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Modular: Sonic Explorations (2011)
I love experimentation in music… especially when you take a preconceived construct, great players/improvisors, and it results in some beautiful music. This project from Matt Chamberlain*, Viktor Krauss, and Dan Phelps on Oceanographic Records entitled MODULAR: Sonic Explorations does just that. It’s not noise-rock or grating avant-garde… it’s quite the sonic delight. There’s an audio sample (see the youtube embedded song below) that makes it vie for one of my fave instrumental albums this year.
About the Modular Project
The Modular Project is the collaboration of a select group of sonic technicians working together to discover what the spontaneous and organic manipulation of sound can yield. Inspired by the world around them, they set out to discover what it might sound like when continents shift, clouds form, and roots push through soil.
Capturing and manipulating the hum of the natural world, their results show that there are as many answers as there are questions, that in seeming chaos there is order, and within that order there are new undiscovered truths waiting to be revealed.
The Components
1. Main Control Unit
2. Tape Modulation Unit
3. Contact Sensor Unit
4. Subaquatic Sensor Unit
5. Subterranean Sensor Unit
6. Atmospheric Sensor Unit
Elements Modulated
1. Subterranean Readings
2. Organic Matter Readings
3. Tectonic Readings
4. Atmospheric Readings
5. Celestial Readings
6. Subaquatic Readings
It’s available now as a digital download version (320kbps mp3/FLAC/AAC/etc) or as a limited-edition, double-gatefold 12″ vinyl version (what I opted for). The project also features guests Eyvind Kang (yay!), Martin Woodlee, Paul Gold, Chris Henning, and Christopher Pierce.
“Everest“
For more info on the project, GO HERE.
For purchase info, GO HERE.
*– Matt Chamberlain is a diverse drummer… I’ve seen him play with Tori Amos & Regina Spektor, and he’s also put out some great music with Skerik (the jazz-meets-jam band Critters Buggin), Bill Frisell (Floratone), Secret Chiefs 3, Wild Colonials, Peter Gabriel, The Wallflowers, Fiona Apple, Sam Phillips, Macy Gray, Melissa Etheridge, Erin McKeown, Stebmo, and a ton of other artists…
~Dan – np: Tristeza – Mixed Signals
Digital Noise Academy (update)
Ken Andrews posted a new blog with an update about Digital Noise Academy, his online collaboration with Charlotte Martin, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Sharky Laguana, Tommy Walter, Fernando Sanchez, and Jordon Zadorozny. His blog is annoyingly white text in a jpeg format… so, head on over to his blog site to read it (I ain’t about to type it up).
Digital Noise Academy (May 11, 2011)
There’s a new streaming song (“Thursday Night Party“) – the second and last free tune from the project. Join the discussion about how to monetize the project; so it sees the light of day without being thieved. The songs “Thursday Night Party” and “Melting Inside” can also be downloaded for free via links at http://www.digitalnoiseacademy.com/.
~Dan – np: Precious Death – Southpaw 
Shara Worden on Prefuse73’s new album
I should change the name of this blog to something to do with Shara Worden (aka My Brightest Diamond). 
She took some time off to have a baby, but now it seems like she’s popping up all over the indie-rock landscape.
This time, she lends her golden voice to the Prefuse 73 track “The Only Hand To Hold” from their just released album, The Only She Chapters. The song is available now as a FREE mp3 download over on their website.
The album (mp3/wav/flac/CD/LP) is available to purchase at BLEEP.
~Dan – np: Porcupine Tree – In Absentia
Kevin Moore collaborates on songs with In Progress
More news from Kevin Moore (Chroma Key, OSI, ex-Dream Theater) brought to us from The Mooreatorium…
Experimental rockers In Progress announced that Moore has collaborated with the band on three songs slated to appear on its forthcoming EP, North Athlantic Echoes. The collaboration materialized last year when In Progress’s keyboardist Jake Rosenberg – who is among the fans credited in Moore’s Shine album – reached out to Moore through his Kickstarter webpage and proposed the idea. Moore’s contributions to the three songs include drum programming, backup vocals and additional production.
“We are still doing final tracking on the EP, but are looking to have it completely wrapped, mixed, and mastered by mid-July,” band member John Dillon told The Mooreatorium. “We intend to do a small physical run of copies once we have material/art finalized.”
The band’s debut album, titled Signal Failure, was released in December and features Mark Zonder on drums. Zonder is the former drummer for Fates Warning and also worked with Moore on Chroma Key’s 1998 debut album, Dead Air for Radios.
To hear an unmastered version of In Progress’s upcoming single, “Chasing Ghosts,” featuring Moore, click below.
In Progress’s “Chasing Ghosts”:
http://soundcloud.com/inprogressmusic/chasing-ghosts
Stay tuned at: http://www.facebook.com/inprogressofficial
~Dan – np: Piano Magic – Seasonally Affective: 1996-2000
Sufjan Stevens & Gaspar Claus collaborations
Some new collaborative pieces from Sufjan Stevens and cellist/experimental music Gaspar Claus have shown up on an official.fm artist site.
Sufjan meets Gaspar
Click the song names for streaming mp3s of the electronic meets cello of “Romance Cave,” the noisy experimentation of “Invalid Skin,” and the rain & electronic monstrosity that is “Alien Vs Predator.”
Clint Mansell hints at show with Mike Patton
This to this FNM blog and this interview in The Quietus, here’s a news snippet about a potential collaboration 
between movie score master Clint Mansell [Pop Will Eat Itself, Nine Inch Nails, Black Swan] and Mike Patton [Faith No More, Mr Bungle, Mondo Cane, etc]…
Do you do much work for other outlets like computer games? Mike Patton, for example, has most recently voiced The Darkness.
CM: I’m doing a video game this year actually. Mass Effect 3. Funnily enough, talking about Mike, we’ve exchanged emails about the possibility of doing a show featuring the Quartet and people they’ve collaborated with. It’d be a Kronos show, with different rooms for other people to do their thing, then bringing it all together. It’s pretty cool-sounding.
I’m definitely interested in different outlets – that’s one of the reasons I get involved in short films. It’s not so much that I can experiment as it is to be in a situation where nobody’s looking over your shoulder. Short films are usually made by young people and they’ve got ideas I can bounce off. They can take me in a different direction.
If any news develops, I’ll post about it…
~Dan – np: OutKast – Idlewild
Storm Corrosion (Steven Wilson & Mikael Akerfeldt)
Dec 2011 update: There’s an official FB page (other one now unlinked), and the album is expected on Roadrunner in April 2012. GO here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Storm-Corrosion/187831801312141
March 2012 update: The pre-order for the album is HERE.
For a while now, Porcupine Tree‘s Steven Wilson and Opeth‘s Mikael Akerfeldt have been talking about an official collaboration (outside of SW’s involvement in Opeth production, etc). Well, it now has a name…
STORM CORROSION
They have “churned out” about only 15 minutes of music so far, but the goal for the group is to do “something really, really special and really different” – whatever that means for these prog-metal gents.
Per Steven Wilson’s FB page, Storm Corrosion won’t occur until at least after September 2011 (when SW’s 2nd solo album comes out). Opeth also has a new one due in the Fall of 2011; so we shouldn’t expect any Storm Corrosion until 2012, most likely. Its naming is at least a good sign of things being “in the works.”
Mike Portnoy is also involved, but I think to a more limited extent compared to SW & MA… though, with Portnoy’s being ousted from Dream Theater and done on the road with Avenged Sevenfold – perhaps he’s more freed up.
For more news, I’d pay attention to these webpages:
http://swhq.co.uk/
http://opeth.com/
~Dan – np: Erik Friedlander plays Masada Book Two: Book of Angels, Volume 8 (Volac)
Faith No More & Sparks (live last night)
A lot of bands put out special one-off collaborations. Not many actually perform those one-off songs in a live setting.
Well, Faith No More‘s collaboration with Sparks called “This Town Ain’t Big Enough For the Both of Us” is one of my favorite b-sides of theirs. They did it last night at the Los Angeles Paladium show (Dec 1, 2010)… with Sparks…
Officially, surprisingly MORE jealous of those who went – as this seems legendary. FYI, the recorded version was released as a UK single and on Sparks’ Plagiarism album.
~Dan – np: Faith No More vs. Sparks – This Town Ain’t Big Enough
Infamous Love Songs :: Over the Rhine & Cincinnati Ballet
I’m not in Cincinnati anymore… but part of my heart is there, especially with folksy-pop duo Over the Rhine. They are collaborating with the Cincinnati Ballet. It is a ways off, but tickets on-sale now for next April’s shows (2011)…
INFAMOUS LOVE SONGS with OVER THE RHINE
April 29-30, 2011 | Aronoff Center for the Arts
Choreography: Devon Carney, Missy Lay Zimmer, Andrew Hubbard, Donald Byrd Music: Over the Rhine
[3 WORLD PREMIERES] Artistic Director & CEO Victoria Morgan offers an audacious and adventurous series. Linford Detweiler and Karen Bergquist’s internationally beloved band Over the Rhine performs live for three performances.
Three choreographers bring artistic movement to this exciting live performance. Devon Carney, Associate Artistic Director, blends classical vocabulary and contemporary energy. Exhale Dance Tribe’s co-founders and artistic directors Missy Lay Zimmer and Andrew Hubbard offer their daring lyrical and narrative style. Donald Byrd, artistic director of Spectrum Dance Theater in Seattle and former artistic director of Donald Byrd/The Group brings his internationally acclaimed contemporary vision.
[Click here to read more about Over the Rhine and the choreographers]
PERFORMANCES:
8:00 pm : April 29 & 30, 2011 | 2:00 pm : April 30, 2011
Ticket Info: http://www.cballet.org/performances/infamouslovesongs
Jones & Fripp’s Crimson Tool
So… King Crimson and Tool have toured together in the past. As posted on Blabbermouth, guitarists Adam Jones (Tool) and Robert Fripp (KC) are… well, read it here…
TOOL guitarist Adam Jones met with KING CRIMSON founder and guitar player Robert Fripp last month in London to discuss reactivating a collaborative album the pair began working on several years ago. Fripp revealed the news about the meeting in a post at his online diary, writing, “A fabbo lunch with Adam covering a wide range of common interests & experiencing, among which: the possibilities of continuing our album, begun in Los Angeles some 5-6 years ago; and go out speaking together.”
Drool.
~Dan – np: George Hrab – Interrobang?!
Radiohead & the Beatles (official collaboration)
meet 
Per NME Magazine… Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood (of Radiohead) and Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr (of the Beatles) are teaming up for a special -EP- to support cancer research in the UK. They’re re-recording Radiohead’s “Just” (with Paul on vocals), the Beatles “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” (with Thom on vocals), and a newly collaborative piece with a working title “Mâche.”
Read the full story here over at NME.
~Dan
when björk meets yorke (redux)
The last time Björk and Thom Yorke (of Radiohead) got together was “I’ve Seen it All” on the 2000 EP/soundtrack Selmasongs (for the movie Dancer in the Dark). That was a pretty good pop affair (for a pretty dreadful movie, IMO).
This latest Björk and Thom Yorke collaboration produced a fun, cluster of sound that fits better within the experiment that is… Björk and Thom Yorke’s current musical psyche. One may say that their output doesn’t put any sense of “boration” in “collaboration.” But that may be considered a stretch; so let’s never say I tried to pull that off as a legit pun. Anyway, their new song is called “Náttúra.” It’s available on iTunes and other online outlets…
Náttúra is dedicated to the Náttúra Campaign in Iceland. You can find it at nattura.info and at nattura.grapewire.net. From Björk’s webpage…
The single was composed specifically to encourage active support for the Nattura campaign, which aims at collating and providing sustainable and eco-friendly options suitable for Iceland, and generating alternative ways to utilize it’s natural resources. People will be able to submit their ideas on the website for sustainable green workplaces for Icelanders. According to Björk, “It is now more important than ever before to emphasize a respect for nature…I believe that profits, technological advances and working together with nature can all go hand in hand. None need to be sacrificed at the expense of the others.”
The new single is written and produced by Björk and features Radiohead’s Thom Yorke on backing vocals, Brian Chippendale (Lighting Bolt) on drums, Matthew Herbert on synth/bass, and Mark Bell on additional electronic beats. Opening with a huge elemental swirl, “Nattura” then fires up an incendiary and fierce tribal rhythm. The song sees Björk firmly on the march in celebration of her homeland, in hopes that Icelanders harness its energy in a sustainable way.
Skerik’s McTuff bring his groovy, jazz combo to Eugene tomorrow at Sam Bond’s Garage… yay!
~Dan – np: Noctaluca –
Glen Phillips updates
Toad the Wet Sprocket frontman Glen Phillips has new projects (now with names) with albums on the horizon:
The Plover record (project with Neilson Hubbard and Garrison Star) is done, and will be available in the next few months.
Also – The other band, the one without a name, now has a name. We are the Works Progress Administration. Go to WPAmusic.com for a taste.
He’s going on tour with Jonatha Brooke in late Oct / early Nov. Sean and Sara Watkins from Nickel Creek in late Nov. And Jonatha Brooke again in early December. I’ll be seeing him in early Nov in Portland (Aladdin Theater, 11/6), as I’ll be up there for work. His tour dates are not in an easily copy-n-pasteable format; so GO HERE for any of his tourdates.
~Dan – np: Piano Magic – Part Monster
-Eyvind Kang
-Frank Zappa
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