PEK and Yuri Zbitnov lead the Metal Chaos Ensemble, here in a septet rendering of this Boston-area free improvising group that embraces an impressive arsenal of percussive, electronic and acoustic instruments, using unique strategies to yield densely active and eerily surreal music, an incredible excursion through experimental improvisation.
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2018 Country: USA Packaging: Digipack Recorded at Evil Clown Headquarters, in Waltham Massachusetts, August 2nd, 2018.
Personnel:
David Peck (PEK)-alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, bass saxophone, clarinet, contraalto clarinet, tarota, moog, electric cello, (D)ronin, gongs, brontosaurus Bell
Bob Moores-trumpet, guitar, balafon, log drums, electric cello
"Metal Chaos Ensemble was formed in early 2015 by PEK and Yuri Zbitnov as a working project to explore chaotic rhythms on metallic instruments. I had started to amass the Evil Clown Arsenal of percussion, electronic and wind instruments and we needed a workshop to develop this universe of sounds for the Leap of Faith Orchestra. It was immediately obvious that Metal Chaos Ensemble had a sound to itself and over the last three years has been one of the most prolific Evil Clown ensembles. We have produced a bunch of albums covering a wide range of sonority sets, but always with the presence of Gongs, chimes, glockenspiel, Tibetan Bowls and many other metallic sounds and the horns of PEK. All Metal Chaos Ensemble sessions include myself and Yuri as a duet, or along with a whole bunch of different guests in a larger unit.
Recently, I have been using the Ableton software to create electronic mixes which we use in several of the bands as an accompaniment track. In performance, I ride the fader from off to very present, but most of the time more to the background. Raw samples are taken from the Evil Clown Catalog and also specially recorded at Evil Clown Headquarters with instruments drawn from the Evil Clown arsenal. I then use Adobe Audition to process the samples and finally Ableton to assemble a timeline and create a mix. Most of the more recent MCE sessions use one of these mixes.
In addition to the Ableton mix we also had Eric Woods on the analog synth, Bob Moores on guitar and trumpet, Albey onBass on electric bass, and newbie Federico Balducci on guitar. Handling the live to 2 track mix and providing real-time signal processing is Joel Simches.
This variation of Metal Chaos Ensemble is part of a relatively new direction featuring more rock elements, looping, samples, electronics, etc. than typical in most of the Evil Clown catalog... This trend has been developing for the last couple of years on some of the MCE sessions, and this one really cooks, so check it out!!"-Evil Clown