Metal Chaos Ensemble
Reverberatory Furnace
Excerpt from Bruce Lee Gallanter Review
“…Starting with subtle layers of percussion (African village-like sound), a double reed of sorts and soft background drones, all slowly building in an organic way. There is mostly just percussion: trap drums, djembe and soft, quirky electronics for long sections… It seems to be more moody or dream-like at times. A completely different side of the usual spectrum…”
Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
Exploring chaotic rhythms on metallic instruments, the Metal Chaos Ensemble was formed in 2015 by multi-instrumentalist/reedist PEK and percussionist Yuri Zbitnov, using the “Evil Clown Arsenal” of exotic and unusual percussive instruments including gongs, chimes, glockenspiel, Tibetan Bowls and many other metallic sounds, here in an extended set with guest Moouse Traore on Djembe.
Excerpt From Liner Notes by PEK
“… In the early days of MCE, most of our sets were with multiple percussion players. More of the recent MCE sets have a bigger variety of instruments with everyone doubling percussion, more emphasis on electronic instruments and signal processing, and fewer dedicated percussionists… This set is more old school, featuring as our special guest Moouse Traore on Djembe! Also, it’s not-so-old school, since Yuri and Moouse set up killer grooves for much of the set, wheras old-school MCE is more texture oriented and less groove heavy…”
Reverberatory Furnace:
Metal Chaos Ensemble
Evil Clown Headquarters, Waltham MA – 30 May 2019
1) Reverberatory Furnace – 1:10:39
PEK – clarinet & contralto clarinet, alto, tenor & bass saxophones, English horn, bamboo flute, bass tromboon, orchestral chimes, brontosaurus & tank bells, gongs, mallet controller, moog subsequent, prophet, wood, metal
Yuri Zbitnov – drums, daiko, Englephone, wood blocks, gong, metal
Eric Woods – analog electronics, cymbells, metal
Moouse Traore – djembe, talking drum, metal
Joel Simches – live-to-2-track recording, realtime signal processing
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Bruce Lee Gallanter Review
METAL CHAOS ENSEMBLE With PEK / ERIC WOODS / MOOUSE TRAORE / JOEL SIMCHES / YURI ZBITNOV – Reverberatory Furnace / Live Streaming from Evil Clown Headquarters (Evil Clown 928; USA) Featuring PEK on clarinets, alto, tenor & bass saxes, english horn, flute, Moog and assorted percussion, Eric Woods on analog synth, Moouse Traore on djembe & talking drum, Joel Simches on recording & processing and Yuri Zbitnov on drums, taiko and other percussion. Considering that there are more than a 100 discs from Leap of Faith and their various offshoot projects, the personnel, aside from the 3 founding members (PEK, Lomon & Zbitnov), is different on each release. The Metal Chaos Ensemble usually includes both PEK and Mr. Zbitnov, as it does here. For this quintet session, Eric Woods and Joel Simches both add electronics or live processing, while new member Moouse Traore, add African acoustic percussion: djembe and talking drum. Hence, we get a nice blend of acoustic and electronics instruments/sounds. Starting with subtle layers of percussion (African village-like sound), a double reed of sorts and soft background drones, all slowly building in an organic way. There is mostly just percussion: trap drums, djembe and soft, quirky electronics for long sections. This disc is the most laid back of anything from the LoF catalogue. No screaming vocals or over the top reeds solos. It seems to be more moody or dream -like at times. A completely different side of the usual spectrum.
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 three 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 myself and Yuri, along with a whole bunch of different guests.
In the early days of MCE, most of our sets were with multiple percussion players. More of the recent MCE sets have a bigger variety of instruments with everyone doubling percussion, more emphasis on electronic instruments and signal processing, and fewer dedicated percussionists… This set is more old school, featuring as our special guest Moouse Traore on Djembe! Also, it’s not-so-old school, since Yuri and Moouse set up killer grooves for much of the set, wheras old-school MCE is more texture oriented and less groove heavy…
Now-a-days, we stream these sessions from Evil Clown Headquarters… Subscribe to my YouTube for notifications.
PEK 6/1/2019
Raffi Photos
