Except when it doesn't.. 

Erik Major, Dave Knott - ukuleles & voices
recorded in Seattle, Feb 2015

This Is How It Goes * Major Knott

while working on music for facilitating sensorimotor rehab training, got sidetracked by this version that keeps dropping half a beat.  Added a drum loop to further complicate matters and enjoyed the groove.

Butterflying

after toasting pumpkin seeds at 400 degrees F, 5-10m each side, they get nice and sonorous..  image is of fresh ghee before it has solidified - but I don't have the right gear to capture the sound of ghee cooling.

Pumpkin seeds cooling

a new old-timey number, from the set of never-ending-songs-of-dave series.  It has lyrics about getting an ear worm, but I will spare you those here so you don't get it stuck in your head.  This recording features Adam Price playing gut string banjo and Dave Knott playing ukulele.  Each of our instruments had a clip on piezo microphone running into a DP-004 Tascam digital 4 track.  

Moclips, Washington; December 2016. 

[photo is an extreme detail of a limited edition ticket designed by Jim Woodring (2012)that benefited Victims of the Cafe Racer Memorial fund]

Tune Age Earworm

Beloved Esme, caught in a rare moment of content with humans, purring (RIP kitty-cat)

Esme purring

Once a 4 person trio (Bishop, Knott, Millis, Taylor:  Messenger Girls) that played weekly, now more diasporadic, 
given to lifestyle and geography; 

here Sir Richard Bishop using guitar plays 
with Dave Knott using an ukulele with contact mic and Hodad tremelo 

Portland, OR 
170224

Martinesque

Thunder clap close up

since Jeph Jerman moved away from Seattle, we have collaborated at a distance. But rather than pursue fancy, hi quality methods, we have used mostly cassette, mini-cassette, Tascam DP-004 SD cards, sometimes sending these media back and forth, or using cell phones to play in real time. Some time at the end of the 2000's we decided to make a record and in order to arrive at something we agreed on, we pursued creating a series of cassettes - C46's - where each of us was responsible for a side. The material we chose was either excerpts of our collaborations over the years (as early as 1996, at Anomalous Records) or anything we intended the other to interact / collaborate with. From our extensive history of dada imbued banter, we settled on a band name: the yes, well... no, really! And just to keep it interesting, we occasionally limit it to yes, well, or a graphic that Jeph and I came up with that looks like a bird's foot - kind of a W with a Y breaking through in the middle.

This track was my contribution to the 22 & 1/2 series, 
the B-side of Tape #20; c.2014

22 & 1/2's

an extemporaneous rendering of the well blessed yes

This is an excerpt from a 14 member ensemble piece using metaphones (see http://sonocern.org/metaphone  for more description of the instrument).  The piece was written as a tribute to Matthew Sperry, a friend, fellow improvisor and supporter of both the metaphone and other of my homemade instruments and performed by a diverse group of musicians on a wide range of string instruments.  The original piece was recorded at Jack Straw Studios in Seattle by Doug Haire and broadcast during a Sonarchy radio show on the evening of a memorial concert in 2005.  The 28 minute piece remains unpublished but I circulated copies to participants and friends in the weeks following the concert.  A version appeared some time later with a different title:  Muzik for Qliphotic Meditation.  Unsure exactly how that happened..the mysteries of the internet.     dk

Metaphone Sounding (excerpt)

Excerpt from the Sonarchy radio broadcast "99 Strings and 1 Cat," audio cataloguing of individual string preparations from a series of stringboards

(Recorded by Jack Straw Engineer Doug Haire; doughaire.com/sonarchy-radio/ )

s o n o c e r n . o r g

Popular tracks