Leap of Faith (2015 to Present)
Correlations
Excerpt From Liner Notes by PEK
“…Pure improvisation, as we practice it, at Evil Clown, is much less sensitive to personnel changes than most other styles of music where sudden changes can present problems. The octet we landed on for Correlations is comprised of strong and experienced improvisors who created an excellent work transforming over a broad range of sonorities across the duration of the performance…”
Leap of Faith
Evil Clown Headquarters, Waltham MA
16 July 2024
1) Correlations- 1:10:43
2) Analogues – 5:37
PEK – clarinet, contralto & contrabass clarinets, sopranino, alto & tenor saxophones, glissophone, piccolo oboe, tarota, bass tromboon, alto flute, goat horn, bass ocarina, melodica, ms-20, moog subsequent, prophet, novation peak, syntrx, Linnstrument controllers, lfo percolator, soma pipe, rubber chicken, noise tower, daxophone, almglocken, brontosaurus & tank bells, Tibetan bowls & bells, wood blocks, log drums, gongs, plate gong, orchestral chimes, chimes, [d]ronin, 17 string bass, Englephone, danmo, gavel, flex-a-tone, ratchet, clown horn
Glynis Lomon – cello, aquasonic, voice
Michael Caglianone – soprano, alto & tenor saxophones, clarinet, flute, slide whistle, hulusi, vuvuzela, balafon, xylophone, almglocken, temple bells, Tibetan bells, flex-a-tones, shaker, moog subsequent, novation peak, Linnstrument controllers
John Fugarino – trumpet, flugelhorn, orchestral anvils, rattles, shakers, wood blocks, Englephone, almglocken, orchestral castanets, nord satge 3, prophet, ms-20, ocarina, noise tower
Chris Alford – guitar, guitar preparations, ocarina, wood & temple blocks, crotales, glockenspiel
Albey onBass – electric upright bass
Jose Arroyo – conga, thunder tube
Michael Knoblach – Old Gypsy Tambourine, Cooperman Bodhran, shakers, devil chasers, split bamboo mallets, wooden clacker, sleigh bells, meinl helix bowls, seed pod shakers, flex-a-tones, vibratones, basket of rocks, wood shakers, basket rattles, metal rattle, palm frond rattles, plastic ball rattle, Fisher Price turtle and bee, Humpty Dumpty toy, Spooky World noise makers, children rattles, castanets, African circumcision rattles, African basket rattles
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.
It is not unusual for Evil Clown Headquarters Livestreaming sessions to undergo some change in personnel between the initial planning stage and the performance. Albey onBass, A principal Evil Clown bassist, who has appeared on many Evil Clown recordings by many Evil Clown ensembles currently lives in NYC and is a bit less available to our schedule. A few years ago, Albey introduced us to guitarist Chris Alford who currently lives in New Orleans, but is from the Boston area. Chris visits family periodically, and when he does, I schedule sets around his availability.
Chris reached out a month or so ago letting me know that he would be in town for roughly a month and I scheduled three sets for him: Metal Chaos Ensemble – One Step Beyond Logic which was already on the book, for last week, Axioms – Logical Consequences meant to be the second quintet Axioms edition, and Leap of Faith – Correlations for one day later. I don’t usually schedule sessions on adjacent days, but Albey is travelling up from NYC for two sets, so I scheduled two back-to-back sets to make it easier for Albey to make it.
Anyway, Jane was unable to make the Axioms session, so I repurposed it as a Leap of Faith set. Last week, I got an email from Jim Lucchese who was the drummer scheduled for the Tuesday that he could not make that set, so I switched him over to Monday and I added Vance Provey, one of our regular trumpet players. Albey had asked if he could bring along Jose Arroyo, a conga player, to the Tuesday set, so I added Michael Knoblach on percussion to that set. So we roll with it, and some players left the set and we got a few substitutes…
Pure improvisation, as we practice it, at Evil Clown, is much less sensitive to personnel changes than most other styles of music where sudden changes can present problems. The octet we landed on for Correlations is comprised of strong and experienced improvisors who created an excellent work transforming over a broad range of sonorities across the duration of the performance.
I really like this set, and I bet you will too…
PEK 7/18/2024
Paul Brennan Photos
and Video Screen Grabs
