Leap of Faith (2015 to Present)
Probabilistic Notions
Excerpt From Liner Notes by PEK
“… Anyway, a sextet ensemble with excellent players with such deep connections and who are all veterans of Evil Clown Headquarters performances is a blueprint for an excellent result. All of us did some or a lot of doubling on the auxiliary instruments in the space, so the improvisation proceeded through a long series of distinct sonorities over the duration. Of course, this is the goal of broad palette improvisation and Probabilistic Notions is a superbly executed example.…”
Leap of Faith
Evil Clown Headquarters, Waltham MA
19 July 2025
1) Probabilistic Notions – 1:09:56
2) Chance Events and Their Likelihood – 5:03
PEK – piccolo clarinet, clarinet, basset horn, contralto & contrabass clarinets, alto & tenor saxophones, piccolo oboe, English horn, shenai, melodica, Indian double flute, moog subsequent, novation peak, Linnstrument controllers, ms-20, nord stage 3, gravichord, lfo percolator, lfo violin, noise tower, 17 string bass, [d]ronin, spring & chime rod boxes, cow bells, chimes, crotales, theremin with moogerfooger, glockenspiel, brontosaurus & tank bells, Tibetan bells & bowls, wood & temple blocks, log drums, balafon, xylophone, triangle chimes, gongs, plate gong, orchestral chimes, spiral cymbal, Englephone, danmo
Glynis Lomon – cello, aquasonic, voice
John Fugarino – trumpet, slide trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone, French horn, melodica, penny whistle, slide whistle, ocarina, wood blocks, Tibetan bowls, gravichord,Englephone, orchestral castanets, crotales, glockenspiel, array mbira, talking drum, balafon, xylophoe, almglocken, orchestral anvils, noise tower, spring and chime rod boxes, nord stage 3, prophet, ms-20
Bob Moores – trumpet, trumpet, log drums. wood & temple blocks, cow bells, triangle chimes, gongs, crotales, glockenspiel, orchestral castanets, almglocken, chimes, ratchet, Englephone, brontosaurus bell. danmo, moog subsequent, novation peak, Linnstrument controllers, nord stage 3, taxi horn, crank siren, rubber chickens, voice
Scott Samenfeld – electric upright bass, electric flute
Jared Seabrook – drums, orchestral anvils, Tibetan bowls, noise tower, gongs, bell trees, moog subsequent, novation peak, Linnstrument controllers, syntrx
Joel Simches – Live to 2-track recording, real-time signal processing
Full Video
Video Shorties
Liner Notes by PEK
Leap of Faith is the core duet of the Leap of Faith Orchestra (LOFO) comprised of PEK on clarinets, saxophones, clarinets & flutes, and Glynis Lomon on cello, aquasonic & voice. The ensemble is based in Boston and dates back to the early 90s. We utilize a huge arsenal of additional Evil Clown instruments to improvise long works featuring transformations across highly varied sonorities. At times, the core unit has been a trio or even a quartet. The longest running core unit was comprised of PEK, Glynis and drummer Yuri Zbitnov, who played for the last couple of years of the archival period and the first 5 years of the reboot starting in 2015. The ensemble has always been highly modular, and our many recordings (well over 100) feature the core unit in dozens of configurations with a huge list of guests and occasionally as only the core unit with no guests. Currently, the core unit is the duet of PEK and Lomon and we are regularly presenting LIVESTREAMs to YouTube from Evil Clown Headquarters with other guest performers.
A recurring format at Evil Clown Headquarters is PEK and Glynis with two extra horns, bass and drums. For Probabilistic Notions our horn player guests are brass players John Fugarino and Bob Moores. Our most regular bassist Scott Samenfeld is joined by special guest Jared Seabrook at the drum set for an outstanding rhythm section. Jared is a great drummer who has appeared on 4 previous Leap of Faith sets, 2 Turbulence sets and 1 Neurodivergent performance. He is one of our great players who is busy, but loves playing at Evil Clown, so he is very welcome when he is occasionally able to make it.
Bob and John are both hard core regulars at Evil Clown. Bob has been a regular for the entire Contemporary Period starting in 2015 and has over 100 appearances on performances by most of the Evil Clown Ensembles. John played with Glynis and me in the Masashi Harada Sextet in the early 90s, and then we lost track of him until 2022 when we reconnected on Facebook. Since then, he has been one of our most frequent contributors, appearing on nearly 60 albums in 3 ½ years.
Anyway, a sextet ensemble with excellent players with such deep connections and who are all veterans of Evil Clown Headquarters performances is a blueprint for an excellent result. All of us did some or a lot of doubling on the auxiliary instruments in the space, so the improvisation proceeded through a long series of distinct sonorities over the duration. Of course, this is the goal of broad palette improvisation and Probabilistic Notions is a superbly executed example.
I really like this set, and I bet you will too…
PEK 7/22/2025
Paul Brennan Photos
and Video Screen Grabs
