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 May of 2018, we have had about 20 albums on Evil Clown with greatly varied ensembles. The only musician on all of them is myself. The sessions range from an early duet with Steve Norton and Myself (Vortex Generation Mechanisms) to a 5 horn band with bass and two percussionists (Encryption Schemes) to four albums by the side project Turbulence Doom Choir which feature myself, multiple tubas, percussion, electronics and signal processing.

Zack Bartolomei and Dan O’Brien joined the Evil Clown roster a while back and have played with Leap of Faith, Leap of Faith Orchestra, and other projects. They go way back with each other. I love it when I find a group of improvisers who have long history with each other who are eager to participate since the whole ensemble benefits from the prior experience of the previously established sub-units.

Transient Boundaries is the fourth set by this trio version of Turbulence (5th if you count the one we did last fall where I forgot to press record) and is very tight due to theses sessions and the number of other Evil Clown sessions with all three of us performing as part of a larger ensemble. In July 2017, we recorded the first of these trio sets, Agitation, and then in March 2018 we recorded the second, Incompressible Flow and finally in May we recorded Buoyancy. This is a highly effective trio version of Turbulence that we plan do again in the future.

The other performances have all been studio sessions at Evil Clown Headquarters, where we have the advantage of the availability of the full Evil Clown Arsenal of instruments and equipment.  The rig is always a bit different, since there is more gear than there is space, but the most of the larger percussion instruments are all included.  This time was a public performance at Outpost 186 and we had a sparser population of percussion including one gong, and smaller wood and metal instruments.  One of the things I like about this Turbulence trio is that Zack and Dan are themselves also multi-instrumentalists and are very comfortable using the auxiliary instruments.  Consequently, the form of the improvisation naturally evolves through a series of very different sonorities.  This is a general tenant of the Evil Clown Aesthetic, well achieved here with a relatively small ensemble.