Liner Notes by PEK

Metal Chaos Ensemble was formed in early 2015 by PEK and Yuri Zbitnov as a working project to explore chaotic rhythms on metallic instruments. I had started to amass the Evil Clown Arsenal of percussion, electronic and wind instruments and we needed a workshop to develop this universe of sounds for the Leap of Faith Orchestra. It was immediately obvious that Metal Chaos Ensemble had a sound to itself and over the last ten years has been one of the most prolific Evil Clown ensembles. We have produced over 60 albums covering a wide range of sonority sets, but always with the presence of gongs, chimes, glockenspiel, Tibetan bowls and many other metallic sounds and the horns of PEK.

Over time MCE morphed into been a recurring sextet unit with most of the sessions having the same six performers. With drums and electric bass and electronics, this unit contains the most rock elements of any of the Evil Clown ensembles.  This format of the band produced 20 or so albums featuring spoken word recitations along with horns, spacey electronics, metal percussion instruments and rock leaning drums and bass.  The spoken word element provides an entry point for audience who might otherwise not find one in such abstract music.

We are now moving into a new transition.  Bob Moores, who has been a regular of this format since it started, and who plays space trumpet, guitar and electronics has moved to Maine, about 3 hours away.  He will still join some Evil Clown sets, but not likely many MCE since he will come down on weekends, and we do MCE on Mondays.  Steve Niemitz, who took over the drum chair from Yuri for the last 3 or 4 years, is going to be training to be an EMT this year and will withdraw at least for a while. 

Ordinarily, MCE is a rock-oriented ensemble which includes a drummer.  Ephemeral, another recent MCE set, also did not include a drummer.  It was a bit strange to mine this aesthetic territory with a drummerless ensemble, but the other elements of Metal Chaos Ensemble were still evident: lots of electronics, lots of percussion, and spoken word narration.

Jared had a last second conflict and did not make it to play drums, but Cyrus, who is running a company and is frequently on the road, showed up despite not being expected.  So several last second personnel changes changed the character of the ensemble at the final hour. One thing about pure improvisation as compared to other styles of music is that it is much more tolerant of changes in personnel.  An improvisation is a solution to an aesthetic problem posed by the performers and the resources available, so a change in these inputs changes the problem, but that only means a different solution is achieved.  The only question here is, do these changes take us far enough away from the aesthetic intent of Metal Chaos Ensemble that a change of the ensemble name is appropriate for this performance? 

This set definitely qualifies: It has an electronic chamber vibe and is more restrained than many of the higher energy MCE performances, but the ensemble made of 3 horn players, two electronics specialists, and electric bass, with nearly all of us doubling a lot of instruments on top of our primary axes, created a dynamic improvisation which transformed through a broad range of sonorities over the duration of the work.

It will be interesting to see how our solutions to this aesthetic problem evolve over time as we adjust to a different group of performers, and whether I end up with a stable unit again or it works more like the other Evil Clown Ensembles which have a core unit and various guests for different sessions.

I’m super happy with this album and I bet you like it too…

PEK – 11/11/2025