Liner Notes by PEK

Every once in a while, a new ensemble gets started at Evil Clown.  Sometimes the new unit has a particular aesthetic problem and an appropriate band name assigned defined in advance.  For example, Metal Chaos Ensemble started as a duet between me and Yuri Zbitnov as soon as we started to work with newly acquired metal instruments in 2015, and Turbulence was formed to feature groups of horn players – sometime as only horn players and sometimes with bass and drums.  Sometimes the new unit is spun off from an existing ensemble with some variation or different set of resources.  Simulacrum was spun off from Metal Chaos Ensemble to include even more electronic instrumentation and signal processing and to not require a drummer.

Sometimes the new unit comes about because new players join the roster and contribute to a session by an existing ensemble, and it is clear their contribution adds a distinctive voice to the Evil Clown palette which deserves a new band name.  Such is the case with Neurodivergent.  Count Robot, DNA Girl and Tim Mungenast played on two Expanse records in 2023 (Swathe in March and Gamut in July).  They bring an odd sensibility that involves improvised spoken word banter between the three of them and a more pop-culture oriented use of guitar, mandolin and electronics than is typical in Evil Clown ensembles.  For the third set featuring these three relative newbies, I rolled out the new band name, Neurodivergent, to explore combinations of their aesthetic as a group of players with a long history with various combinations of players from the Evil Clown Roster.  For the current (fourth) set, Stigma, I’m adding the AKA band name, The Wacky Banter Ensemble, to reflect the essential element of this unit which makes it distinct from the other Evil Clown Ensembles while solving the same basic aesthetic problems addressed by all the Evil Clown Ensembles.

For Cosmic Collisions, I added another horn player (Michael Caglianone) and a drummer (Jim Lucchese) to the ensemble to give us three horn interaction and the propulsion and rhythmic center that comes with a drummer.  This band is a bit tough to schedule for since Tim’s commute is about 3 ½ hours, meaning that we need to do these sets on a Saturday which is difficult for Mike C.  Mike was on the book for this set, but at the last second he had a work conflict that kept him from attending.  I was able to get one of our great trumpet players, John Fugarino, to sub for Mike’s woodwinds with only a few hours’ notice, so we kept the three-horn configuration.  Jim was not available at the time this set went on the book, but we have a bunch of good drummers in the roster, and I got Jared Seabrook to do the drum role.

Stigma is the strongest set yet from this ensemble IMHO.  Count Robot, DNA Girl and Tim have now had four opportunities to meld their wacky banter presentation into the Evil Clown broad palette improvisation aesthetic.  Trumpeter Eric Dahlman, who has been an Evil Clown regular for years in Turbulence and Leap of Faith settings has played with them for years and provides a bridge between these disparate approaches.  The Evil Clown regulars and the Wacky Banter newbies all did a lot of instrument doubling beyond their core instruments on the auxiliary instruments always set up in the studio.  This is the key to upping the amount of transformation achieved in one of our concert length improvisations.  I spent a lot more time engaging in Wacky Banter myself than I have on the previous performances, so there are 5 banterers:   Count Robot, DNA Girl, Tim, Eric and me.

Anyway, we had a terrific Livestream performance.  I really like this set and I bet you do too…

• PEK 6/2/2024