Abstract and experimental music album in progress.

Experimental Improvisational Bohacz Audio

"The Sounds of Many Mouths" exists because our Webcor reel-to-reel tape recorder's erase head was faulty. This allowed me to experiment with overdubbing way before I had ever heard of the concept. The line that contains "goodnight Lucy" was from "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In." I could have recorded this any time after September 9, 1967 (release of "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In") when I was 9 years old.

The Sounds of Many Mouths

I start playing chords I picked up from Bernard Herrmann, those breathing chords. Then it changes to other chords I’m experimenting with. I also seem to be manipulating the speed of the recording by interfering with the turning of the reels. By the end it sounds like I’ve damaged the recorder. The speed seems to change with the loudness.

Chord Organ Experiment

I'm playing piano and chord organ at the same time. I also played a letter opener for rhythm. I was probably 16 years old.

Piano and Chord Organ: Experiment 1

I'm playing piano and chord organ at the same time. I was probably 16 years old. I believe the heavy distortion came from my placing the mic on the upright piano's soundboard.

Piano and Chord Organ: Experiment 2

I'm playing piano, chord organ and singing at the same time. I was probably 16 years old. I believe the heavy distortion came from my placing the mic on the upright piano's soundboard.

Piano, Chord Organ, Voice: Experiment 1

Piano, Chord Organ, Voice: Experiment 2

Piano, Chord Organ, Voice: Experiment 3

I edited “Improvisations” from different sections of an 8-track cartridge tape I recorded that I called “Mike In Concert.” I made the 8-track for my brother Buddy's family sometime in or after the fall of 1976. That's my niece Donna and nephew Jimmy, Buddy's children, in the picture with me. My brother Monte appears framed in a photo.

Piano Improvisations

I recorded this piece sometime after January 1981 when I began working at Faith Chapel Radio Recording Studio in Berwyn, Illinois (yes, Svengoolie's Berwyn). The studio had at least two quarter inch reel-to-reel tape recorders. I used them to bounce a multitrack recording forward and backward. I played piano and electric guitar.

Triangular Eye

Myself having fun in the recording studio. I scratched in audio from a sound effects record while I played with the echo. This was recorded at Faith Chapel Radio Recording Studio in Berwyn (yes, Svengoolie's Berwyn). I had access to that studio after I began working there in January of 1981.

Tripping at Faith Chapel

Shimmering Siren

I sang and improvised the lyrics live over multitracked instruments that I recorded with my Tascam M-208 mixer and my Tascam 38 1/2" 8-track reel-to-reel tape recorder. I played my Yamaha DX7 synthesizer keyboard and my Yamaha RX5 Digital Rhythm Programmer. I collected all this equipment sometime around 1985 or '86 when Charlene Andrea Ignoffo (her maiden name) and I started falling apart as a couple. I met her when she started (fall of 1984) as a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where I worked as an Instructional Technician in the Video Area. The reason I use her as a time marker is because she got upset when I bought my multitrack tape recorder. She wanted to use the money to take a cruise on the Song of Norway to get married.

Solipsism

This track is the sound for my video art piece “The Machines Possessed Me (Abstract v2) Part 1.” The Abstract v1.5 won the Best U.S. Experimental Short award in the July 2023 Austin International Art Festival. You can view this video at https://youtu.be/8o3pu5wE1f0 and https://vimeo.com/435367103.

“Electronic Tonalities,” the source for this track, represented my earliest audio art and improvised electronic music. With this revised version my wife Trish Happel and I have augmented the original digitally. You can hear my original “Electronic Tonalities" here: on.soundcloud.com/JcXNWxZPhZ3EV7zN8.

Electronic Tonalities (Digitally Augmented)

I consider myself a fringe transmedia conceptual artist and have experimented with all kinds of media like drawing, performance, writing, music, painting, moviemaking, game design since I was quite young. I'd love it if you would check out what I've got going here in the sound department.

Experimental Improvisational Bohacz Audio

Bohacz & Frenz