Excerpt From Liner Notes by PEK

“… When Yuri withdrew from Evil Clown a few years back, I was worried that the MCE format would not survive his departure. I have found, however, that the strength of the concept and the development that happened up until that time has meant that the MCE concept can continue in a new way. In fact, the well-defined aesthetic problem posed supports a broader range of possibilities than just those achievable by the current core unit. Stay tuned for the further development of Metal Chaos Ensemble.…”

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 seven years has been one of the most prolific Evil Clown ensembles. We have produced over 50 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.

Since the pandemic has let up, we have started to do LIVESTREAMING sessions from Evil Clown Headquarters to YouTube… MCE has been a bit harder to schedule than before the pandemic since we are all busy and Steve Niemitz drives in from Western Mass for the sessions. 2022 has had several MCE livestreams scheduled and then repurposed to Simulacrum sessions or variations of the sextet ensemble with subs other than the 6 core members. Time Tripping was originally supposed to happen in July, but Mike G had a babysitter conflict and Steve could not make the commute and so we did Simulacrum – Meditations on Reality instead as a quartet. Including Time Tripping, we only recorded three albums in 2022, which is significantly less than our pre-pandemic output.

Very soon, Evil Clown Headquarters will shut down for a few months for some major studio upgrades and construction. Consequently, I worked hard to find a date when we could make up the Time Tripping session before we start down at the end of September. The full band was not available on a date that I could put in the book, so I got Bill T Miller to sub for Eric Woods on analog synthesizers, and Michael Knoblach to sub for Steve Niemitz at the drum kit. I think you will agree the session is fantastic! When we resume at the beginning of 2023, I think I will be a bit more flexible with the ensemble line-up, so that Metal Chaos Ensemble can have a few more sets during the year. With several possible drummers, several possible bassists, and several possible synthesists we can get in a few more sessions in 2023 than we managed in 2022. There will be more space in the studio after the construction, so we may do some recordings as the Metal Chaos Orchestra with all 8 or 9 players in the band.

When Yuri withdrew from Evil Clown a few years back, I was worried that the MCE format would not survive his departure. I have found, however, that the strength of the concept and the development that happened up until that time has meant that the MCE concept can continue in a new way. In fact, the well-defined aesthetic problem posed supports a broader range of possibilities than just those achievable by the current core unit. Stay tuned for the further development of Metal Chaos Ensemble.

I’m super happy with this album and I bet you like it too…

PEK – 9/10/2022