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. 

Spectral Radii was planned deliberately to be a smaller ensemble that would not require the kitchen since it was unclear when I booked it if the remodel would be complete…  We were going to do a quintet, but saxophonist Michael Caglianone had a late conflict and could not make the session.  Much of Leap of Faith’s History has been with smaller units which often have a tightness that comes from long familiarity between the players.  All four of us on this set are very frequent Evil Clown participants and we have all played many times together in various combinations.  It often happens that when a core set of players from larger ensembles is isolated something special emerges… 

Michael Knoblach brought his large wooden African figure slit drums and a djembe.  He often brings a lot of smaller hand percussion and found object percussion objects, so his role is percussion and not drum set, but this set up is a bit different than what he usually brings.  John and I both do a great deal of doubling on many horns and all the auxiliary instruments at Evil Clown Headquarters.  As usual, Glynis played her ass off on the cello, voice and aquasonic…  This is a great example of the Evil Clown broad palette aesthetic realized by a small format lineup of expert practitioners…

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

PEK 11/13/2024