Plain Letters

Plain Letters (Reimagined)

4 members of the band Bongo Wrench on this improvised song. Sean McNally- Drums, Kevin Andrews- Bass, George Trotter_Guitar, Glenn Weinstien- Keys.
Doing what we do and traveling across various genres.

Minus the Plus

Bongo Wrench_Minus the Plus

Cover of James Taylor's tunes: "Another Day"

Gio Moretti on Vocal
Rory Stuart on Guitar

fusionalma

Another Day (James Taylor)

Heart Shape

I combined two emotions via two separate pieces recorded over two decades to rise to the @MusicWeeklies Challenge #OpposingEmotions
Submitted May 1st, 2022 by David M Patterson

Hope/Despair

Fuse

No One Knows We’re Dancing

opaltapes.com/album/sacred-horror-in-design

Developed from a commission by CTM Festival as an audio/visual project in collaboration with Tarik Barri, and inspired by their 2017 theme of ‘Fear Anger Love’ and its relationship to his childhood following the 1979 Iranian revolution, the record reveals a dramatic blend of acoustic Persian instrumentation and contemporary electronics. Sote aims to devise an idealised fusion of the musical heritage and tradition of Iran with the forward-thinking vision which has propelled his storied career producing techno, hardcore and computer music for labels like Warp, Ge-stell, Morphine and Repitch.

Now living in Tehran, his music has frequently grappled with the strict cultural restrictions imposed in his country over the past few decades, finding a space and setting to nurture new developments in experimental sound and performance; first documented on last year’s ‘Hardcore Sounds From Tehran’ on Opal Tapes.

Working with Arash Bolouri who plays the santour (Persian hammered dulcimer), and Behrouz Pashaei on the long-necked, four-string setar, Sote frames and responds to their traditional artistry. On occasions he directly manipulates the music emanating from their ancient instruments, cultivating and thickening up a surreal and beautiful tonality plucked from their strings with a series of processing techniques, but mostly each track is a peaceful arrangement and partnership, Sote electro-acoustically augmenting their movements within his own cybernetic framework. The resulting form gives the impression of semi-improvised gesture between three skilled partners, a deft call and response that uses digital techniques to extend the intentions of the performers into a modern, shady, but ultimately optimistic narrative; creating an paradoxical amalgam of the mythic and the profane as strong as any folk music.

Across the six tracks the strange strings tend to conduct the overall experience, tuned to the unusual colour and complex microtonality found in the classical music of Iran. Blurts of noise, sour tones, and a vaguely technoid or dubwise impression expose the inner rhythm and counterpoint embedded in this strummed music, building a new understanding and doorway into unfamiliar timbres and environmental patterns which govern us. At times it finds the artist at his most compositionally delicate and measured—listen to the sense of space afforded to a beautiful solo that drifts throughout “Boghze Esfahen” and then into “Plural”—and redoubles his focus on what new insight might be gained from the emotional, mathematical and polyrhythmic principles underpinning Persian music.

The electronic parts on final track “Holy Error” are sourced from Sote’s residency at EMS Stockholm in late 2016, utilising their remarkable in-house modular Serge system and divesting from conventional Iranian tonal motifs for a spikier duel with the instruments.

Synthesis: FM 
Dastgah: Nava & Chahargah 
Instruments: Santour, Setar & Kamancheh (by Kian Farahani)

Plebeian

Matthew Kahler shifted my soul with his music. He probably did yours, too. This Sunday he is playing live for Eddie Owens Presents at Red Clay Foundry in Georgia. Please go see, or stream, and watch, listen and learn. What a treasure. What a privilege that we get to live on this ONE PLANET at the same time as a talent such as Matthew Kahler. 
I must tell you... I have been carrying around the cassette of this Peach Jam show (Featuring the inimitable Alan Ayo hosting and me as an over-exuberant tea-swilling intern) on the Peach Jam for 30 years. Through 8 cities, 2 babies, five lifetimes. I play it when I am sad. I play it when I am happy. I play it for inspiration and comfort. Most recently, in coronatine, I played it through the canyons of laurel as I just had to get out of the house, away from my work-at-home desk, and roll down the car windows, and hit the gas and play these songs so loud. “Nicola” makes my tail wag and my soul shake.
Of all the boxes and boxes of air check tapes from Album 88 to 96 rock to the Kro in Daytona and all the Lollapaloozas and Eddie's Attics and interviews and radio remote live broadcasts... THIS IS MY MOST COVETED OF ALL. I am honored to have it and share it today. It is one of the purest renderings of a soul in musical form ever…plus the rapport between Alan and Elissa Hadley (rest in peace Elissa, I know your sweet spirit had a hand and an angel wing in nudging me to release this)  is HILARIOUS. Performance art. A time capsule I will always and forever cherish.  Live acoustic board-feed versions here of "One Planet", "Bitter Young Man", "Nicola", "High Bridge", "Spring Forward", "Ear of the Mind", and "Sun On the Moon". I wish I could be in the room Sunday. I will stream it from California. Just want to thank you Matthew. For never giving in and never giving up.
*Thank you to my Sonic Sister Kim Saade for digitizing my shoebox of cassettes so lovingly and professionally.
#Name Checks: Julie Jumper, Encino Man, Elissa Hadley, Lenny, David Patterson, Eat Your Vegetables, Andy Easton & the Tin Roof, Shawn Mullins, Eddie Owen, Don McCollister, The Loft, Piggly Wiggly, Andrew Hyra, Kristian Bush, Swampjuice, Smartass, Bluebird Café Nashville, Don Conoscenti, Randy Delay, Rick Richards, Georgia Satellites, Drivin n Cryin, Center Stage Theater, Michael Hughes

Peach Jam Alan Ayo Hosts/Delia Interns - Matthew Kahler 12 - 13 - 92

Broken Harvest

A multi-instrumentalist living in NYC - this page features music I've written and recorded as well as music by other artists with whom I have recorded.

Hope/Despair

Dave Patterson

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