Tuesday, January 28, 2014

miscellaneous







Next Wednesday I will play with my new band, the Soft Power Ensemble of Vienna, in Fluc, Vienna, the same venue where we performed with Yuri Landman. The band comprises 9 guitarists, plus drums and bass, and is not far from reaching sonic heavens. 
Didn't have a real band for 10 years, as I was busy with dance, multimedia performances and electronic music - it feels really good! I will post some music here soon.









These are the handwound pickups Jaime Campbell at The Creamery made for the Epsilon. We chose blade humbuckers with alnico 5 magnets for versatility and warmth. 
For some stupid marketing reasons, not-overwound pickups are called 'vintage' - that is in electric guitar business if you don't play metal, you play old school rock… the Epsilon will prove that wrong!


Monday, January 20, 2014

more sketches




music of the week: well, the music that thrills me lately is the one I play in my new music projects, the most advanced being the Soft Power Ensemble of Vienna, a many guitars improvisation orchestra that will play its first concert on January 29th in Fluc, Vienna. We gathered a fine bunch of guitarists - supported by a rhythm section - and figured how to combine sonic mayhem and musicality. Or a least we try...

The other project - with electronics, voices and guitars - still requires a lot of work so I will talk about it later, but we're on it!  

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

more sketches





music of the month: it's been long since my last post so I heard a lot of music, and it's not easy to chose. What actually stood up are bits of Astor Piazzolla songs I heard here and there - at the music school where I take my kid every week, practiced by a piano/violin duo in the studio next door, or in a metro station performed by a busking Russian band with accordion, hammered dulcimer and contrabass balalaika… I love Piazzolla, at some part of my life I've been listening exclusively to his music - I guess at the time I was myself playing the most hardcore noise music…

Otherwise even though I couldn't draw so much, I did many things - I started a new band called the Soft Power Ensemble of Vienna with many guitarists, and we play our first concert at the end of January.  I joined the Neu New York/Vienna Institute of Improvised Music sessions - that's how they call the monday evening improv jams at the Celeste jazz club -, and had the opportunity to play with very fine musicians there - more free jazz than noise improv but it's good to explore new areas, that's what I need right now. I learned how to use the Volcas I acquired a few weeks ago and I start to know what I can and want to do with them - though I still have to test them in a studio at high volume. 

And of course the Epsilon project goes on - though it's not in my hands anymore for the moment - and further projects are in discussion, we should build the Alpha next, and we are considering creating a company…  

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