Metal Chaos Ensemble
Narration Performances
Don Quixote
Excerpt from Bruce Lee Gallanter Review
“… Things move into some intense, cosmic, over-the-top free/jazz blowing… ritualistic cymbals and gongs with thick echoplexed reverberations. I dig the way things flow with PEK and Zbitnov always working tightly together.…”
Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
“… An epic journey through diverse improvisational approaches within a composed framework, using heavy percussion of unusual & world origins, electronics, rock/groove elements and prepared mixes created from samples, from the Boston duo of David Peck (PEK) on reeds & an arsenal of devices & sources, and Yuri Zbitnoff on drums & percussion, with narration points along the way.…”
Excerpt from: Don Quixote’s Adventures in the World of Jazz:
200 Examples and a Few Remarks
By Hans CHristian Hagedorn
The Metal Chaos Ensemble is an avant-garde duo based in Boston, MA (USA), consisting of PEK, pseudonym of David Peck (accordion, clarinet, bass clarinet, chimes, electric bass, electronics, flute, percussion, saxophones, spoken vocals, among other instruments) and Yuri Zbitnov (drums, percussion, chimes, spoken vocals, among other instruments). The music created by this duo is a blend of experimental avant-garde music, avant-garde jazz, free jazz, and free improvisation, with influences from musique concrète and electroacoustic music. The subtitle of the improvisation Don Quixote on the album cover is Let his sin be his punishment, let him eat it with his bread, and let that be an end to it.… There are other improvisations, versions, and mixes on SoundCloud and Bandcamp related to the Don Quixote project by the Metal Chaos Ensemble, with titles such as Don Quixote Phase 1 Intermediate Mix (78:14) and 12 Short Intermediate Mixes From Don Quixote For Three Duets (each with a duration between 03:04 and 03:28).
Excerpt From Liner Notes by PEK
“… So, this newest Metal Chaos Ensemble set, Don Quixote, is in some ways a culmination of the entire MCE history. It is a duet comprised of Yuri and me, it contains lots of percussion in the overdubbing, it contains rock/groove elements, in features electronics, it contains narration from Don Quixote, and it includes the studio techniques of recent PEK Solo projects. The result is something special…”
Don Quixote:
Metal Chaos Ensemble
Evil Clown Headquarters ‐ 29 August 2020
1) Don Quixote – 1:18:45
PEK – B flat, alto, contralto & contrabass clarinets, alto, tenor & bass saxophones, shenai, contrabassoon, bass tromboon, C, alto, large bamboo, & 3 hole Russian flutes, ocarina, goat horn, Christmas flute, recorders, game calls, wind & crank sirens, concertina, melodica, triple slide whistle, fog horn, Novation Peak, Linnstrument, MS-20, [d]ronin, accordion, concertina, sheng, melodica, Englephone, orchestral chimes, crotales, cymbells, gongs, plate gong, thunder sheet, brontosaurus & tank bells, chimes, bells, Tibetan bells & bowls, cow bells, bell tree, balafon, dan-mo, wood blocks, temple blocks, castanets, seed pod rattle, daiko, tabla, ocean drum, aquasonic, thunder tube, guyzheng, bass guitar, electric cello, aquasonic, daxophone, narration
Yuri Zbitnov – drum set, Englephone, Orchestral Chimes, crotales, cymbells, gongs, plate gong, thunder sheet, brontosaurus & tank bells, chimes, bells, Tibetan bells & bowls, cow bells, balafon, dan-mo, wood blocks, temple blocks, castanets, seed pod rattle, rachet, daiko, tabla, aquasonic, [d]ronin, electric cello, wind siren, fog horn, Christmas flute, kazoo, narration
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Bruce Lee Gallanter Review
METAL CHAOS ENSEMBLE with PEK / YURI ZBITNOV – Don Quixote (Evil Clown 9249; USA) Recorded at Evil Clown Headquarters and featuring PEK on clarinets, saxes, shenai, contrabasson, flutes, melodica, fog horn, guzheng, bass, el. cello, daxophone, narration and a wealth of percussion and Yuri Zbitnov on drums, englephone, chimes, crotales, bells, aquasonic, foghorn, kazoo and narration. After disappearing for a bit, longtime Leap of Faith drummer Yuri Zbitnov is back and is playing with just one of the offshoot units: Metal Chaos Ensemble. The Metal Chaos Ensemble are an ongoing offshoot project of Leap of Faith with PEK and Yuri Zbitnov as the most constant members. Since the pandemic started in March of 2020, PEK has had to strip things down to less members and recorded mainly at home in the Evil Clown Headquarters. For this disc PEK seems to be playing even more instruments (49!?!) than he usually does.
This long disc (nearly 80 minutes!), starts with gongs and narration which soon turns into dark, probing bass sax and powerful, ritualistic drumming. Things move into some intense, cosmic, over-the-top free/jazz blowing… ritualistic cymbals and gongs with thick echoplexed reverberations. I dig the way things flow with PEK and Zbitnov always working tightly together. PEK & Zbitnov work their way through different saxes, clarinets, melodica, thunder sheet, short bits of narration and a variety of odd percussion. This is a long journey through a series of cosmic scenes which slowly evolve. There are some scary and even dark sections on this long disc yet it works well as a whole.
Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
Liner Notes by PEK
Metal Chaos Ensemble was formed in early 2015 by PEK and Yuri Zbitnov as a working project to explore chaotic rhythms on metallic instruments. I had started to amass the Evil Clown Arsenal of percussion, electronic and wind instruments and we needed a workshop to develop this universe of sounds for the Leap of Faith Orchestra. It was immediately obvious that Metal Chaos Ensemble had a sound to itself and over the last five years has been one of the most prolific Evil Clown ensembles. We have produced a bunch of albums covering a wide range of sonority sets, but always with the presence of gongs, chimes, glockenspiel, Tibetan bowls and many other metallic sounds and the horns of PEK. All Metal Chaos Ensemble sessions include at least me and Yuri, along with a whole bunch of different guests.
The many MCE albums (48 as of this writing) have developed significantly over time. The first set, Null Theory, was a duet between PEK and Yuri. The second session, War Tuba, included guitarist Catherine Cappozi and added a rock element that was repeated occasionally during the early period. A series of albums followed where the guests were mostly percussion players. There was an early trio, Intermetallic Compounds, with the amazing vibes player Andrea Nicodemou… There was an early trio, Chrononauts, with electronic and gadget wiz Bill T Miller.
In 2018, we started down a slightly new path combining the heavy percussion, electronics, rock/groove elements with some prepared mixes created from samples in advance. Multi-instrumentalist Bob Moores appears frequently on trumpet, guitar and electronics, Albey OnBass (a Cecil Taylor alumnus) did about 5 sets, and Eric Woods shows up with his fantastic analog synth concept. Due to the increasingly complicated mix, I engaged Joel Simches to be the Evil Clown House Engineer. When Albey split for New Orleans, we found the extraordinary bassist Mike Gruen to replace him. We started to feature various text sources on each album and have more groove elements and settled on a sextet comprised of PEK, Yuri, Bob, Eric, Mike Caglianone (saxes), Mike Gruen. Of the last 4 albums, the first two are quintets in this format, and the later two add Mike C to complete the sextet, all with Joel in the live-to-two track mixing and live electronics chair.
So along comes our pal the stupid Corona Virus. Evil Clown Headquarters is jammed full of gear and 7 performers (plus Raffi on the video mixing) for these sets. I had to cancel all kinds of terrific scheduled sessions including the next MCE set… The sextet will be back as soon as it is safe, but in the meantime, I’m doing solo projects and very limited Leap of Faith small ensemble sets and MCE projects as a duet with just Yuri and me. For some of my recent solo works I have done extended prerecording/overdubbing in advance of a final solo pass over the full duration of the work. I am very proud of Some Truths are Known, a composition comprised of 3 eighty minute movements for overdubbing PEKs on 110 instruments.
So, this newest Metal Chaos Ensemble set, Don Quixote, is in some ways a culmination of the entire MCE history. It is a duet comprised of Yuri and me, it contains lots of percussion in the overdubbing, it contains rock/groove elements, in features electronics, it contains narration from Don Quixote, and it includes the studio techniques of recent PEK Solo projects. The result is something special… Check it out! Look for some more MCE sets with this general approach while we wait for this crazy virus crap to go away.
PEK – 8/31/2020
Video Screen Grabs
