Name: The Two Trees (SATB, cello, piano) by Evan Hause
Duration: 12 min 5 s
Description: Text: W. B. Yeats, Music: Evan Hause. World premiere by the Ann Arbor Vocal Arts Ensemble, 4-25-22, Benjamin Cohen, dir.

INSECT LIFE Debuts on 577 Records with a Cosmic, Creative, Art-Driven Opus — Out November 7th
Avant-garde experimental ensemble INSECT LIFE is set to release their self-titled debut album, INSECT LIFE, via 577 Records, on November 7th, 2025. The album delivers a sound that is raw, wild, and authentic, blending improvisation, orchestral textures, and dynamic interplay into an immersive, art-driven experience. There’s something hypnotic about the whole listening experience, drawing the listener into its cosmic, abstract world.
Born from weekly collaborative sessions at Ben Goldberg’s house, INSECT LIFE is an Oakland-based experimental ensemble dedicated to pushing the boundaries of improvised music. The band emphasizes spontaneity, orchestral cohesion, and an adventurous sonic palette that fuses avant-garde and abstract elements. Over time, they developed a distinctive collective approach, creating an instant orchestral sound where cello and drums interact with winds, driving rhythm and texture in unexpected, groovy, and abstract directions. The result is a cosmic, dynamic, and innovative sound—modern yet deeply rooted in the old-school spirit of improvisation.
Enhancing the record’s depth, Zachary James Watkins (Black Spirituals, Foreign/Domestic) contributes remixes as a guest member for this album, complementing the ensemble’s expansive sonic landscape.
This release marks INSECT LIFE’s debut on 577 Records, featuring Gerald Cleaver—a guest member of the band for this album. A longtime collaborator with the label, Cleaver has released five albums as a leader and countless more as co-leader or featured artist. With its daring, cohesive sound, INSECT LIFE is poised to become a standout entry in 577 Records’ catalog.
The album will be available digitally and on CD, with a first pressing of only 100 units.

Raffi Garabedian - tenor saxophone
Ben Goldberg - clarinet
Danny Lubin-Laden - trombone
Ben Davis - cello
Gerald Cleaver - drums
Zachary James Watkins - loops, processing, synthesis


577 Records is an independent record label based in Brooklyn, New York operating since 2001

577 Records
Brooklyn, New York
www.577records.com
©+℗ 2025

INSECT LIFE: 'Scene Two' from album 'INSECT LIFE' (577 Records)

Text: W. B. Yeats, Music: Evan Hause. World premiere by the Ann Arbor Vocal Arts Ensemble, 4-25-22, Benjamin Cohen, dir.

The Two Trees (SATB, cello, piano)

This is a serenade. An understanding between two.

I Know

I poked the vampire under my bed two times with the small end my Dad's golf club. He looked sharply over his shoulder, red eyes glaring at me. His lips parted and a crimson, forked tongue flicked across one of his ivory fangs. "Sleep now," he hissed. "Eat you later." Then he turned his back to me and, folding a jet-black wing over his head, began to snore again.

Oh yeah? I thought. Tomorrow I'll be ten. And there are going to be some changes around here...

Ljova - "For Parkland"
Recorded live Feb. 16 2018
at the Postcrypt Coffee House
New York, NY

Ljova, fadolín and loopers

For Parkland - Feb162018 (Live)

Rough Mix #1 of our recently finished Melodic power progressive rock song featuring:
The Unified One - Guitars & Vocals
Roger Banks (Sarasin) - Drums
Lenny Rocillo - Bass
Mark Focarile (Mile Marker Zero) - Keyboards

Music and lyrics by The Unified One

The Man Who Fell Into The Shadows

some girls are not producers. it's me. i'm some girls.
anyway i hopeyou enjoy this

copyright 2019

Lighthouse - Demo

Phalanges, for Harp solo (1995) - program notes
The title "Phalanges" refers to the fingers' bones, the very skeleton of the player, the subcutaneous motor skills that underlie the act of playing/touching the strings. Compositionally, there are three main ideas that intersperse in this piece:
1) The ergonomic or motoric one, referring to the way the hands accommodate the technical demands of the instrument; 
2)The Rhythmic ‘sculpting,’ referring to the interaction of complex rhythms and the use of my system of Micro-Metric Modulation, a mathematical way to link very complex rhythms/ratios through common denominators speeds; 
3)The use of extended-techniques dividing the harp into three different sonic regions in which the middle one employs a cloth/paper that mutes the pitches subsequently creating a kind of timbral asymmetry in the sonic presentation of the instrument.
First, the ergonomic aspect: the creation of motives and themes in this piece are a direct result of the very patterns of the player's hands/fingers. New sonic material emerges as a result of the dislocation of the hands throughout the harp. This is accomplished in two ways: a) When the harpist stretches hands widening or contracting the gaps between fingers while maintaining similar fingerings’ patterns - thus, creating small melodic distortions; b) Through the mere pedal- retuning of the strings providing a diverse melodic or harmonic contour for similar hands' patterns; Even if the fingers’ patterns are not “thematically audible,” (since they only refer to the techniques that propel the sounds) they acquire, nevertheless, the status of "articulatory themes" being as important as the audible ones.
Second, using a mathematical way to mediate between two adjacent rhythms through a system I developed called Micro-Metric Modulation. Although complex rhythms can be very demanding to execute it is possible to imagine an effective rhythmic bridge that is common to two adjacent and differing rhythms or ratio configurations. This approach is based on commutative and associative properties and is derived from Elliott Carter’s polyrhythmic ideas, but in a “compressed” way. It is fully developed on my Doctoral Thesis from 1997-8 (Micro Metric Modulation: New Directions in the Theory of Complex Rhythms), although uses of it on my own music are anterior to the thesis itself).
Third, employing a series of devices (paper between strings, tuning fork, constant pedal glissandi, half-pedal “buzz” sounds, etc.) I managed to destabilize the typical way of playing the instrument and the way it is commonly heard. More than seeking mere effects, I was “seeing” the instrument as a sonic (found-)object that could be “subjected” to different types of timbristic and ergonomic demands. Finally, studying the way the instrument behaves under certain rhythmic constraints it was possible to manipulate with similar flexibility pitch and noise (extended-techniques) zones. The theatrical aspect of Phalanges conveys its deep meaning: Navigating between the fingers' technical demands and its almost magic output (the music itself) the harpist questions the public with a bleak and distancing (‘Brechtnian’) look, as if saying, - “...where does music begin? And where it ends...?”
© Arthur Kampela 2014

Phallanges For Harp Solo (Performed live by Anne Bassande Zurich, 1995)

song by the lovely Dolly Valentine, cover by elena claire (vocals) and evergreen dreams (vocals + guitar)
additional piano - evan hause

i got the flu 2 days after recording this

Michigan, 1997 cover

Composer of concert music, electronic, improvisatory, rock, jazz, and other eclectica.

The Two Trees (SATB, cello, piano)

Evan Hause

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