Squidco Blurb

Approaching his solo work with new compositional strategies, multi-reedist and percussionist David Peck uses time and texture as the principal organizational elements in 9 pre-mixed recordings over which PEK was allowed more flexibility and freedom in instrumental choice during performance, using a vast collection of instruments in dramatic improvisations.

Squidco Staff

Liner Notes by PEK

The other night I did the solo tracks for the new PEK Solo – Schism album I worked on during March and the first week of April….

I did all the solos in a massive 5 hour session last Thursday. The whole structure of this work is fundamentally different than my previous solo albums and other pieces performed in larger ensembles with computer accompaniment…

In the past I have taken samples from the Evil Clown catalog and specially recorded samples. I have then taken those samples and subjected them to digital transformations with audio editing software. I then combine those samples in the Ableton software. Once I have built these up into long album length mixes, I take several of them and create a full length Ableton program with multiple channels. In performance, I ride the faders and alternate between no prerecorded elements, one element, several elements or all the elements. Those decisions are made during the performance.

The decision making during the performance is essentially the same as regular improvisation, with the shape of the piece determined in real time. I’ve been using Ableton to make these mixes for the last 3 years or so and I’ve become pretty proficient with the software. I like this process which is very efficient.

When the corona virus fired up and I cancelled all of my planned sessions for March and April, it opened up a lot of time in the Evil Clown calendar… I decided to make a completely different structured solo work with Ableton. I have never really used traditional studio overdubbing as a means for creating my music.

I started by making 9 different approximately 5 minute premixes, each featuring a different group of similar instruments and containing between 4 and 8 channels. I arranged them in a 79 minute sequence with plenty of space in between. Next I did two passes through the entire piece with different groups of instruments: the first pass with gongs, electronics and the [d]ronin, and the second pass with aquasonic, guzhen, yangqin and bass guitar. I added two recent full length Ableton mixes: one predominantly from contrabassoon samples and one predominantly from contrabass clarinet samples. I made a mix with all of these sources and then I used that as the accompaniment track for the solos.

I made a list of all the different sections earlier in the week. I assigned different instruments in groups to the different parts of the work in the small (less than 5 minutes) sections. Thursday, I used this map to record 5 minutes or so at a time, setting up the instruments and adjusting the recording settings between takes.

As a consequence of the recording being spread across many occasions, I was free to draw on many more of the Evil Clown Arsenal of instruments than I typically use for a single performance. Here is the list of instruments (about 60) I played:

PEK – clarinet, piccolo, contralto & contrabass clarinets, sopranino, soprano, bamboo soprano, alto, tenor, baritone & bass saxophones, tarota, guanzi, mussette, English horn, bassoon & contrabassoon, bass tromboon, recorders, C flute, alto flute, bamboo flute, Christmas flute, sheng, melodica, accordian, [d]ronin, bass guitar, mallet kat, moog subsequent, arp odyssey, Korg MS-20, theremin with moogerfooger, prophet synth, daxophone guzheng, yangqin, aquasonic, crank siren, game calls, Englephone, gongs, Tibetan bowls, brontosaurus & tank bells, crotatles, glockenspiel, thunder sheet, orchestral chimes, gongs, cymbells, trine, chimes, log drums, wood blocks, temple blocks, castenets, seed pod rattles, balafon, Ableton mixes

I found the experience strangely between my ordinary practice of pure improvisation (all recorded in real time) and my compositional practice when composing Frame Notation Scores for the Leap of Faith Orchestra. Both formats use time and texture as the principal organizational elements and involved transformations through a broad range of sonorites. Since I did not make multiple attempts for any of the many tracks and sections, all of the recorded material is used in the final product.

I found several advantages to recording with this method:

1) For me, free improvisation is primarily structured by the phrasing and texture of sound produced by the musicians. When playing against previous tracks recorded by me, I am phrasing with myself, far simpler than reading phrasing cues from the other performers.

2) I know what I performed on previous tracks, and make my decisions on instrumentation and general approach prior to each take, rather than in real time during performance.

3) I can watch the wav forms on the monitor and see in advance when big events occur, guiding decisions on the overdubs on lining up with previously performed events. There is a lot of this kind of coordination in the Frame Notation Scores.

One odd consequence of this methodology is that unlike nearly every other Evil Clown project, the final steps are not done in a continuous fashion, but rather overdubbed in sections. Therefore, I will not have a regular video of the performance. I decided to video record with my 4k camera and extract stills. The YouTube video with be sequences of these stills arranged with the music….

I selected some of the extracted images to include with this post.

Look for bandcamp and YouTube sometime over this weekend!

PEK – 4/10/20