On Leap of Faith: "Alien yet familiar, bizarre yet completely fascinating. Expanding, contracting, erupting, settling down, always as one force..." - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
2
PEK - alto & contrabass clarinets, sopranino, alto, tenor & bass saxophones, piccolo oboe, contrabassoon, alto flute, melodica, [d]ronin, electric chimes, chime rod boxes, telstar, spring boxes, electric kalimba, cymballum, gongs, brontosaurus & tank bells, cow bells, almgocken, chimes, gongs, plate gong, chimes, xylophone, orchestral chimes, glockenspiel, Tibetan bowls, crotales, castanets
Mike Caglianone - soprano, alto & tenor saxophones, Englephone, gongs, wood blocks, log drums, Tibetan bells, xylophone, glockenspiel, daiko, rachet, cow bells, brontosaurus bell
Zack Bartolomei - soprano & alto saxophones, wood blocks, temple blocks, log drums, castanets, Englephone, cow bells, almgocken, chimes, gongs, plate gong, [d] ronin, electric chimes, chime rod boxes, telstar, spring boxes, crank siren, xylophone, glockenspiel
Bob Moores - trumpet & pocket trumpet, [d] ronin, electric chimes, chime rod boxes, telstar, spring boxes, Englephone, gongs, plate gong, cow bells, crotales, almgocken, chimes, gongs, plate gong, wood blocks, temple blocks, log drums, brontosaurus bell, cymbells, talking drum
Eric Dahlman - trumpet & pocket trumpet, overtone voice, wood whistle, bottle of water, gongs, chimes, trine, cymbal, cymbells, wood blocks, temple blocks, bells
Composer and multi-instrumentalist, PEK, set his sights on something bigger with the Leap of Faith Orchestra's Supernovae. The previous incarnation of the LOFO expands from the fifteen musicians on The Expanding Universe (Evil Clown, 2016) to twenty-one players on this new outing. Another noteworthy element of this project is PEK's use of Frame Notation where the score is seen in written descriptions and straight-forward symbols within Duration Bars. The system provides the musicians with immediate understanding of their own parts and the higher-level arrangement of the music.
Supernovae consists of a single track composition running just under eighty minutes. The digital download includes a bonus track. Though the extended piece is not broken out by formal movements, there are clear delineations within the score. PEK's ensemble—not surprisingly—includes enough non-traditional and weird instruments to compete with a Dr. Seuss orchestra. Though they are not playing in a vacuum, that group of instruments dominates the first ten minutes before strings and reeds make themselves more clearly heard. Forty-five minutes in, we have the first case of prolonged melody, darker and more subdued than the overall tone of the first half.
Supernovae gives way to free improvisation overlaying the melody. Eventually the piece introduces a brilliant percussion passage before it reintroduces the non-traditional music elements, but here in a more refined manner. As with all of PEK's compositions, there is—behind the scenes—a painstaking amount of organization that is not always evident in the listening. That is part of the beauty of this album; the non-traditional approach to instrumentation and the lack of adherence to Western structure continue to make the various iterations of Leap of Faith consistently interesting. And interesting look at the written score can be viewed at http://www.evilclown.rocks/lofo-supernovae-score.html.
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 2021, we have recorded 30 albums on Evil Clown with greatly varied ensembles. All the smaller Evil Clown bands are really more about a general approach, rather than a specific set of musicians. A session gets credited to Turbulence when it is mostly horn players and 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.
I opened Evil Clown Headquarters a few weeks ago in mid-May to players that have been fully vaccinated. Horn players can’t really wear a mask, so there was no way to ECH studio sessions inside during the stupid CV. There has been some shifting in the roster with some players no longer available and some players returning after a period of absence. This is the third ensemble session, and the first Turbulence set since we resumed studio LIVESTREAMING performances. The band here is all Evil Clown regulars who have each played in several of the Evil Clown ensembles. Michael, Eric, and Bob were active right up to the break. Zack was active in 2017 and 2018 and returns now for more. Bob has been a regular for 6 years, Eric for 3 years and Michael started up with us less than a year before the break. This is the first time that Michael and Zack have played together, but everyone else has played with everyone else.
We are always adding new players to the roster, so it is not unusual for there to be some seasoned Evil Clown performers on a set along with brand new or relatively new players. This set has all seasoned players – everyone brought at least two horns, and all are familiar with the auxiliary percussion equipment in the studio. In some ways this is a prototypical ensemble with everyone playing many instruments. I encourage multi-instrumentalism since it helps create dramatic transformations across sonority. There have been quite a few upgrades to the Evil Clown Arsenal over the pandemic. On this session, everyone makes great use of the new Tim Kaiser instruments which are electro-acoustic percussion and the reorganized and supplemented brontosaurus bell stand. By adding additional mounts to the heavy Gibraltar gong stand, I was able to get rid of several other stands. I even added a few new excellent specialized cow bells and some almgocken…
I expected this performance to be excellent and I was not disappointed. Check it out, I bet you agree!!!
PEK – 5/31/2021
Audio CD Evil Clown 9274
Turbulence - Information Paradox
LIVESTREAMED to YouTube
Evil Clown Headquarters, Waltham MA
30 May 2021
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Information Paradox - 1:10:15
Turbulence - Information Paradox
Evil Clown Headquarters, Waltham MA
30 May 2021
Turbulence, the extended horn section for the Boston-based free improvising ensemble Leap of Faith Orchestra, here with leader PEK, plus Michael Caglianone, Zack Bartolomei, Bob Moores, and Eric Dahlman, all playing instruments from their arsenal of percussive instruments and devices, including recently added electroacoustic devices expanding the band's sound.
Liner Notes Excerpt
“… We are always adding new players to the roster, so it is not unusual for there to be some seasoned Evil Clown performers on a set along with brand new or relatively new players. This set has all seasoned players – everyone brought at least two horns, and all are familiar with the auxiliary percussion equipment in the studio. In some ways this is a prototypical ensemble with everyone playing many instruments. I encourage multi-instrumentalism since it helps create dramatic transformations across sonority. There have been quite a few upgrades to the Evil Clown Arsenal over the pandemic. On this session, everyone makes great use of the new Tim Kaiser instruments which are electro-acoustic percussion and the reorganized and supplemented brontosaurus bell stand... ”
- PEK
On Metal Chaos Ensemble: "... using unique strategies to yield densely active and eerily surreal music, an incredible excursion through experimental improvisation." - Squidco website staff
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