Liner Notes by PEK

I formed Turbulence in 2015 as I started to assemble players for the Leap of Faith Orchestra. Turbulence, the extended horn section for the Orchestra (along with guests on other instruments), also records and performs as an independent unit. As if this writing in 2025, we have recorded over 50 albums on Evil Clown with greatly varied ensembles.  All the smaller Evil Clown bands are really more about a general approach, rather than a specific set of musicians.  A session gets credited to Turbulence when it is mostly horn players and the only musician on all of them is me. The sessions range from an early duet with Steve Norton and me (Vortex Generation Mechanisms) to Turbulence Orchestra and Sub-Units with as many as 25 performers and four albums by the side project Turbulence Doom Choir which feature myself, multiple tubas, percussion, electronics, and signal processing and many other configurations.  

Many of the Turbulence sessions at Evil Clown Headquarters over the last few years have been smallish Turbulence Orchestra sets.  An Evil Clown Ensemble gets the “Orchestra” modifier at the end of the band name when at least 8 musicians are performing.  ECH can fit 10 or so performers depending on how much space their setups add up to.  We have a lot or horn players in the roster, so when I send out a broad invite for a Turbulence Livestream, we get a large group a lot of the time.  Turbulence Orchestra sets have generally had a rhythm section – bass and drums – and have leaned a bit towards jazz – like a 3-horn quintet with an extra-large horn front line – Many of them with kind of chaotic Sun Ra kinda vibe…  Some of the smaller Turbulence sets have been just horn players without drums and bass, which I think of as having a chamber vibe. 

Density Fluctuations is the largest Turbulence ensemble in a while to have the chamber format without rhythm section – large enough to earn the Orchestra suffix.  The group is also balanced on reeds and brass with 4 woodwind players and 4 brass players.  Most of this band have been to many Evil Clown Livestream sessions and are very comfortable with our working methods and the auxiliary percussion and electronic instruments that are permanently set up in the studio space.  When everyone in the ensemble has that comfort level and doubles the available Evil Clown Arsenal of instruments as well as their instrument specialties we get full implementation of the broad palette concept.  Everyone makes frequent instrument changes, and the sonority undergoes frequent transformation as the instrumentation of the unit changes over the duration of the work.

Anyway, I like this set, and I bet you will too…

PEK – 6/16/2025