I’ve played with Nick Lesley and Jonathan Piper both together and separately, but missed their duo’s premiere at the Brown Building last month. Apparently neither had played with Stevie Richards before, but that didn’t appear to be any obstacle.
Each of these players approaches his instrument as a blank canvas from which any number of branching paths open themselves for rhizomatic exploration. Nick began the set with mallets before switching to drumsticks, bells and finger cymbals, eventually locking into a totally fucked groove with Piper, who swapped his tuba mouthpiece for one of his bizarre modified (bassoon?) reeds. Meanwhile, Stevie alternated traditional techniques with modulated feedback, Aram Shelton-style, and dense hardware synth soundscapes. As Hannah’s coworker Kat summed it up: “When he started playing with the wires I was like, ‘what!’”
(As an aside, the amount of “civilians” seeing their first ever improvised music gig at this show was really beautiful to see. Coworkers and even customers from my day job came out to see what was happening, and the turnout was surprisingly high for a weird noise show inside a former bakery on a Thursday.
Before the show, Joe Leo Cantrell told me about a three-day festival he organized in Napa which only three people attended. I pointed to Hannah, Kat, Russell and Stephen, all of whom had arrived early.
“Look,” I said. “We’re almost outnumbered!”)
Immediately after playing, Stevie had to abscond across the border for the next show of his tour in Mexico City, which meant Piper also had to leave to escort him to the Otay crossing. Nightmare! They’ll play again at the (twin) Tower Bar on 9/11. (Piper: “Never forget!”)
Alongside Piper’s Codex Confiteor, Sean Francis Conway and Andrew Bracken’s no know (sound band) might be my favorite group in San Diego, a standing only further cemented by this particular set, in which Sean rotated between harmonium, accordion, hurdy-gurdy and percussion while Bracken assaulted his bass drum with chains, wicker baskets, and plastic bottles filled with coins. The two groups play together next month in what is sure to be one for the books as far as dark ceremonial weird shit goes. Hail!
After no know, Joe Leo Cantrell delivered a set of hardware-based electronics, incorporating everything from filtered noise over hard-hitting kicks to ambient melodica improvisations and trip-hop beats. I hadn’t met Joe before, but I was elated to see his rig included a circuit bent Speak & Spell (God bless you, Reed Ghazala) and a Digitech RP300, a pedal I haven’t seen since a certain other Joe was recording the final Mortal Bicycle albums.
As if returning from a long absence to solo performance wasn’t a challenge enough in its own right, this show also marked my first time performing publicly on solo cello. I’ve played the instrument for years, but always behind the protective shield of recording where multiple takes could cover mistakes and spotty intonation. I’ve been unable to shake the feeling my music has become overly guitar-reliant in the last few years, so swapping instruments for a solo set felt like a natural corrective.
Debuting that night were extracts of a new song-cycle in the works titled The Plains after Murnane and variously inspired by Faulkner, McCarthy, Scott Walker and the city of Hemet. Russell said “it sounded like the score to a nature documentary became sentient and could smell your fear.” If all goes well the official recorded version should see release in the next year.
Piper had warned me beforehand that the small room at Best Practice “is super bouncy” and “ambient stuff turns into a wash reaaaaal quick.” The threat of feedback has historically never been an issue for me but given the delicate nature of the new material I will admit to feeling some trepidation. I lost an earplug immediately before my set; when I told Hannah later that I had attempted to preserve the dynamics of the pieces she gleefully informed me at least one person dove for the communal earplug jar as soon as I began playing. Success? Debatable.
Early in the evening Lucas asked if I’d play sax for a birthday show he’ll be throwing later this month; hypothetically, that’s next on the calendar…
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