Leap of Faith (2015 to Present)
Scrying
Excerpt From Liner Notes by PEK
“… scheduling snafus happen, and here at Evil Clown we are flexible and roll with it… I repurposed the session by adding Albey onBass and Michael Knoblach on percussion. This is the quintet version of what I sometimes call a balanced ensemble for winds and strings (2 horns, 2 strings & percussion)… Larger balanced ensembles have a great feature – the strings interact with each other, the horns interact with each other, and the instrumental units interact with each other and the percussion. Mike C and I have made substantial progress over the last few years at performing together on the horns; same with Glynis and Albey on the strings…”
Scrying:
Leap of Faith
Evil Clown Headquarters, Waltham MA – 31 August 2023
1) Scrying – 1:09:47
2) Divination – 5:29
PEK – clarinet, contralto & contrabass clarinets, alto & tenor saxophones, tarota, melodica, syntrx, nord stage 3, prophet, korg m20, novation peak, moog subsequent, Linnstrument controllers, [d]ronin, 17 string bass, guqin, nagoya, tank cello, spring & chime rod boxes, crotales, glockenspiel, gongs, plate gong, brontosaurus & tank bells, cow bells, flex-a-tone, wood blocks, Tibetan bowls & bells, seed pod rattle, almglocken, orchestral anvils & castanets, balafon, xylophone, gavel
Glynis Lomon – cello, aquasonic, voice
Michael Caglianone – soprano, alto & tenor saxophones, flute, clarinet, melodica, array mbira, spring and chime rod boxes, flex-a-tone, gongs log drums, wood blocks, brontosaurus, tank & cow bells, water bottle
Albey onBass – electric upright bass
Michael Knoblach – Bodhran, jaw harp, copper bowl, enamel bowls, sand blocks, African circumcision rattles, slinky, tit-fers, wooden billiards triangle, train whistle, acme siren whistle, meinl helix bowls, scraper, xmas ornaments, clock chime, marbles in plastic container, tiny sleigh bells, glass furniture carpet protectors, ratchets, tiny seed pod shakers, huge & medium seed pods, gong, party time balloon pump, fishing reel, wooden robot, Griswold cast iron skillets, nails in baby food jar, flex-a-tones, horses-ass-a-phone, vibratones, whisk, abacuses, metal pot scrubbers, basket of rocks, turtle skin rattle, egg beater, happy apple, pitchforks, devil chasers, wood shakers, fisher price turtle, fisher price bee, first years clown, humpty dumpty toy, spooky world noise makers, plastic tubes, castanets, Victorian children’s rattles, antique Asian bronze children’s rattles, healing balls, mortar & pestle, confirmation bells, wooden bell, sleigh bells, elephant bell, sistrum, antique sheep shears, axatse, scalp massagers, basket rattles, metal rattle, African wood blocks with stone inside, Chicxulub dinosaur and star teething rings, bags of marbles, water filled mason jar, magic wands, water filled lobster pot, palm frond rattles, plastic ball rattles, American Percussion busy box drum
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, double reeds & 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 (now over 150) feature the various core units 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.
The Evil Clown Roster is large, currently roughly 50 players, and the level of participation varies greatly. Some excellent players are very busy and can be somewhat hard to book. One such player is Melanie Howell-Brooks, who bought my original contrabass clarinet, and who has played 4 or 5 times with Leap of Faith and Turbulence. She is more jazz than most of us, but also comfortable in a much freer environment. Scrying was scheduled around her availability, but she had a late family conflict and could not make it. The original band for this would have been Melanie, Mike Caglianone, Glynis, and me – 3 reeds and cello. This would have been an interesting unit, and a new instrumental configuration.
These scheduling snafus happen, and here at Evil Clown we are flexible and roll with it… I repurposed the session by adding Albey onBass and Michael Knoblach on percussion. This is the quintet version of what I sometimes call a balanced ensemble for winds and strings (2 horns, 2 strings & percussion). All the players are regulars (Mike C and Albey have each done roughly 30 Evil Clown sessions and Mike K has done roughly 20), but this configuration had not worked before. However, a few weeks back all but Glynis performed Extent as Expanse, so I knew that adding Glynis to that quartet would be a great ensemble.
Larger balanced ensembles have a great feature – the strings interact with each other, the horns interact with each other, and the instrumental units interact with each other and the percussion. Mike C and I have made substantial progress over the last few years at performing together on the horns; same with Glynis and Albey on the strings.
The resulting performance is an excellent example of the broad palette concept showing radical transformations across varied sonorities of the length of the work.
I like this set and I bet you will too…
PEK out 9/2/2023
Paul Brennan Photos
