Simulacrum
Shadows
Excerpt From Liner Notes by PEK
“…I’m always excited to play with people who are strong flexible players from very different backgrounds. We pursue a broad palate approach and musicians from other disciplines bring a vocabulary and sensibility which greatly adds to the depth of the sonority set. That’s been true of musicians with Classical backgrounds, and with Jazz backgrounds and it is certainly true with Robin’s strong electronic skill set…”
Shadows:
Simulacrum
Evil Clown Headquarters, Waltham MA –
1) Shadows – 1:09:51
2) Chiaroscuro – 5:54
PEK – clarinet & contralto clarinets, alto & tenor saxophones, bass tromboon, musette, guanzi, alto flute, 5 hole wood flute, accordion, melodica, game call through soma pipe, theremin with moogerfooger, ARP odyssey, ms-20, moog subsequent, novation peak, Linnstrument controllers, tank cello, almglocken, xylophone, balafon, Tibetan bowls & bells, brontosaurus & tank bells, Englephone, danmo, orchestral chimes & anvils, wood blocks, log drums, cow bells, gongs, plate gong, [d]ronin, 17 string bass
Michael Caglianone – soprano, alto & tenor saxophones, clarinet, flute, hulusi, melodica, spring & chime rod boxes, array mbira, log drums, wood blocks, temple blocks, chimes, brontosaurus & tank bells, flex-a-tone, orchestral castanets, almglocken
Bob Moores – electric guitar with efx, electric trumpet with double efx chain, Helm, Moog Model D and MainStage Synth emulators on MacBook Pro, kracklebox, drone generator with efx, gong
Robin Amos – Studiologic Sledge hybrid synth, Roland VP-03 vocoder, Waldorf Blofeld synth, Behringer 1202 mixer
Eric Woods – analog synthesis, moog subsequent, novation peak, nord stage 3
Joel Simches – live to 2-track recording, real-time signal processing
Full Video
Video Shorties
Liner Notes by PEK
Simulacrum is an offshoot of Metal Chaos Ensemble that was conceived just prior to the Virus shutting things down. The ensemble features 3 core members PEK on all my stuff, Eric Woods on analog synth, and Bob Moores on space trumpet, guitar, and electronics. The basic idea of this band is to increase the amount of electronics, to keep the ancillary percussion and loose the drum set, along with PEK and Bob holding down the horn parts.
I’ve been looking for more electronics geniuses for the last few years. We’ve got Eric Woods, who specializes in analog synthesis plus Bob Moores who doubles trumpet, guitar & electronics plus me who also doubles. We have Bonnie Kane who always puts electronic processing on her horn playing. We have Bill T Miller who is great, but is busy and has only come twice. I’ve courted a few others but never managed to get them to participate.
A principal means of adding musicians to the roster is via recommendations from current Evil Clown players. Several people have made multiple fruitful recommendations. Michael Knoblach (percussion) has brought in multiple players including Jimmy Zhao who in turn brought a bunch of other Chinese musicians. So, I was excited when we scheduled an Expanse trio set for me, Michael and Michael’s friend electronics wizard Robin Amos. Robin is an excellent player who was a founding member of the seminal 90s era Boston band Cul de Sac with which he toured in Europe a lot. He knows and has played with many seminal European electronic musicians. He also played keyboards in a Black Metal band for years.
I’m always excited to play with people who are strong flexible players from very different backgrounds. We pursue a broad palate approach and musicians from other disciplines bring a vocabulary and sensibility which greatly adds to the depth of the sonority set. That’s been true of musicians with Classical backgrounds, and with Jazz backgrounds and it is certainly true with Robin’s strong electronic skill set.
This set, Shadows, has the Simulacrum core unit of Eric, Bob and me along with Robin and one of the strongest sax players in the Roster, Micheal Caglianone. I expected this strong ensemble to have a strong debut, and I was not disappointed…
I like this set and I bet you will too.
PEK Out – 10/25/2023
Video Screen Grabs
