant music there. The track 'Common Language', my tribute to David Tudor, was re-released on the "System-Music-End" CD for RRR's Pure label in 1995."

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PBK & Vidna Obmana- Depression And Ideal, 1989

2008-10-11T21:53:00.036-04:00

PBK:

"Dirk Serries, aka Vidna Obmana, contacted me in 1988 after hearing my "Die Brucke" and "Asesino" cassette releases. Each album included some of my ambient music, which he took note of, and invited me to submit some tracks to an ambient music comp. he was producing for his label, The Decade Collection. We traded sound-sources via mail and he quickly released the collaborative cassette, "Monument Of Empty Colours", which has since been reissued on CD by the Projekt label. By the time I met Serries in-person when he visited the U.S. the next year, he had turned away from his past "power electronics" approach for good and had now become completely immersed in ambient music. We performed concerts together in the San Francisco Bay area and he spent a week working in my home studio on his first solo album in the new style.

Every electronic musician knows that their own instrumental configuration is personal and results in a unique sound, but Serries returned to Belgium and later informed me that he had purchased a number of the instruments he'd used in my studio and was now using a system I had taught him to create his own music. Even though I felt ripped off, I was driven to find a way to reconfigure my studio and bring a new dimension to my music, even if it meant a complete change of direction. I finished using the Vidna Obmana source material I had and released my own tape, titled "Depression And Ideal". As much as I liked the results of this collaboration, the project never gained any momentum. Serries didn't seem to like it much, which was largely the reason I didn't promote it, even though I remember it receiving good reviews.

The original recording was on metal cassette and here I've edited and re-mastered these compositions to a much more detailed sound. Quite different from Vidna Obmana's solo work, these are like large abstract paintings with masses of slow moving sounds, fluxing waves of electrons, and an industrial edge that Serries' own work seems to have intentionally forgone. Good for late-night listening and best listened to loudly where the waves of textures are very powerful."

REVIEW: "Much of this electronics tape struck me as prologue: waves of majestic sound which seemed poised to break into faster themes but instead led into other waves of majestic sound. In tone, the music reminds me of the acid trip sequence in 2001, though there are no vocals here. Ponderous and intense." Factsheet Five

Dirk Serries, aka Vidna Obmana, collaborated with PBK on his first all-ambient cassette release, titled "Monument Of Empty Colours".

Serries working with the complex arrangement of synths, sequencers, and effects at the California studio of PBK. Most of Vidna Obmana's first solo album was composed there.

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PBK- Headmix, 1997

2008-10-11T16:03:00.017-04:00

PBK:

"This is the companion piece to "The Mescaline Tracks". Both albums were produced in 1997, both were influenced by the electronica scene of the time and, maybe moreso, by the psychedelic experiences I was submitting myself to. Working with my cousin, Artemis K, on the Acclimate industrial project, I became sort of disillusioned with programmed rhythms and in my solo work began utilizing turntables in unusual ways to create different kinds of free rhythms. In the mid 90's I had heard drum'n'bass music, but I knew a lot of these musicians were really just cutting up jazz breaks, re-sequencing them, speeding them up, etc. It sounded great, but I was more interested in abstract, or free percussion: rhythms that didn't exactly keep time. So, a lot of my turntable use, in these recordings, is to find rhythmic actions that punctuate the musical texts, or float around within the composition acting as another part of the sonic fabric."

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PBK & Artemis K (Acclimate)- Dreams Into Dust, 2000

2008-10-05T20:37:00.030-04:00

PBK:

"In 1996 I began working with cousin, Artemis K, in a duo project we would come to call Acclimate. Artemis' role in this group was programming heavy rhythmic industrial beats based on his love of Wax Trax style music, also using sound-bites and melodic textures while I improvised drones/noises around his rhythmic sequences.

We made quite a splash at The Experiences Festival in Paris, France that year (performing as a duo, but credited in name only as "PBK"), later playing the Knitting Factory in New York City and many concerts in our home-base of Flint, Michigan (near Detroit). From 1996 to '98 Acclimate performed on the same stage with such artists as Kid606, Schimpfluch-Gruppe, Toy Bizarre, Lesser, ConDemek and many others. Yet, in spite of our résumé, we seemed to have never had a proper official release in the time that we worked together (several tapes were released with very limited distribution).

Artemis and I stopped working together temporarily in 1999 as I focused more of my time on collaborating with Ernest Carter in both Mulatto Experience and my free jazz group, the 4/4 Quartet (see the "Ode To Sony'r" album below). But in November 2000, Artemis and I met up once more and recorded live improvisational sessions at his home studio. These stunning tracks are now available for the first time. Artemis drops in some film sound-bites here and there, but the rhythms have changed, they're more textural and morphing, only occasionally do harder electro beats emerge, yet the overall tone is still distinctly industrial. This would be the last time we'd work together in person as not too long after this Artemis relocated to New Zealand."

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PBK & Guillermo Gregorio with De Fenestra- Chicago Pieces, 2005

2008-10-04T21:21:00.023-04:00

PBK:

"In September of 2005 I toured with Will Soderberg and Uncle Dave Lewis as De Fenestra. A short mid-western jaunt, we hit a few spots, did a radio show, and also performed in Chicago on 9/11 with Hat Art recording artist, Dr. Guillermo Gregorio. This is a fantastic recording and precisely what I had been seeking in this group, a mixture of free jazz and free-form electronics. Uncle Dave's guitar never sounded better than here and he meshes quite nicely with Guillermo's clarinet tactics. Guillermo is obviously a master of the avant garde and his contributions work the whole range of possible sonic vocabulary: clicks and pops, high pitch squeals, drones, melodicism, etc.

We performed the concert for the AC Improvised Music Series (hosted by Vadim Sprikut) in a loft apartment in front of an audience of about 15 people. It seems a shame that this was never properly released as it is obviously a wonderful example of free improvisation. Where, on occasion, this configuration of De Fenestra could be quite over-the-top, here we were very careful and restrained. There even seems to be a sort of melancholic quality to this music, best exemplified by the beautiful interlude at approximately 8:30 on track number 4. (perhaps the reason for this is because of the resonance of the date it was recorded on?) The fabric of experimentalism was never woven any better in this group than on this particular recording, which I've titled "Chicago Pieces", and I'm proud to present it here... Enjoy!"

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Four Fourths Quartet- Ode To Sony'r, 1999

2008-09-20T13:25:00.028-04:00

PBK:

"My group project, the 4/4ths Quartet from 1999, was an attempt to fuse ambient noise with free jazz. This is improvisation at it's furthest point away from rehearsed music. The group members are playing free simultaneously, inside & outside of structure, losing their way and occasionally finding it again. Some of my electronics were a conscious attempt at recreating the sound of Dr. Patrick Gleeson's synth contributions in Herbie Hancock's fusion group (i.e. "Sextant"). Sun Ra's Arkestra provided another model. Ernest Carter's percussion and ethnic instruments were looped and live-processed in different ways. This is a precursor to the music I would do later with De Fenestra, but Rich Moore's guitar and Troy Carlton's bass often lock into a more "rock" structure and give this music a rather unique sound, somewhere between free/fusion jazz, post punk and noise. None of this was ever released and it remains some of my rarest music!"

TRACK LISTING:
1. Magnetic Fields
2. Promises Kept 8-3-99 [quartet]
3. Twins 6-29-99 [quartet]
4. Ode To Sony'r
5. Heretofore 6-15-99 [quartet]
6. Testimony 8-24-99 [quartet]
7. Forever 7-16-99 [trio]
8. Insomnia 7-16-99 [trio]

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PBK- The Mescaline Tracks, 1997

2008-09-15T19:52:00.019-04:00

PBK:

"Today's posting is "The Mescaline Tracks", produced as a (more-or-less) solo project in 1997. Everyone went crazy for the electronica scene at the time, and I was very interested in such artists as Download, Techno Animal, Autechre, Kid606 and Matmos. I can't deny the influence of rhythmic techno and industrial genres on my music from this time, it's also evident in the companion release titled "Headmix". (which I'll post here later) But this material exemplifies my interest in rhythm not as a driving or central force, but as a sort of moving, fluxing element of the overall instrumental fabric.

Around the same time I also began wondering what the effects of psychedelic experience would be on my composing. I dedicated myself for a while to this idea. There were highs and lows to the process but one of the better results was this recording...

This project was never given a "proper" release although a few copies exist on tape and cdr somewhere, mostly sent to magazines for review, so it is very much one of my "lost" releases and has been heard by only a handful of people. Guests here include Brian Ladd and my cousin, Artemis K, on one track each."

REVIEWS: "This signals a new leaf overturned by sound artist PBK, who's sort of known for his noisier & more abstract work. "The Mescaline Tracks" is a more ambient, filmic journey that was apparently highly influenced by, eh, well, you know. Fine work it is, too, with plenty of murky, semi-environmental mists to waft over your head. It's not light by any means, but with sort of a "dark ambient" or "isolationist" bend, with PBK's notable cinematic talents more than in evidence." Godsend Magazine

"PBK once again creates a work that is so far out of the field of 'normal' sound that the music itself is often less describable than the imaginary visions it summons. A far beyond excellent set of mind-stimulating, challenging sounds to let yourself fall deep into."
AutoReverse Magazine

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PBK with De Fenestra- Solarii, 2005

2008-09-14T12:18:00.017-04:00

PBK:

"This should be interesting to contrast to the previous posting. Here we have another De Fenestra live concert, this being the first time I performed with the group in April 2005. This is the original trio of Mokan, Lewis and Soderberg, with the addition of yours truly, recorded at the Annual Flint NoiseFest at Buckham Theater in support of headlining act, Wolf Eyes. This 24+ minute improvisation is quite chaotic, Uncle Dave's guitar/keyboard contributions struggle to assert themselves through the noisy racket, and it's certainly not coherent in the same way the later sessions would become. But, in spite of it's shortcomings there are many interesting things going on in a sort of random-ish way."

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PBK & Piotr Michalowski with De Fenestra- Our Thing (meum et tuum), 2005

2008-09-05T20:54:00.028-04:00

PBK:

"For most of 2005 I was a member of De Fenestra.

Late in 2004, Adam Mokan, Will Soderberg and Uncle Dave Lewis performed a one-off basement gig in my hometown of Flint, Michigan under the name De Fenestra. Soderberg later asked me to sit in with the trio at another Flint gig, the infamous Buckham Alley Noise Festival with headliners, Wolf Eyes.(documented on the Solarii release) I was invited to become a member of the group after that.

I put a lot of effort into this project and suggested new directions to bring what we were doing originally, a kind of electroacoustic-based noise, towards a more free jazz/fusion sound. I'd previously formed the Four-Fourths Quartet in 1999 (I'll post some of that material here as well), and in that group I'd been trying for a Sun Ra reworking, so when I joined up with De Fenestra I soon began thinking of free jazz and started by suggesting giving guitarist, Uncle Dave Lewis, a more prominent role. This new sound opened up a lot of possibilities, we recorded many studio sessions and performed a number of concerts throughout 2005. It was sort of a tumultuous summer, with both Mokan and Uncle Dave leaving the group, but the project boiled down to a duo partnership between Soderberg and myself by late fall.

This recording, which I've retitled "Our Thing", was the last time I performed with this group. Recorded live at the Elbow Room in Ypsilanti on Dec. 10, 2005, it was the core-duo of Soderberg and myself with some special guests: Piotr Michalowski, a free-jazz saxophonist who'd previously done an excellent studio session with us; John "Wolf" McIntyre, the theremin player, I believe this was the first time he'd performed with the group; James Cornish and Jim Ryan, both of the Rattling Wall Collective, who spontaneously joined in on the long third track."

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