Explore the Present

This past week I did a lovely improvisation with Craig Wedren. Here is an excerpt….a long, meditative movement that is very much like FRKWYS Vol. 7 (RVNG Intl.).

screamingclaws:

The first track off our collaborative album, Not Yet, But Forever. 

This haunting track is like exploring a deep dungeon that slowly turns into a furnished and opulent mansion. Very much like a sunrise, this track lulls you into worlds imagined, but not seen; felt and yet unexplainable.  

New track I made with Natalie Chami and Steffi Neuhuber over the Internet.

My Great Grandmother (Francis) was a fixture in my life. Our family, all 15 of us, lived within 20 minutes (or less) of each other. Including the extended members and the number reaches to over 20. I had a lot of family interactions growing up and with the familial hierarchy being rather traditional, Great Grandma was at the top. The pinacle of what we all could achieve.
Weekends would be spent at her home in one of the many Floridian communities for seniors. Hers had a man-made lake where I would yell to hear the echo and play in her sparsly-decorated lanai. She would read Charlotte’s Web to me. I would eat Werther’s. These are my last memories of her before she was moved to the nursing home. She had the beginning stages of dementia and could no longer care for herself. I don’t remember a great deal of struggle on her part, but I do remember my estranged, lesbian Great Aunt (whom I had never her a mention of in the decade+ I had been on the Earth) coming out of the wood work.
The next 12 or so years until her death at age 98 was interesting and sad, but at the same time fascinating. The idea that your knowledge, your sense of self and knowledge of reality could be taken away was contradictory to everything I had been raised on. Stay true to yourself; trust you intuition; use your head; all of these self-empowering mantras tuned to nothing but platitudes.
It was about this time that I got serious about improvisation and music. I had played since I was 6, but as I was coming of age and witnessing this

My Great Grandmother (Francis) was a fixture in my life. Our family, all 15 of us, lived within 20 minutes (or less) of each other. Including the extended members and the number reaches to over 20. I had a lot of family interactions growing up and with the familial hierarchy being rather traditional, Great Grandma was at the top. The pinacle of what we all could achieve.
Weekends would be spent at her home in one of the many Floridian communities for seniors. Hers had a man-made lake where I would yell to hear the echo and play in her sparsly-decorated lanai. She would read Charlotte’s Web to me. I would eat Werther’s. These are my last memories of her before she was moved to the nursing home. She had the beginning stages of dementia and could no longer care for herself. I don’t remember a great deal of struggle on her part, but I do remember my estranged, lesbian Great Aunt (whom I had never her a mention of in the decade+ I had been on the Earth) coming out of the wood work.
The next 12 or so years until her death at age 98 was interesting and sad, but at the same time fascinating. The idea that your knowledge, your sense of self and knowledge of reality could be taken away was contradictory to everything I had been raised on. Stay true to yourself; trust you intuition; use your head; all of these self-empowering mantras tuned to nothing but platitudes.
It was about this time that I got serious about improvisation and music. I had played since I was 6, but as I was coming of age and witnessing this

My Great Grandmother (Francis) was a fixture in my life. Our family, all 15 of us, lived within 20 minutes (or less) of each other. Including the extended members and the number reaches to over 20. I had a lot of family interactions growing up and with the familial hierarchy being rather traditional, Great Grandma was at the top. The pinnacle of what we all could achieve.
Weekends would be spent at her home in one of the many Floridian communities for seniors. Hers had a man-made lake where I would yell to hear the echo and play in her sparsely-decorated lanai. She would read Charlotte’s Web to me. I would eat Werther’s. These are my last memories of her before she was moved to the nursing home. She had the beginning stages of dementia and could no longer care for herself. I don’t remember a great deal of struggle on her part, but I do remember my estranged, lesbian Great Aunt (whom I had never her a mention of in the decade+ I had been on the Earth) coming out of the wood work.
The next 12 or so years until her death at age 98 was interesting and sad, but at the same time fascinating. The idea that your knowledge, your sense of self and knowledge of reality could be taken away was contradictory to everything I had been raised on. Stay true to yourself; trust you intuition; use your head; all of these self-empowering mantras tuned to nothing but platitudes.
It was about this time that I got serious about improvisation and music. I had played since I was 6, but as I was coming of age and witnessing this

screamingclaws:

This week features greyghost. Celebrating his latest cassette release, greyghost’s Memoirs of Dementia is a tranquil and haunting exploration into what is self and memory.

You can purchase the release from the cassette label Constellation Tatsu

Listen to Memoirs of Dementia by GREYGHOST.

screamingclaws:

TAL is a vocalist and synthesist living in Chicago. This is an improvised video of her playing. The gentle evolution will lull you outside of the atmosphere gazing upon the land like a hovering dragonfly. 

This is the latest collaboration for the FrakFolk creative collective out of Beachwood Canyon in Los Angeles. Sarah Zucker on the visuals and myself on the sounds. This is from an upcoming release out on Constellation Tatsu.

The video is called “Nectar of the Eastern Gods”

Some classic l’éternèbre. Good times. 

improvised ambiance recorded in Chicago during the bitter Winter that lasted into June.