On Leap of Faith: "Alien yet familiar, bizarre yet completely fascinating. Expanding, contracting, erupting, settling down, always as one force..." - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
On Metal Chaos Ensemble: "... using unique strategies to yield densely active and eerily surreal music, an incredible excursion through experimental improvisation." - Squidco website staff
Evil Clown
Audio CD Evil Clown 9094
Metal Chaos Ensemble - Alchemy
streaming, downloads and CD mail order
1) Transmutations - 50:26
Evil Clown Headquarters ‐ 2/11/2016
PEK - tenor saxophone, clarinet, contra-alto clarinet, piccolo oboe,
contra-bassoon, whistles, sheng, hulusi, guzheng, yanqin,
theremin, Korg ms20, aquasonic, daxophone, metal,
electronics, voice
Yuri Zbitnov - drums, metal, daiko, balafon, voice
Maura Lynch - soprano, recitation, penny whistle, metal, wood blocks
Kevin Dacey - drums, metal, diako, balafon, wood blocks, guzheng,
yanqin, lyre
Raqib Hassan - reeds, conductor, composition
Guadulesa - improvisational painting
PEK - reeds
Sam Lobel - reeds
Warren Jones - reeds
Glynis Lomon - cello
Gabriel Johnson - trumpet
David Stansbury - trombone
Tor Snyder - guitar
Michael Shea - piano
Dennis Warren - percussion
Yuri Zbitnov - percussion
Bob Moses - percussion
Audio CD Evil Clown 9092
Metal Chaos Ensemble - ...Everything is Permitted...
streaming, downloads and CD mail order
1) ...Everything is Permitted... - 48:28
Evil Clown Headquarters ‐ 1/28/2016
PEK - clarinet, contra-alto clarinet, tenor sax, guanzi, sheng, shenai, daxophone,
whistles, theremin, Korg ms-20, metal, crotales/bells, guzheng, yanqin,
voice, recitation
Kevin Dacey - drums, metal, guzheng, yanqin, daxophone, lyre, whistles,
crotales/bells, gaunzi, balofon, daiko, recitation
Yuri Zbitnov - drums, metal, crotales/bells, daxophone, daiko, voice, recitation
Matt Samolis - gongs, singing bowls, chimes, bowed crotales, Boehm C flute,
hand drum
Tony Savarino - metal, theremin, iphone, daiko, daxophone, wood blocks, voice,
recitation
Here at Evil Clown, we are very excited about the upcoming May 22 performance, Extended Dimensions, at Unity on the River in Amesbury MA. Yuri's pal, Maura Lynch, is the music director at the church and is bringing some great resources to the performance - namely a choir and a Djembe circle... This piece will have several preplanned sections which will be much more jazz than usual and include the choir and Maura's excellent keyboards. The sections in between will be MCE improvisations and the whole piece will be tied together with a frame notation score tied to the digital clock... Among her other skills, Maura is an excellent soprano, so we decided to have a MCE set, Alchemy, featuring Maura's voice in preparation for the arrangement of the Extended Dimensions score.
5) New Raqib Hassan Releases from the Deep Evil Clown Catalog
Turbulence
PEK - clarinets, saxes, double reeds
Steve Norton - clarinets, saxes
Charlie Kohlhase - alto and baritone saxes
Bob Moores - trumpet
Forbes Graham - trumpet
Sara Honeywell - trombone
Bill Lowe - trombone, tuba
David Harris - trombone, tuba
String Theory
PEK - clarinets, saxes, double reeds, aquasonic
Mimi Rabson - violin
Clara Kebabian - violin, viola
Glynis Lomon - cello, aquasonic, voice
Jane Wang - cello
Kit Demos - bass
Anthony Leva – bass
Download only Evil Clown 9090
Metal Chaos Ensemble ‐ Nöktvrnål Kløwn
1) Nöktvrnål Kløwn - 36:45
Evil Clown Headquarters, Waltham MA, very late on 1/8/2016
PEK - contra-alto clarinet, bass tromboon, sheng, aquasonic, theremin,
detuned guzheng, detuned yanqin, wood, metal, electronics, voice
Yuri Zbitnov - metal, daiko, detuned guzheng, detuned yanqin, voice
We took a short break from performance during January and February due to the difficulty of our large mobilizations during the slippery winter months, although we did have a number of recording sets at Evil Clown Headquarters... The first Leap of Faith Orchestra show is set for June 4 at the Nave Gallery in Somerville. We have 6 shows scheduled in March, April and May preparing various sub-units and cross sections of the orchestra for this big event... There is also a String Theory set at Mobius later in June...
So, these shows are on the book as of this writing. Some of the ensembles are not completely set yet and at least one show may move to another date, so stay tuned... See the posters on the Webpage for the full details... http://www.giantevilclown.com/performances---posters.html
3/5/2016 Nave Music Series, Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church, Somerville MA
Dimensions - A Night of Pure Improvisation
String Theory - 8:00 pm - Parameter Spaces
PEK - clarinets, saxes, double reeds, metal, voice
Glynis Lomon - cello, aquasonic, voice
Mimi Rabson - violin, electronics
Clara Kebabian - violin, viola, electronics
Jane Wang - cello
Tony Leva - bass
Kit Demos - bass
Kirsten Lamb - bass
Leap of Faith - 8:45 pm - Configuration Spaces
PEK - clarinets, saxes, double reeds, metal, voice
Glynis Lomon - cello, aquasonic, voice
Yuri Zbitnov - drums, metal, voice
Andria Nicodemou - vibes
Leap of Faith Orchestra - 9:30 pm - Abstract Spaces
Everybody
3/22/2016 Lilypad, Cambridge MA
Probabilistic Analogues - A Night of Pure Improvisation
trios/quartets:
Sub Unit 1 - 8:00 pm: Applications to Reliability Theory
Sub Unit 2 - 8:30 pm: Latent Semantic Indexing
Sub Unit 3 - 9:00 pm: Hyperpyramidal Generalizations
everyone:
Leap of Faith Orchestra - 9:30 pm: Mean Value Theorems
PEK - clarinets, saxophones, double reeds
Glynis Lomon - cello, aquasonic, voice
Steve Norton - clarinets, saxophones
Yuri Zbitnov - drums, metal
Andria Nicodemou - vibes
Bob Moores - trumpet
Sara Honeywell - trombone
Tony Leva - bass
Kevin Dacey - drums, metal
4/9/2016 Nave Music Series, Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church, Somerville MA
Algorithms - A Night of Pure Improvisation
New Language Collaborative - 8:00 pm - Halting Problem
Glynis Lomon - cello, aquasonic, voice
Eric Zinman - piano
Yedidyah Syd Smart - drums
Metal Chaos Ensemble - 8:30 pm - Minimum Spanning Trees
PEK - clarinets, saxes, double reeds, metal, voice
Yuri Zbitnov - drums, metal, voice
Andria Nicodemou - vibes
Kevin Dacey - metal
Leap of Faith - 9:00 pm - Turing Machines
PEK - clarinets, saxes, double reeds, metal, voice
Glynis Lomon - cello, aquasonic, voice
Steve Norton - clarinets, saxes
Yuri Zbitnov - drums, metal, voice
Andria Nicodemou - vibes
Leap of Faith Orchestra - 9:30 pm - Entscheidungsproblem
Everybody
4/12/2016 Lilypad, Cambridge MA
Quadratic Reciprocities - A Night of Pure Improvisation
trios/quartets:
Sub Unit 1 - 8:00 pm: Latice Points
Sub Unit 2 - 8:30 pm: Ring of Polynomials
Sub Unit 3 - 9:00 pm: Permutation Signatures
everyone:
Leap of Faith Orchestra - 9:30 pm: Reduction Morphisms
PEK - clarinets, saxophones, double reeds
Glynis Lomon - cello, aquasonic, voice
Steve Norton - clarinets, saxophones
Yuri Zbitnov - drums, metal
Andria Nicodemou - vibes
Mimi Rabson - violin
Forbes Graham - trumpet
Charlie Kohlhase - saxophones
Kirsten Lamb - bass
5/7/2016 Nave Music Series, Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church, Somerville MA
Viscosities - A Night of Pure Improvisation
Turbulence - 8:00 pm - Sheer Stresses
PEK - clarinets, saxes, double reeds, metal, voice
Steve Norton - clarinets, saxes
Charlie Kohlhase - saxes
Keith Hedger - trumpet
Bob Moores - trumpet
David Harris - trombone, tuba
Bill Lowe - trombone, tuba
Leap of Faith - 8:45 pm - Tensile Stresses
PEK - clarinets, saxes, double reeds, metal, voice
Glynis Lomon - cello, aquasonic, voice
Steve Norton - clarinets, saxes
Yuri Zbitnov - drums, metal, voice
Andria Nicodemou - vibes
Leap of Faith Orchestra - 9:30 pm - Viscous Stress Tensors
Everybody
5/22/2016 Unity on the River, Amesbury MA
Metal Chaos Ensemble with Guests at Unity on the River
Extended Dimensions
Metal Chaos Ensemble - Extended Dimensions - 12:00 am
Maura Lynch - soprano, keyboards, direction
Unity Church Choir
Unity Church Djembe circle
PEK - clarinets, saxes, double reeds, metal
Yuri Zbitnov - drums, metal
Andria Nicodemou - vibes, metal
Kevin Dacey - metal
Matt Samolis - flute, metal
Tamora Gooding - metal
Catherine Cappozi - guitar
6/4/2016 Nave Music Series, Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church, Somerville MA
Leap of Faith Orchestra - The Expanding Universe
8:00 Sub Unit 1 - Dark Energies
8:30 Sub Unit 2 - Phantom Energies
9:00 Leap of Faith Orchestra - The Expanding Universe
PEK - clarinets, saxophones, double reeds, metal +
Glynis Lomon - cello, aquasonic, voice
Steve Norton - clarinets and saxophones
Andria Nicodemou - vibes, metal
Yuri Zbitnov - drums, metal
Mimi Rabson - violin
Clara Kebabian - violin, viola
Bob Moores - trumpet
Forbes Graham - trumpet
Charlie Kohlhase - saxes
Sara Honeywell - trombone
Dave Harris - trombone, tuba
Josiah Reibstein - tuba
Jane Wang - cello
Tony Leva - bass
Kirsten Lamb - bass
Kit Demos - bass
Eric Zinman - piano
Yedidyah Syd Smart - drums
Kevin Dacey - drums, metal
Matt Samolis - flute, bowed metal
6/24/2016 Mobius, Cambridge, MA
String Theory - Condensed Phases of Matter
PEK - clarinets, saxophones, double reeds
Mimi Rabson - violin
Clara Kebabian - violin, viola
Glynis Lomon - cello, aquasonic, voice
Jane Wang - cello
Tony Leva - bass
Evil Clown Newsletter 2/14/2016
3) New Releases
Evil Clown comes out the gate hard in 2016 with five very different sets recorded at Evil Clown Headquarters from Metal Chaos Ensemble and String Theory. The first one is a chill set Metal Chaos Ensemble duet from right after I returned from my yearly Christmas vacation with my family in California... After movie night, very late, Yuri and I did this relatively quiet set (so as not to disturb my neighbors) which features the new Concert Sheng and two new Chinese string instruments - the guzheng and yanqin. The set, at 37 minutes, is a bit short for a full release, so for now, it's out as a download only EP and due to its spontaneous nature and lack of planning there is no video...
The next Metal Chaos Ensemble set, ...Everything is Permitted..., is one of the more aggressive MCE sets to date. It also is the first one to feature text. Tony Savarino, the amazing guitarist, makes his second appearance with MCE here (although he opted not to use guitar), and we thought his girlfriend Felicia (who is an excellent singer) might come along, so I collected together a bunch of poetry and other text for her to use. When she didn't make it, we decided to do the recitation ourselves: Texts include excerpts from Cities of the Red Night (William S. Burroughs), 1040 Instructions from the 2015 Income Tax Code and Finnegan’s Wake (James Joyce).
The next set, Absolute and Apparent Horizons, was String Theory. This is the first String Theory set with the new string (and wood) instruments to be shared among the ensemble like the percussion equipment is used in Metal Chaos Ensemble: daxophone, guzheng and yinqan. We also used metal percussion, so there is more of the stream of ensemble reconfigurations which has been more common to Leap of Faith and Metal Chaos Ensemble until now...
The next Metal Chaos Ensemble set, Intermetallic Compounds, is a trio with PEK, Yuri Zbitnov and Andria Nicodemou... We were very excited about this small unit session... This set features the first use of the daxophone, a very unique instrument where you bow thin wooden tongues with a bass bow - it creates very harmonic / overtone rich drones - like bowing a wood cello...
1) Upcoming Performances
Audio CD Evil Clown 9093
String Theory - Absolute and Apparent Horizons
streaming, downloads and CD mail order
Absolute and Apparent Horizons - 55:13
Evil Clown Headquarters, Waltham MA
2/3/2016
PEK - clarinet, alto clarinet, contra-alto clarinet, tenor sax, bass
tromboon, daxophone, guanzi, theremin, Korg ms20, aquasonic,
guzheng, yinqan, metal, wood, electronics
Glynis Lomon - cello, aquasonic, voice, daxophone
Clara Kebabian - violin, guzheng, yanqin, metal
Jane Wang - cello, guzheng, yanqin
Tony Leva - bass, guzheng, yanqin, metal
CD-R Evil Clown 9091
Metal Chaos Ensemble ‐ Intermetallic Compounds
streaming, downloads and CD orders
1) Intermetallic Compounds - 47:05
Evil Clown Headquarters, Waltham MA, 1/21/2016
PEK - tenor sax, alto sax, bass tromboon, contra-alto clarinet,
gaunzi, sheng, metal, crotales/bells, daxophone, aquasonic, theremin,
korg ms-20, daiko, guzheng, yanqin, whistles
Andria Nicodemou - vibes, crotales/bells, metal, aquasonic, daxophone,
guzheng, yanqin
Yuri Zbitnov - metal, drums, Daiko, Indian Festival Drum, daxophone,
vibes, aquasonic, crotales/bells, yanqin, voice
Ensembles have been fleshed out for each of the extended sections…
New Language Collaborative
Glynis Lomon – cello, aquasonic, voice
Eric Zinman – piano
Yedidyah Syd Smart - drums
Metal Chaos Ensemble
PEK - clarinets, saxes, double reeds, metal, voice
Yuri Zbitnov - drums, metal, voice
Andria Nicodemou - vibes
Matt Samolis - bowed cymbals, flute, metal
Kevin Dacey – metal
2) Leap of Faith Orchestra long term plans
Sparkles Out...
2/14/2016
During the 90s, Glynis and I played quite a bit with the great saxophonist Raqib Hassan. I met Yuri while doing shows with Raqib. Raqib was an amazing composer and his ensembles were much more jazz than most of the work that I have done or that is out on Evil Clown.
Raqib studied with Bill Thompson, Archie Shepp and Roland Wiggins and performed with Rashied Ali among many others.
Rashied has this to say about Raqib: "I first met Raqib in the Summer of 1979 through bass violinist Hakim Jami, manager of the Ladies Fort, a club, now defunct, originally founded by jazz vocalist Joe Lee Wilson. We performed that year together in Tompkins Square in Greenwich Village with Mr. Jami’s band. At Raqib’s invitation we reunited in 1990 to perform downstairs at the Middle East Restaurant in Cambridge alongside additional locally based musicians. Raqib is a welcome addition to the ever growing pool of composer/musicians on the planet. I commend his commitment to the spiritual and musical development."
Archie has this to say about Raqib: "I have known Mr. Hassan for more than a decade. He studied music performance and theory with me. He is knowledgeable about the styles of all the players from Parker to Albert Ayler. He possesses an approach - a musical philosophy of his own which is both unique and original. I wish him well in his endeavors."
Raqib, who unfortunately passed several years ago, was a mentor to me in developing my mature style after arriving in Boston to study with George Garzone at Berklee. I was honored to perform with Raqib a number of times both in his large band Ensemble Mogra and his smaller group Cosmocentric Trio and to have him play with me for my major work, Expansions, performed in 1994. Raqib was widely respected as a composer and performer in the Boston area, but never received the wide recognition he deserved. Raqib's music is much more to the Jazz end of the improvisation world than the bulk of the Evil Clown catalog. After his passing, I spoke with his brother and got permission to put out to the world recordings that I have of Raqib's music - hopefully this will help to reveal the contributions of this master musician to a larger audience.
In 1993 Raqib formed a large ensemble for 3 nights of performances at the old Mobius in Boston. The concert length work was an arrangement of several of Raqib's works strung together into a long suite. Since there are long improvisational sections and the interpretations of the composed material differed over the three nights, I decided to release all three of the performances...
Audio CD Evil Clown 5011
Raqib Hassan & The Interdimensional Science Research Orchestra
- Path of the Mystic - Volume 1 - Discovery / Illumination
streaming, downloads and CD mail order
Mobius, Boston MA - 2/4/1993
1) Discovery / Illumination - 1:18:54
mp3 CD Evil Clown 5012
Raqib Hassan & The Interdimensional Science Research Orchestra
- Path of the Mystic - Volume 2 - Transformation / Ritual
streaming, downloads and CD mail order
Mobius, Boston MA - 2/5/1993
1) Transformation / Ritual - 1:30:44
Audio CD Evil Clown 5013
Raqib Hassan & The Interdimensional Science Research Orchestra
- Path of the Mystic - Volume 3 - Jubilation / Light
streaming, downloads and CD mail order
Mobius, Boston MA - 2/6/1993
1) Jubilation / Light
The full LOFO is an expanded Leap of Faith with the core ensemble of PEK, Glynis Lomon, Steve Norton and Yuri Zbitnov together with an expanded percussion section, an expanded string section and an expanded wind section plus Sydney Smart (drums) and Eric Zinman (piano) from Glynis’ other band New Language Collaborative. The percussion section is Metal Chaos Ensemble, the horn section is Turbulence, and the string section is String Theory. When any two or more of these units play together, it's Leap of Faith Orchestra....
Starting in June, we’ll do our full first full orchestra performance with several more in the fall to be scheduled later. The venue for the Full LOF Orchestra performances is the Nave Series at the Clarendon Presbyterian Church in Somerville... a lovely room with very good acoustics where the Hyperbolic Spirals performance occurred. For the full orchestra, I have created the first score, The Expanding Universe, utilizing frame notation to control who is playing at any given point in the performance with time code displayed to the ensemble. There are also some written directions in the score defining pre-planned sonorities. I used these techniques in Expansions, performed at Mobius in 1994, although that composition included far more notated melodic material than I will use for LOFO.
You can check out the score for The Expanded Universe here:
The first round of preliminary preparation performances are complete. Leap of Faith has done duel concerts with New Language Collaborative, Metal Chaos Ensemble, Turbulence and String Theory. The results of those performances have been documented on the Evil Clown Webpage and on CD / download file issued via Bandcamp. Round Two of the preparation performances for each of these combinations have been scheduled (see section 1 above) along with two more shows which will feature some trio and quartet improvisations by sub-units of the orchestra.
Here’s where to find progress to date… There are also recent albums recorded at Evil Clown Headquarters for Metal Chaos Ensemble and String Theory...
Abstract Structures - Leap of Faith with New Language Collaborative
Evil Clown Webpage: http://www.giantevilclown.com/lof-abstract-structures-1.html
Bandcamp: https://leapoffaith1.bandcamp.com/album/abstract-structures-volume-1-implementations
https://leapoffaith1.bandcamp.com/album/abstract-structures-volume-2-instantiations
Hyperbolic Spirals - Leap of Faith with Metal Chaos Ensemble
Evil Clown Webpage: http://www.giantevilclown.com/lof-hyperbolic-spirals.html
Bandcamp: https://leapoffaith1.bandcamp.com/album/hyperbolic-spirals-volume-1
https://leapoffaith1.bandcamp.com/album/hyperbolic-spirals-volume-2
Flow Regimes - Leap of Faith with Turbulence
Evil Clown Webpage: http://www.giantevilclown.com/lof-flow-regimes.html
There are a whole bunch of great photos on the web page from Rob Miller. Thanks Rob!
Bandcamp: https://leapoffaith1.bandcamp.com/album/flow-regimes-volume-1
https://leapoffaith1.bandcamp.com/album/flow-regimes-volume-2
Supersymmetries – Leap of Faith with String Theory
Evil Clown Webpage: http://www.giantevilclown.com/lof-supersymmetries.html
Bandcamp: https://leapoffaith1.bandcamp.com/album/supersymmetries-volume-1
https://leapoffaith1.bandcamp.com/album/supersymmetries-volume-2
If your reading this from the webpage and you would like to receive this newsletter via email - send email to me at Sparkles@GiantEvilClown,com
Things have continued to be very busy recently at Evil Clown Headquarters…
Main links to web content:
Evil Clown webpage http://www.giantevilclown.com/
PEK YouTube channel 1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCprJy4kMIRs51FIFQF12dw/videos
PEK YouTube channel 2 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClfRlTeeHnSxRsJTkFakiJw/videos
Kevin Reilly YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/user/Kjreilly/videos
Bandcamp, for Streaming, Downloads and CD Orders https://evilclown.bandcamp.com/
In this newsletter…
1) Upcoming Performances
2) Leap of Faith Orchestra long term plans / Successful fourth performance – Supersymmetries released
3) New Releases
4) New Raqib Hassan release from the Deep Evil Clown Catalog
Plus, I wrote a detailed review of the Evil Clown activity during 2015… Wow, what a year, charging full speed out the gate! During 2015, Evil Clown produced 33 newly recorded CD length releases, 1 EP and one CD single. Check out the 2015 review newsletter here:
http://www.giantevilclown.com/nl-2015-12-26-1.html