Check it out on ArtifactRecordings !
As it has for so many other musicians, the pandemic provided me with the opportunity to listen back in time through my catalog of recorded performances to rediscover some music that never previously made it into circulation. I’m very happy to announce the release of In the Pocket, an album of interactive polyrhythmic music composed and performed between 1997 and 2010.
The phrase “in the pocket” describes the feeling of being in the right relationship to the beat in music that has a strong and lively pulse. The tracks on this CD are recordings of me and a few friends playing along with computer generated polyrhythms. The computer is nothing if not a hyper-precision clock, so generating complex beats is much easier for it than playing in unpredictable ways that also keep “good” time — to make that happen I programmed it to analyze what we play in relationship to its beats, and to make live variations in response. Those of you who know my “Talking Drum” CD from the1990s might recognize some of the grooves that here become a foil for improvisation on various instruments including my gazamba electric prepared piano, an acoustic piano in 13-limit just intonation, a berimbau monochord, and more.
Check it out on the ArtifactRecordings site, where the whole album can be downloaded for $7 or purchased on CD for $12 in a beautiful package designed by Johanna Poethig from her Hubcap Mandalas paintings. And while you are there browse through other recent releases from the Artifact catalog including Synergy Signals featuring improvisations by the quartet of Jon Raskin, sax and voice; Chris Brown, piano, Jason Hoopes, electric bass, and the great Lithuanian drummer Vladimir Tarasov, and Aliquots, with Tim Perkis, electronics and Carter Scholz, piano.