Perturbations
Unhinged
Excerpt From Liner Notes by PEK
“… The combination of strong improvisors with deep broad palette doubling and Joel’s perturbations resulted in an extraordinary improvisation. There is a bit more space than usual, and a lot of very interesting sounds from the auxiliary instruments. With Joel at the controls of the signal processing, we essentially have real-time decision making as a performance unit, and we get the full-time attention of a master engineer on the electronic Perturbations of the instrumental expressions…”
Perturbations
Evil Clown Headquarters – Waltham MA
29 October 2024
Berserk – 5:16
Unhinged – 1:09:58
PEK – clarinet, contralto & contrabass clarinets, alto & tenor saxophones, glissophone, piccolo oboe, bass flute, slide whistles, melodica, ms-20, syntrx, prophet, novation peak, moog subsequent, Linnstrument controllers, lfo violin, lfo percolator, daxophone, noise tower, theremin with moogerfooger, [d]ronin, 17 string bass, baby bomb piano, spiny norman, soma pipe, spring & chime rod boxes, Englephone, crotales, glockenspiel, gongs, plate gong, thunder sheet, brontosaurus & tank bells, cow bells, orchestral chimes & anvils, chimes, almglocken, temple & wood blocks, log drums, balafon, xylophone, Tibetan bells & bowls, rubber chickens, squeak hammer
Michael Caglianone – soprano, alto & tenor saxophones, clarinet, flute, melodica, slide whistles, balfon, xylophone, almglocken, crotales, glockenspiel, orchestral castanets, gongs, bronosaurus & tank bells, gongs, plate gong, rubber chickens, squeak hammer
John Fugarino – trumpet, piccolo trumpet, slide trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone, French horn, melodica, nord stage 3, prophet, ms-20, novation peak, moog subsequent, Englephone, bronosaurus & tank bells, log drums, seed pod rattles, orchestral castanets, flex-a-tone, shakers, wood blocks, gongs, crotales, glockenspiel, Tibetan bowls & bells, spring & chime rod boxes, array mbira
Joel Simches – Live to 2-track recording, perturbations (Boss RC-30, TC Helicon, VoiceLivePlay, Alesis WEDGE, D-Seed II, echoplex, Lexicon MPX500 & vortex, Roland SDE3000, Sony DPS-07, Electrix warpfactory)
Full Video
Video Shorties
Liner Notes by PEK
Every once in a while, a new Evil Clown Project emerges. Mostly, the new ensembles are based on a small core group and a basic aesthetic problem which we solve in performance. For example, Turbulence is the band with mostly horn players, but the ensemble makeup is different each performance.
Perturbations is the newest Evil Clown Ensemble. The core unit is PEK and Joel Simches… Joel is the Evil Clown house engineer who comes to nearly all the recording sessions at Evil Clown Headquarters. Some of the bands (for example, Metal Chaos Ensemble and Simulacrum) feature Joel’s real time signal processing in addition to his role as the recording engineer. Now that the Studio has been updated with new equipment (board and effects) Joel’s Perturbation options have increased and improved.
To help feature Joel’s electronic manipulations, we keep the instrumental unit to no more than 3 players. This set, Unhinged, repeats the lineup from August’s Asymptotic Series, while the other 6 Perturbation sets have all had different lineups drawn from the Evil Clown Roster. Unhinged features three of our strongest horn players, me (reeds), Michael Caglianone (reeds), and John Fugarino (brass). All three of us also double the percussion, electronics, electro-acoustic and other instruments from the studio. The broad palate concept works best when all the players change instruments frequently through the performance, creating a steady flow of transformations across sonorities over the duration.
The combination of strong improvisors with deep broad palette doubling and Joel’s perturbations resulted in an extraordinary improvisation. There is a bit more space than usual, and a lot of very interesting sounds from the auxiliary instruments. With Joel at the controls of the signal processing, we essentially have real-time decision making as a performance unit, and we get the full-time attention of a master engineer on the electronic Perturbations of the instrumental expressions. I really like this combination of live playing with over-the top signal processing. Now having addressed this particular aesthetic problem 8 times, I can see that this will be an ongoing Evil Clown project with at least several LIVESTREAM’s per year.
I really like this performance, and I bet you will too!! Check it out…
PEK, 10/30/2024
Paul Brennan Photos and
Video Screen Grabs
