Squidco Blurb

Turbulence is the extended horn section for the Boston collective Leap of Faith Orchestra, along with guests on other instruments, here in a large ensemble performance with Bonnie Kane (sax), Dennis Livingston (flute & winds), John Fugarino, Bob Moores & Eric Dahlman (trumpets), Duane Reed (double bell euphonium), with the rhythm section of John Loggia (drums) and Scott Samenfeld (bass).

Squidco Staff

Liner Notes by PEK

I formed Turbulence in 2015 as I started to assemble players for the Leap of Faith Orchestra. Turbulence, the extended horn section for the Orchestra (along with guests on other instruments), also records and performs as an independent unit. As if this writing in 2023, we have recorded over 30 albums on Evil Clown with greatly varied ensembles.  All the smaller Evil Clown bands are really more about a general approach, rather than a specific set of musicians.  A session gets credited to Turbulence when it is mostly horn players and the only musician on all of them is me.  A session gets credited to Turbulence Orchestra when the size of the band reaches 8 or more performers.  The sessions range from an early duet with Steve Norton and me (Vortex Generation Mechanisms) to a 5-horn band with bass and two percussionists (Encryption Schemes) to four albums by the side project Turbulence Doom Choir which feature myself, multiple tubas, percussion, electronics, and signal processing and many other configurations.

Currently, the Evil Clown Roster has about 20 horn players.  When I schedule Turbulence sets, I put one on the weekend and one on a weeknight since some players can only do one or the other.  Trapped in a Whorl is the second of two Turbulence Orchestra sets for Spring 2023.  Since there are more horn players in the Roster than any other instrument groups, the ensemble is often bigger than the other bands and this is the sixth fairly recent set to be credited to Turbulence Orchestra.  This time we had ten musicians – three reeds, five brass, bass and drums. 

Several of the recent sets have included a drummer.  Bonnie Kane (tenor sax and electronics) has brought her drummer (John Loggia) with her when she has come in from Western Mass, they have done a few sets with Turbulence and a few sets with Leap of Faith.  This time we also have bass, a relatively new bass player, Scott Samenfeld, who has attended one prior set with Simulacrum and the first 2023 Turbulence Orchestra set.  Scott is a bit more jazz than most of the bass players who participate in any of the Evil Clown bands.  The result is kind of a free big band set up with a two-man rhythm section.  With all the doubling that goes on in one of these sets, there are lots of sections with various keyboards, electronics, and percussion to round out and fill up the sound.

I’m super happy with this session.  The regulars and the newer arrivals really played extremely well together, listening intently and exercising admirable restraint.  Generally speaking, as ensemble size increases, so increases the difficulty of making music which is well-formed and tight.  I’m very interested in the aesthetic problems of larger group pure improvisations.  My Broad Palate concept is a solution to this problem which works by introducing many different possible sonorities.  Over the duration of the work, the combination of instruments undergoes tremendous variation, leading to a sequence of very different movements. 

Anyway, I like this set and I bet you will too…

PEK – 4/23/2023