A 4-part suite from oboe/english hornist Kyle Bruckman based on Thomas Pynchon's early novels, exhilarating jazz performed with Jason Stein (bass clarinet), Darren Johnston (trumpet), Jeb Bishop (trombone), Tim Daisy (drums), Jen Paulson (viola) and Anton Hatwich (bass).
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Sample The Album:
Kyle Bruckmann-oboe, English horn
Anton Hatwich-bass
Jason Stein-bass clarinet
Tim Daisy-drums
Jeb Bishop-trombone
Darren Johnston-trumpet
Jen Clare Paulson-viola
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Label: Singlespeed Music
Catalog ID: SSM-014
Squidco Product Code: 19458
Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2014
Country: USA
Packaging: CD in a cardboard letter pressed sleeve with inserting tab.
Recorded at Guerrilla Recordings, in Oakland, California, on July 30th and 31st, 2013, by Myles Boisen.
"...Awaits Silent Tristero's Empire is an epic four-part suite based on the fictitious songs found scattered throughout celebrated author Thomas Pynchon's early novels V., The Crying of Lot 49, and Gravity's Rainbow. Oboist Kyle Bruckmann conceived this post-modern "musical phantasmagoria" as the first long-form composition written for Wrack, his experimental chamber jazz ensemble, employing an expanded version of the long-standing unit to realize the project's pan-stylistic scope.
A former Chicago resident, Bruckmann relocated to San Francisco after the turn of the Millennium, though the majority of Wrack's personnel is still based in the Windy City. Bruckmann recruited fellow Bay Area trumpeter Darren Johnston and former Wrack member trombonist Jeb Bishop to join the core lineup of bass clarinetist Jason Stein, violist Jen Clare Paulson, bassist Anton Hatwich, and percussionist Tim Daisy for this expansive recording.
The suite's varied themes were composed by Bruckmann after studying the absurd, often genre-specific song lyrics found in the aforementioned novels. To effectuate this irreverently eclectic world-view, Bruckmann juxtaposes myriad old-fashioned vernacular forms with contrapuntal motifs and free-form improvisations, shifting between approaches and styles with mercurial glee, subtly implying Pynchon's referential literary gamesmanship with a slyly sophisticated sense of humor.
The album opens with a brusque "Overture" before the ensemble swings decisively into "Part One (V.)," led by Johnston's madcap Raymond Scott-inspired brass salvos and Daisy's roiling trap set variations. The marathon first part ultimately culminates in a swaggering blues vamp dominated by Bishop's garrulous trombone, with a slew of stylistic detours in-between, including an aleatoric diversion for reeds; a lush ballad interlude; and a jubilant polka featuring spirited call-and-response interplay.
The remainder of the opus pitches thither and yon. "Part Two (The Crying of Lot 49)" begins introspectively, emulating the book's paranoid conspiracies in neo-classical mode; Hatwich and Paulson's sinewy ruminations slowly morph into a sinuous groove for the leader's skirling oboe, eventually climaxing with a rollicking feature for Stein's vociferous bass clarinet and Daisy's exhilarating coda. The final section, "Part Three (Gravity's Rainbow)," vacillates wildly between the sacred and profane, encapsulating everything from nostalgic carnival tunes to bristling collective improvisations, concluding in an opulent, hymn-like chorale.
A devotee of Charles Ives and the maximalist aesthetics of the early Downtown scene, Bruckmann has long demonstrated a penchant for stylistic diversity, but never with the sort of accessible dynamism presented here. Fortified by his bandmates' inspired virtuosity, ...Awaits Silent Tristero's Empire is a post-modern masterpiece that stands as one of Bruckmann's most ambitious and fully-realized efforts to date."-Troy Collins, All About Jazz
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Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for Kyle Bruckmann "Composer/performer Kyle Bruckmann's work extends from a Western classical foundation into genre-bending gray areas encompassing free jazz, electronic music and post-punk rock. A busy and varied performance schedule and appearances on more than 60 recordings have led to his recognition as "an excellent composer, striking the right balance between form and freedom" (Signal to Noise), "a modern day renaissance musician" (Dusted) and "a seasoned improviser with impressive extended technique and peculiar artistic flair" (All Music Guide). Shortly after moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2003, he joined forces with acclaimed new music collective sfSound and with Quinteto Latino (a woodwind quintet specializing in Latin American composers). He is now also a member of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Eco Ensemble, and Splinter Reeds. He has worked with the San Francisco Symphony and most of the area's regional orchestras remaining active in an international community of improvisers and sound artists. Current local improvising working groups include Addleds, Shudder, and mchtnchts. From 1996 until his westward relocation, he was a fixture in Chicago's experimental music underground, with frequent collaborators Jason Ajemian, Jim Baker, Jeb Bishop, Olivia Block, Guillermo Gregorio, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Robbie Hunsinger, Bob Marsh, Weasel Walter, and Michael Zerang. Long-term affiliations include the electro-acoustic duo EKG, the "rock" monstrosity Lozenge, and the Creative Music quintet Wrack (recipient of a 2012 Chamber Music America New Jazz Works award). Bruckmann earned undergraduate degrees in music and psychology at Rice University in Houston, studying oboe with Robert Atherholt, serving as music director of campus radio station KTRU, and achieving academic distinction as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He completed his Masters degree in 1996 at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he studied oboe performance with Harry Sargous and contemporary improvisation with Ed Sarath." ^ Hide Bio for Kyle Bruckmann • Show Bio for Anton Hatwich "Bassist, composer, and improviser Anton Hatwich has lived in Chicago since 2003. He was born and raised in Rockford, IL, growing up in a musical family. Anton moved to Iowa City, IA in 1995 and lived there until 2002, earning a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Iowa. After graduation Hatwich taught for two years as Visiting Artist in Music at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, IA. At the UI he studied bass with Dr. Diana Gannett, jazz and improvisation with John Rapson, and also gained valuable experience playing with the school's renown Center for New Music, under the direction of David Gompper. Outside of class, Anton was active in the local music scene. Of particular lasting importance was his work with clarinettist, saxophonist, and composer Robert Paredes, with whom Anton took first steps in the world of free improvisation. In late 2002 Hatwich started spending large amounts of time amongst Chicago's improvised music community, hanging out all night with his new friends at concerts and bars, and crashing on his brother's couch. One thing led to another, and by spring of 2003 he was playing so much in Chicago that it made sense to move there. Since that time he has played in endlessly varied groups of (mostly) improvising musicians, with some combinations sticking around longer than others. A partial list of his collaborators includes Frank Rosaly, Keefe Jackson, Aram Shelton, Nick Mazzarella, Russ Johnson, Tim Daisy, Jason Stein, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Josh Berman, and Paul Giallorenzo. With the bands that lasted, Anton has recorded a number of critically acclaimed albums and toured nationally and internationally. He has appeared at a handful of the major jazz festivals, including the Chicago Jazz Festival, the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Ring Ring Festival in Belgrade, the Umbrella Festival, and the Ulrichsberger Kaleidophon Festival in Austria." ^ Hide Bio for Anton Hatwich • Show Bio for Jason Stein "Jason Stein was born in 1976 and is originally from Long Island, New York. Stein is one of the few musicians working today to focus entirely on the bass clarinet as a jazz and improvisational instrument. He studied at Bennington College with Charles Gayle and Milford Graves, and at the University of Michigan with Donald Walden and Ed Sarath. In 2005, Stein relocated to Chicago and has since recorded for such labels as Leo, Delmark, Atavistic, 482 Music and Clean Feed. Stein has performed throughout the US and Europe, including performances in festivals in Lisbon, Cracow, Utrecht, Barcelona, Debreccen and Ljubljana. He has had the opportunity to perform with a number of exciting local and international musicians including: Michael Moore, Jeff Parker, Oscar Noriega, Rudi Mahall, Ken Vandermark, Rob Mazurek, Jeb Bishop, Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten, Urs Leimgruber, Pandelis Karayorgis, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Tony Buck, Eric Boren, Kent Kessler, Tobias Delius, Michael Zerang, Michael Vatcher, Peter Brotzman, and Wilbert DeJoode." ^ Hide Bio for Jason Stein • Show Bio for Tim Daisy "Tim Daisy (percussion) has been an active member of Chicago' s creative music scene since moving there in 1997. He has performed, composed, recorded, and toured with many of the city's celebrated musicians and ensembles, including the Engines, KLANG, the Rempis Percussion Quartet, the Resonance Ensemble, and the Vandermark 5. In addition, Tim maintains an active composing schedule, writing for his own bands (such as Vox Arcana and Group 4-34) as well as contributing music to a number of collaborative projects- including chamber groups, jazz ensembles, dance, and film. He has had the fortunate experience to perform and record with many great improvisers both from around the world, including: Fred Anderson, Jim Baker, Jeb Bishop, Magnus Broo, Xavier Charles, James Falzone, Erik Friedlander, Per-Ake Homlander, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Nate McBride, Joe McPhee, Dave Rempis, Steve Swell, Mikolaj Trzaska, Havard Wiik, Waclaw Zimpel, and Michael Zerang. Besides a regular concert schedule in Chicago, Tim has toured throughout North America and Europe, and has performed at numerous international music festivals." ^ Hide Bio for Tim Daisy • Show Bio for Jeb Bishop "Jeb Bishop was born in Raleigh, North Carolina during the Cuban missile crisis. He began playing the trombone at the age of 10, under the tutelage of Cora Grasser. Other influential teachers during junior high and high school included Jeanne Nelson, Eric Carlson, Richard Fecteau, Greg Cox, and James Cozart. He majored in classical trombone performance at Northwestern University from 1980-82, studying with Frank Crisafulli. Deciding he did not want to pursue a career as an orchestral musician, he returned to Raleigh in 1982 and took up engineering studies at NC State University. Raleigh's developing underground rock scene attracted him, and from 1982-84 he played bass guitar in rock bands in the Raleigh area. At the same time, he developed an interest in philosophy, eventually majoring in the subject, and spent 1984-85 studying philosophy at the Higher Institute of Philosophy of the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. Returing to Raleigh in 1985, he spent the next few years working at menial jobs and playing guitar, bass, cheap keyboards, drums, etc., in rock bands including and/or, the Angels of Epistemology, Egg, and Metal Pitcher. In 1989 he left Raleigh to pursue graduate studies in philosophy, first at the University of Arizona, then at Loyola University of Chicago (where he was awarded the Crown Fellowship in the Humanities). During 1991-92 he returned to Europe, spending the summer of 1991 studying German at the Goethe-Institut Iserlohn (now closed), and then pursuing independent studies in philosophy at the French-language division of the University of Louvain. Returning to Chicago in 1992, he completed his M.A. at Loyola in 1993. By this time he had already begun to make connections with improvising musicians in Chicago, having joined the Flying Luttenbachers as bassist (later adding trombone) in late 1992, and playing guitar occasionally in a quartet with Weasel Walter, Ken Vandermark, and Kevin Drumm. Other bands during this period included the Unheard Music Quartet (with Vandermark, Mike Hagedorn on trombone, and Otto Huber on drums) and the Rev Trio (with Walter and saxophonist Joe Vajarsky). Bishop played electric bass in both these bands. In late 1995, Bishop joined the Vandermark 5 as one of its founding members, and remained with the band through the end of 2004. During this period he also became associated with many other groups, including the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, School Days, Ken Vandermark's Territory Band, and his own Jeb Bishop Trio, and became a very frequent participant in ad hoc and free-improvised concerts in Chicago. Bishop performed in the inaugural concerts of two of the longest-running free-music concert series in Chicago: the Myopic Books weekly concerts (originally at Czar Bar; with Rev Trio) and the Empty Bottle Wednesday night concert series (with a quartet of Terri Kapsalis, Kevin Drumm, and Jim O'Rourke). He curated the monthly Chicago Improvisers Group concerts at the Green Mill from 1999-2002, and co-curated the weekly Eight Million Heroes concert series at Sylvie's in 2005-6. Bishop has made dozens of recordings with many different groups, has toured North America and Europe many times, and maintains a busy performing schedule." ^ Hide Bio for Jeb Bishop • Show Bio for Darren Johnston "Since settling in San Francisco in 1997, Canada-born trumpeter/improviser/composer/songwriter Darren Johnston has collaborated and recorded with an extremely diverse cross-section of artists. His interests rotate around composing instrumental music, writing songs, and performing all styles of jazz, experimental and purely improvised music, as well as traditional music of the Balkans, Greece, and Macedonia. He has performed and/or recorded with luminaries such as ROVA Sax Quartet, Fred Frith, Myra Melford, Ben Goldberg, Matt Wilson, Mark Dresser, Marshall Allen, and many others. As a composer, he has written for jazz and/or non-idiomatic improvising groups, big bands, string quartet, and even a multi-generational choir, with songs based on a collection of immigrant letters. He has written for dance companies such as Amy SeiwertÕs Imagery, Deborah Slater, Axis Dance, Robert MosesÕ Kin, Liss Fain, and others, as well as for dance films." ^ Hide Bio for Darren Johnston • Show Bio for Jen Clare Paulson "Jen Clare Paulson is no ordinary fiddler, she's actually a violist who has always had a wandering musical eye. Originally from Chicagoland, she relocated to Madison to get her doctorate in viola performance with a minor in jazz studies at the University. In addition to performing in regional orchestral and chamber music settings she is also a member of several new music ensembles based in Chicago - most notably Kyle Bruckmann's Wrack, who recently toured Europe and won a generous Chamber Music America grant for future projects. Highlights from JCP's musical pursuits include: studying Japanese koto in college, playing Bach cello suites on tenor banjo, transcribing tenor sax blues solos for viola and playing in string sections behind artists as diverse as Ray Charles, Olivia Newton John and Ricky Skaggs. Jen has taken a few lessons on bluegrass fiddle with Jerry Loughney (Above the Town) and old time fiddle with Jim Becker (Caliphone); but mostly she's listening hard and making it up as she goes. JCP teaches violin and viola at The Madison Music Foundry and works as an apprentice at Spruce Tree Music and Repair, learning to repair and restore new and vintage string instruments." ^ Hide Bio for Jen Clare Paulson
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Track Listing:
1. Mvt 1 2:25
2. Mvt 2 22:59
3. Mvt 3 15:00
4. Mvt 4 17:08
Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
West Coast/Pacific US Jazz
Chicago Jazz & Improvisation
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Singlespeed Music.