Contemplations on Emptiness... Contemplations on Form... The Recording Session
Some new piano work set for release in the upcoming months. These pieces, Contemplations on Emptiness and Contemplations of Form, are set to be released as a double album of sorts, each album exploring different dimensions of my playing and, as the titles suggest, different dimensions of sonic contemplation. (above) the set up for one of the Contemplations on Emptiness. Note the singing bowls, e-bows, and dowels inside the instrument, allowing me to evoke three radically diff
Reflections on Chaos
"...many patterns of Nature are so irregular and fragmented, that, compared with Euclidean geometry, Nature exhibits not simply a higher degree but an altogether different level of complexity … The existence of these patterns challenges us to study these forms that Euclid leaves aside as being "formless," to investigate the morphology of the "amorphous." -Benoit Mandelbrot I love the formless. And as my dear friend Aea Luz sings, "the formless has only love for you." Since I
An evening at Eli's Mile High Club with IMA, Zen Mother, Bourgeois Speedball, and The Classical
It was friday night. There was a concert at Eli's Mile High Club. Four bands. That's a lot, especially in a bar, where it's generally loud. I knew my ears would be fatigued by the end of the night, my body would be calling for a cozy bed. Yes, I would want to rest my head. Even feel a little dead. But... rather than stay in... I went... instead. I hadn't been to Eli's in a while. It's funky, weird, gritty, honest. Tacos and beer, occult symbology, an enormous back patio with
Dancing on Cheap Canvas
Both Michael's and Blick offer these small bundles of stretched canvas, like six 16"x 20" canvases or ten 12" x 12" canvases for a very friendly cost. For the past few months, it's been with these canvasses that I spend my time, experimenting, creating, destroying, running amuck with half formed ideas and explorations into happenstance. I remember one whole batch of paintings - some pieces I really liked - they all wound up cracking to pieces upon drying. I layered the paint
Thoughts on last night's concert... 8/7/17 at Studio Grand
I played the Oakland Freedom Jazz Society's weekly series at Studio Grand last night. Shared the bill with some artists from LA, Ben Levinson and Erika Bell. Was a small turnout. A few familiar faces from the scene. Only one new face. Less than ten in the crowd. I played first. Yet another totally improvised set. Maybe I should finally start composing. I'm able to predict myself a little more often than I'd like. Played two pieces. Everything started quiet. Something I love
Some new works. Playing with the abyss.
Been spending some late nights in the studio exploring various techniques and working with different viscosities of fluid acrylic. I've been playing with beds of blackness upon which I'll drip, fling, splash, blow, explode and dance other paints upon. The results have been stunning, disastrous, messy and a lot of fun. These pieces are still drying but have a look below. I'm sincerely looking forward to getting these ideas put out on a larger scale. Big Canvas = Big Mess = A L
