Leap of Faith Orchestra & Sub-Units
25 CD Box Set
The Complete
Leap of Faith Orchestra & Sub-Units
Performances at Third Life Studios
(2017 – 2019)
Excerpt From Liner Notes by PEK
“… We had 13 wonderful performances in this space between 2017 and 2019. When Susan’s current lease was expiring, the gentrification of Union Square drove the rental price of the space beyond her means and she was forced to let the space go. We are sad to lose access to this great venue, both for ourselves and the many other creative musicians in the Boston Area who have performed there.…”
25 CD Box Set: The Complete
Leap of Faith Orchestra & Sub-Units
Performances at Third Life Studios
(2017 – 2019)
Comprised of these 13 LOFO&SU titles
(Click on Album Title to Link to each Album Page_
Helix (18 March 2017)
Surface of Revolution (13 May 2017)
Differentiations (22 July 2017)
Power Series Expansions (28 October 2017)
Vertices (25 November 2017)
Refuting Laplace’s Demon (24 March 2018)
Deductions (5 May 2018)
Inferences (7 July 2018)
Retrocausal Strategies (1 September 2018)
Cloud Taxonomies (3 November 2018)
Probability Clouds (23 March 2019)
First Principles (12 May 2019)
Virtual Particles (6 July 2019)
Third Life Roster
Reeds
PEK – clarinets, saxophones, flutes, double reeds
Zach Bartolomei – clarinets, saxophones, flutes
Dan O’Brien – clarinets, saxophones, flutes
Charlie Kohlhase – saxophones
Jim Warshauer – clarinets, saxophones, flutes
Matt Samolis – flute
Bohdahn Shevchenko – bassoon
Brass
Bob Moores – trumpet
Eric Dahlman – trumpet, overtone voice
Steve Provizer – trumpet, baritone horn
Kat Dobbins – trombone
Duane Reed – baritone horn, bass trombone
Zack Grass – tuba
John Baylies – tuba
Strings
Glynis Lomon – cello, aquasonic, voice
Matt Scutchfield – violin
Silvain Castellano – bass
Adrienne Schoenfeld – bass
Albey onBass – electric bass
John Voigt – bass
Percussion
Yuri Zbitnov – drums, percussion
Kevin Dacey – drums, percussion, electronics
Syd Smart – drums, percussion, electroniic percussion
Steve Niemitz – drums, percussion
Piano
Eric Zinman – piano
Emilio Gonzalez – piano
Guitar
Reverend Grant Beale – guitar, electronics
Chris Florio – guitar synthesizer
Drew Wesley – guitar
Electronics
Eric Woods – electronics
Liner Notes by PEK
Here at Evil Clown, one of my primary goals is solving the aesthetic challenges of large improvisation ensembles. Large bands are capable of extraordinarily rich and complex sonorities frankly unachievable with fewer resources. However, this power comes with an associated difficulty if the music is freely improvised: There is a natural tendency to let a very dense texture be developed which, while very rich and interesting, may not demonstrate much development. In other words, it doesn’t transform enough.
In the last 50 years, many very different solutions to this aesthetic problem have been created by a huge host of musicians. Most often, some amount of pre-planning or some amount of real time direction / conducting are used to shape the improvisation, introducing more transformation between sections / movements and giving the work much more apparent development. Even with these controls, there is great difficulty in gathering large units for rehearsal. In my opinion, hard artistic problems are interesting ones.
My solution to these problems is a compositional device called Frame Notation where events are planned against a time-line and tracked with a large sports clock. The directions are simple symbols or English language descriptions of the composed actions which do not specify specific pitches or rhythms. Six of these compositions have been performed since 2015 by ensembles as large as 25 musicians.
The project of this release, Leap of Faith Orchestra & Sub-Units, was designed to advance the interactions of the musician roster in settings from small (2 to 3) to moderately large (10 to 15). At each show we performed four 15 minute or three 20 minute improvisations by different Sub-Unit sections from the Orchestra followed by a 50 minute improvisation by the full orchestra. This is excellent preparation for the Frame Notation Scores both for the players and for my compositional efforts.
Before the first Frame Notation Score, The Expanding Universe, was performed in June 2016, we did four large unit improvisations at the Nave Gallery, Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church. This was a nice room with great high ceilings and natural echo, but the load-in involved some pretty tough stairs. Since we bring a Uhaul truck full of instruments for these shows, this egress issue was a big problem and I looked for other venues.
More Liner Notes by PEK
We next did a series of these shows at the LilyPad. The LilyPad is a much smaller space which could fit 8 or 9 players at most. It was also impossible to load-in before 7 pm for an 8 pm show, which made setting up very stressful. We had a bunch of good shows there… I liked the sound of the room, the piano and having beer available for both the audience and band, but the above problems and the high cost of the room rental made me again seek other venues.
Around this time, I did a recording session with Matt Samolis at Third Life Studios, and was immediately attracted to this room. It is big enough for about 15 players and audience with good egress, a good room sound, and a generous area in the back for cases, etc… Immediately following this event I had Matt introduce me to Susan, who runs the space, and I arranged a residency with shows every 2 months except for mid-winter.
We had 13 wonderful performances in this space between 2017 and 2019. When Susan’s current lease was expiring, the gentrification of Union Square drove the rental price of the space beyond her means and she was forced to let the space go. We are sad to lose access to this great venue, both for ourselves and the many other creative musicians in the Boston Area who have performed there.
The generous area of the stage permitted a great deal of instruments to fit. Every show I loaded the van full with a different package of horns, percussion, and other auxiliary instruments. We set up playing stations where the percussion and auxiliary instruments could be played by any from the ensemble in addition to their primary axes. Along with a simple rule that each player should lay out roughly a third of the duration of each piece, and the ability for players to each use a broader color pallet than they would ordinarily have, the improvisations steadily progressed through highly varied sonorities.
31 different musicians performed on at least one of the 13 shows included in this box set, many performed on more, and some performed on all. This project has really honed our communication as a large improvisation ensemble, greatly benefiting the more recent performances of Frame Notation Scores. As soon as I realized that the venue was not going to be available anymore, I thought that it makes great sense to package this music as a large set – an obvious decision due to the similarity of approach generally and the breadth of the solutions achieved. We will take a bit of time off from this project while I seek a good new venue, but in the meantime, we now have a new document which demonstrates the scope and power that can be achieved by the pure improvisations of larger ensembles.
PEK – 7/15/2019
