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.

Currently the Evil Clown Roster has about 50 performers in it and one of the main aesthetic problems we routinely tackle is broad palette improvisation by larger ensembles.  Most pure improvisation units are small – duets and trios are really common.  Quartets and quintets also are common, but less so.  Larger units happen, but with even less frequency.  Most of the Contemporary Period Evil Clown performances have at least 5 players.  I can fit 8 or 9 people in the Evil Clown Headquarters Studio (a few more under certain circumstances), and many of our current sets have 7 to 9 players.  We have done a bunch of public performances with improvisation orchestras with up to 25 performers.  We also do some small format sets…  The core Leap of Faith Unit has been a trio or even a duet for most of our long history and we have always done some sets as just the core unit with no guests. 

The ECH studio has a main room that fits 6 or 7 players – the drums and bass go in the kitchen which we hang with black duvetyn theater fabric so it does not look like a kitchen.  Scheduling in October this year was complicated by two factors:  Joel Simches, our house engineer, was a way for several weeks doing the sound for the classic prog band Nektar in England, then in town for a few days, and then away again for another 10 days.  At the same time, I am remodeling the kitchen, which has been on my list since I bought the house 20 years ago and been bumped many times for various other projects. 

So, when I was booking sets for the month, Leap of Faith traveled from Boston to Rochester to play at the Avant Garde A Clue Festival early in the month, and I scheduled two ECH sets in the short space of Joel’s 3 days of availability for small units with no drums.  We have lots of great drummers/percussionists in the roster, so most Evil Clown performances these days have a drummer, but in the Archival Period (1993-2001), most of the sets were performed without a drummer, and in the Contemporary Period, we have performed some drummerless sets. 

Playing without drums creates a more chamber like vibe – it tends to be a bit quieter, and have a bit more space.  That does not mean that there is not controlled chaos like we always have with larger units, just that the prevalent dynamic shifts a bit.  There is generally also more suspended texture and less driving rhythmic sonority.  These changes present a different aesthetic problem which we are definitely prepared to solve.

The ensemble for Prior Credences is fully balanced, which means that every player’s primary role is in a different instrumental group.  I play woodwinds, John plays brass, Glynis plays strings, and Eric plays electronics.  We all, however, double other instruments, including percussion and electronics, so this small format improvisation undergoes many transformations across a broad variety of sonorities. 

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

PEK 10/28/2024