The Squid's Ear Magazine


Novak, Rebecca / Danny Kamins / Sandy Ewen / Damon Smith / Jerome Bryerton: Groundwater Recharge (Balance Point Acoustics)

Explorative improvisation, from mysteriously quiet moments to scrabbling and determined conversation, configured as trios and quintets by Rebecca Novak on piano, cornet, radio & glassware, Danny Kamins on baritone saxophone, Sandy Ewen on guitar, Damon Smith on double bass and Jerome Bryerton on percussion, all bringing unique moments through extended techniques, objects & radio.
 

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Personnel:



Rebecca Novak-piano, cornet, radio, glassware

Danny Kamins-baritone saxophone

Sandy Ewen-guitar

Damon Smith-double bass

Jerome Bryerton-percussion


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Label: Balance Point Acoustics
Catalog ID: bpaltd15015
Squidco Product Code: 31184

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2021
Country: USA
Packaging: Cardboard Sleeve Sealed
Recorded at SugarHill Recording Studios, in Houston, Texas, in May 2016, by Jonathan Chan and Alauna Rubin.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

Explorative improvisation, from mysteriously quiet moments to scrabbling and determined conversation, configured as trios and quintets by Rebecca Novak on piano, cornet, radio & glassware, Danny Kamins on baritone saxophone, Sandy Ewen on guitar, Damon Smith on double bass and Jerome Bryerton on percussion, all bringing unique moments through extended techniques, objects & radio.



"Groundwater recharge is an important water management practice in California. ... Recharge can also help prevent impacts from groundwater pumping, such as dry wells or sinking lands, while providing wetland habitat for birds, reducing flood risk, and storing water for droughts."-PPIC


Artist Biographies

"As an improviser, Rebecca Novak explores sound with a constellation of instruments and objects including cornet, Autoharp, melodica, glass vases, shortwave radio, and piano. She has written text-based scores for performances that combine live projected writing, improvised music, and visual material.

She has performed and presented her work at No Idea Festival (Austin, Texas), Museo Rufino Tamayo (Mexico City), Atlantic Center for the Arts, ghost (Santa Fe, New Mexico), DiverseWorks Houston, Daughter of Lady Friends Experimental Music Salon, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Project Row Houses, and MECA Houston. She has recorded and performed as part of Annotation trio with Gabriel Martinez (percussion) and poet-guitarist Ronnie Yates; Garden medium with Sandy Ewen (guitar) and Carol Sandin Cooley (vocals and electronics); and in the duo Pilot with electronic/tape musician Steve Jansen.

This collaborative performance with Ruth Langston, Gabriel Martinez, Rachel Orosco, and Ronnie Yates combines the scores, ideas, writings and improvised sound of all of the performers."

-Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (https://camh.org/event/performance-texas-noise-ambience-2/)
3/27/2024

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

"Danny Kamins is an improvising saxophonist based out of Houston, TX. His current musical endeavors include playing in the bands CARL and Etched in the Eye as well as directing two ensembles at Rice University. He also maintains a studio of 25 young private saxophone students from the Houston, Klein and Cypress areas. in He holds his B.M. in Jazz Saxophone Performance from Oberlin Conservatory, and is a graduate of Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts."

-Danny Kamins Website (https://dannykamins.com/about/)
3/27/2024

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

"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/)
3/27/2024

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/)
3/27/2024

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

"Jerome Bryerton's artistic expression evolved from years of playing drums in rock, jazz and experimental groups. Performing solo or collaboratively, he's toured and recorded internationally with many notable improvisers. Jerome is also part owner of a large industrial silk screening operation in Chicago.

While some may perceive a factory to be the antithesis to the creative process, Jerome's imagination has been known to incorporate the errors of assembly line production into some of his art. Rejected test prints often made their way into many of his early canvases.

Strictly working within the medium of oil on canvas and applied with plexiglass. Jerome's dense, moody abstractions and marbleized colors have been said to evoke controlled chaos, blurred memory and decay. His influences range from Masters such as Gerhard Richter, Anselm Kiefer, Luc Tuymans and Cy Twombly. Self-taught and skilled in improvisation, Jerome believes that everything starts with curiosity: if you're curious about something and you're willing to learn more about it, everything happens by itself."

-Jerome Bryerton's Website (http://www.jeromebryerton.com/about)
3/27/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. Groundwater Recharge 07:17

2. Trio A 04:45

3. 2-way speakerphone system with caller ID 06:59

4. Trio Anemone 05:04

5. Hierarchy of Furniture 07:41

6. Trio A/B 04:08

7. Back Channeling 08:48

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
Trio Recordings
Quintet Recordings
West Coast/Pacific US Jazz
Friends of Squid

Search for other titles on the label:
Balance Point Acoustics.


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