The Squid's Ear Magazine


Feichtmair, Tanja / Damon Smith / Gino Robair: The Shrilling of Frogs (Balance Point Acoustics)

Discovered in a box of recordings in BPA's possession, this recording from 2003 restores a stimulating freely improvised studio encounter between then-West Coast frequent collaborators, double bassist Damon Smith and percussionist Gino Robair, in a trio with Austrian alto saxophonist & bass clarinetist Tanja Feichtmair, mastered to pristine quality by Weasel Walter.
 

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Personnel:



Tanja Feichtmair-alto saxophone, bass clarinet

Damon Smith-double bass

Gino Robair-percussion

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Label: Balance Point Acoustics
Catalog ID: BPA -11
Squidco Product Code: 30259

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2021
Country: USA
Packaging: Cardboard sleeve
Recorded at 1510 Studios in Oakland, California, on August 11th, 2003, by Scott R. Looney.
Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

Artist Biographies

"Tanja Feichtmair - Austria

Saxophone, Bassclarinet, Composition

born 1972 in Wels

awards:

2001-Talentförderungsprämie der Stadt Linz

2003-Kunstförderungsstipendium des Landes Oberösterreich

Member of following music ensembles:

MÜJAZZ

PUDNIK

LULL

TRIO NOW!

Trio: FEICHTMAIR-HARNIK-POLASCHEGG

Quartett: Tanja Feichtmair/Hugh Livingston/Scott Looney/Damon Smith ***

Quartett: Tanja Feichtmair/Frank Gratkowksi/Peter Herbert/Christian Lillinger

Tanja Feichtmair has played / is playing with John Russell, Damon Smith, Gino Robair, Scott Looney, Hugh Livingston, Roger Turner, Peter Herbert, Irene Kepl, Mark Holub, Lukas Lauermann, Christian Lillinger, Alfred Reiter, Hannes Löschel, SPIRIT, Francesco Cusa, Weasel Walter, Gerold Mayer, Hannes Wührleitner, Michael Kreuzer,Fredi Pröll, Uli Winter, Josef Novotny, Frank Gratkowski, Edwin Stöbich, Ali Belhiba, Ben Greenberg, Kjell Nordesen, Nina Polaschegg, Elisabeth Harnik,Mia Zabelka,Steve Adams, Jorrit Deijkstra,,... and other wonderful musicians!

ABOUT MY COMPOSTIONS - ABOUT THE WAY I DO IMPROVISE:

... I am practising in movement-structures. I am interested in the space, in which the moved takes its place, its room. Tone-walking-tours, the shifting of the substanc(es), to switch the substance in the imaginary room. -Like Samuel Beckett does it with word-pictures and rhythmizes in this way the ideas. Like Francis Bacon, who moves the substances of his objects, his items, and de-forms them, opens its borders to the space around .... (Tanja Feichtmair, Omnixus 2009)

... The movement of the melody and the movement of the "substance of the melody"....So that the tones and their substances begin to dance and loosen themself from the origins, detaching to go far, far away.... (Tanja Feichtmair, Omnixus 2009)"

-MySpace (https://myspace.com/tanjafeichtmairmusic/bio)
11/12/2025

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/)
11/12/2025

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

"Gino Robair has created music for dance, theater, radio, television, silent film, and gamelan orchestra, and his works have been performed throughout North America, Europe, and Japan. He was composer in residence with the California Shakespeare Festival for five seasons and served as music director for the CBS animated series The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat. His commercial work includes themes for the MTV and Comedy Central cable networks.

Robair is also one of the "25 innovative percussionists" included in the book Percussion Profiles (SoundWorld, 2001). He has recorded with Tom Waits, Anthony Braxton, Terry Riley, Lou Harrison, John Butcher, Derek Bailey, Peter Kowald, Otomo Yoshihide, the ROVA Saxophone Quartet, and Eugene Chadbourne, among many others. In addition, Robair has performed with John Zorn, Nina Hagen, Fred Frith, Eddie Prevost, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, Myra Melford, Wadada Leo Smith, and the Club Foot Orchestra.

Robair is a founding member of the Splatter Trio and the heavy-metal band, Pink Mountain. In addition, he runs Rastascan Records, a label devoted to creative music.

As a writer about music technology, Robair has contributed to Mix, Remix, Guitar Player, and Electronic Musician (EM) magazine, where he was an editor for 10 years. He is the author of two books, including The Ultimate Personal Recording Studio (Thompson; 2006)."

-Gino Robair Website (http://www.ginorobair.com/bio.html)
11/12/2025

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


Track Listing:
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Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
Trio Recordings
West Coast/Pacific US Jazz
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The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

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