The Squid's Ear Magazine


Ewen, Sandy / Damon Smith / Weasel Walter : ST (ugEXPLODE)

Four unorthodox improvisations that evade idiomatic playing through "wantonly abstract" and unusual approaches to their instruments, keeping their listeners guessing where their playing might take them, from frequent collaborators Sandy Ewen on guitar, Damon Smith on bass, and Weasel Walter on drums & percussion, recording in the studio in Brooklyn, 2019.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Sandy Ewen-guitar

Damon Smith-bass

Weasel Walter-drums, percussion


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




UPC: 195448334630

Label: ugEXPLODE
Catalog ID: ug79
Squidco Product Code: 29737

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2020
Country: USA
Packaging: Digipack
Recorded at Seizures Palace, in Brooklyn, New York, on June 7th, 2019, by Jason LaFarge.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"A new studio release from this trio of sonic deconstructivists. Wantonly abstract and stretching the limits of their instruments conceptually and technically, this long-running guitar/double bass/percussion returns with another manifesto of improvised musical surrealism.

The modus operandi is different than the signature rapidly shifting pointillisticandom style of their 2012 debut in the sense that the music here tends to be more horizontal then before, with the trio developing longer lines and narratives. The momentum and detail is high."-ugEXPLODE



This album has been reviewed on our magazine:

The Squid
The Squid's Ear!

Artist Biographies

"Sandy Ewen was born in Toronto, Canada in 1985, Sandy Ewen received a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Texas at Austin in 2008. Since then she has resided in Houston, TX where she pursues musical and visual projects and her architecture license. Ewen has released several albums, including a duo with guitarist Tom Carter, a trio with bassist Damon Smith & drummer Weasel Walter, and a rock album with Austin's Weird Weeds. Ewen's visual work is closely tied to her work in sound; she uses both mediums to explore texture, composition and materials.

Ewen's microcollages, enlarged through projection and digital printing, are an exploration of material and technique. Using a unique process pioneered by the artist, natural materials and polymers are torn, liquefied, scorched, melted, cut, and fused. When enlarged, the microscopic nuances of these manipulations are manifested in exquisite detail. Ewen has presented prints of her work at 14 Pews (2012), Spacetaker/Fresh Arts (2012), Khon's (2013) & Galeria Regina (2014).

As an improviser in both art and music, Ewen sees herself as guiding materials and space rather than executing a preconceived composition. "I like to explore mediums and materials and tease out their essence," says Ewen. "Working with slide projections has focused my eye on the subtitles of natural processes of decay and transformation. Through my work, I am asking questions of the materials rather than dictating answers." "

-Sandy Ewen Website (http://www.sandyewen.com/about/)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Damon Smith studied double bass with Lisle Ellis and has had lessons with Bertram Turezky, Joëlle Leandré, John Lindberg, Mark Dresser and others. Damon's explorations into the sonic palette of the double bass have resulted in a personal, flexible improvisational language based in the American jazz avant-garde movement and European non-idiomatic free improvisation. Visual art, film and dance heavily influence his music, as evidenced by his CAMH performance of Ben Patterson's Variations for Double Bass, collaborations with director Werner Herzog on soundtracks for Grizzly Man and Encounters at the End of the World, and an early performance with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

Damon has collaborated with a wide range of musicians, including: Cecil Taylor, Marshall Allen (of Sun Ra's Arkestra), Henry Kaiser, Roscoe Mitchell, Michael Pisaro, Wadada Leo Smith, Marco Eneidi, Wolfgang Fuchs, Peter Brötzmann and Peter Kowald. After many years in the San Francisco Bay Area, and five great years in Houston, Texas working regularly with Alvin Fielder, Sandy Ewen, David Dove & Chris Cogburn, Damon will move to the Boston area in the fall of 2016. Damon has run Balance Point Acoustics record label since 2001, releasing music focusing on transatlantic collaborations between US and European musicians."

-Balance Point Acoustic Website (https://www.balancepointacoustics.com/damon-smith/)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Weasel Walter (real name Walter Wyzowski) is a composer and instrumentalist who founded the band The Flying Luttenbachers in Chicago in 1991 with a current member of Cellular Chaos and Behold...The Arctopus. Over the years, The Flying Luttenbachers included noted Dylan Posa, and Michael Colligan, while creating a body of music drawing equally from no wave, death metal, gamelan, noise music, hardcore punk and modern classical. Walter moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2003, where he formed the latest of many Luttenbachers lineups, remaining on percussion with the addition of bassist Mike Green (Burmese), and virtuoso guitarist Ed Rodriguez (ex-Colossamite, Gorge Trio). Singular guitar phenomenon Mick Barr (Krallice, Octis, Orthrelm) joined the group in 2005. The Flying Luttenbachers ceased to operate in late 2007. On November 25, 2009, Weasel Walter announced that he was moving to New York City to join the band Behold... The Arctopus on drums and will be writing "new, more extreme material from scratch." He also formed Cellular Chaos with Marc Edwards (drummer), Admiral Grey and Ceci Moss."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weasel_Walter)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. White Distempered Room 14:49

2. Unconditional Reality 21:34

3. Fish Wrapped In Gauze 18:53

4. Purgatory of the Senses 10:34

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
Trio Recordings
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv

Search for other titles on the label:
ugEXPLODE.


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