Liner Notes by PEK

In May of 2021, I opened Evil Clown Headquarters to other fully vaccinated musicians, and the first session of the new age was scheduled for the second set of the Expanse sound world.  Michael and I both enjoyed the auspicious first set right before the pandemic shut down and collaboration became an ongoing Evil Clown project, both as a duet for some sets and as a larger unit for others.  As an ongoing project, it needed a permanent name, so after some thought I came up with Expanse which evokes space and restraint, the central idea behind this ensemble at its inception.

As is often the case as a new ensemble develops over time, the original scope of intent is deepened and broadened.  An Evil Clown session that is assigned to Expanse really is a set with Michael and me and others where it is not Leap of Faith, Turbulence, Metal Chaos Ensemble, or some other Evil Clown Ensemble.  The recordings have varied from acoustic duet to trios and various larger bands with electronics and other sounds.  Michael does frequently appear as the percussionist and sometimes drummer on performances by these other Evil Clown bands.   Last year we debuted a new variation, Expanse Percussion Edition, calling back to early Metal Chaos Ensemble performances.  In 2015, Yuri and I were seeking to explore the rapidly expanding sonority set of mostly metallic percussion that I was acquiring to broaden the palette available to the Leap of Faith Orchestra.  Many of the MCE sets in the first 3 years or so were me and Yuri with other drummers/percussionists from the LOFO together with some other horn players and electronic musicians.  Eventually Metal Chaos Ensemble morphed away from this format and became the more standard electro-acoustic sextet format that has been presented over the last 3 or 4 years.

The Percussion Edition follows up on the original idea of MCE with completely different performers and with a larger collections of membrane instruments to go with the metal instruments still in use… So, The Thickness of the Clocking is the fourth time out with this concept – this time with three horn players (Me, John Fugarino, and Hilary Noble – all doubling percussion and other instruments), Michael on percussion and Scott Samenfeld on the upright electric bass.  It’s a different take on the general Evil Clown Aesthetic concept of broad palate performing concert length improvisations featuring dramatic transformations through many different sonorities. 

We originally had the amazing drummer Jared Seabrook booked for this set, but he had a personal conflict at the last moment and did not make it.  The usual rule for crediting a performance to Expanse Percussion Edition is that we have at least 3 dedicated percussionists in the ensemble.  The original line up met this requirement (Michael, Jared and Hilary), but when Jared was unable to make it, I was ready to credit the set to Expanse instead.  However, John and I both spent a lot of our time doubling percussion, and Hilary spent maybe half his time on conga, so there are significant sections of the work that are primarily percussion instruments.  I decided to leave the group assignment as Expanse Percussion Edition.  We easily satisfied the more general requirement that the work be mainly about percussion sounds. I was expecting this to be a great session, and I was not disappointed.

PEK – 26 August 2025