A live remix following live looping of 10 tracks of digitally processed donso ngoni (Bambara hunter's harp), sanza, likembes (thumb pianos). Unmastered. Played it and posted it.

Hen of the Woods

I was casually improvising and building up a collection of a dozen live loops. I was pleased by the result and was about to end the whole thing when I decided to hit "record" and capture the result. This is it. The only instrumentation is donso ngoni (Bamabara hunters' harp), likembe and sanza (thumb pianos) all through digital processing. No synths, drums, samples.

Aquarian Loops

A200 Sax and Shruti (2024 remix)

I recently rediscovered a cassette recording of a solo performance I presented in April of 1978 during my freshman year at CalArts. The performance took place in A200, a large, resonant dance studio with a high ceiling and wood floor; perhaps the best reverb on campus. (I spent many late nights improvising in that space when it was otherwise quiet and unused.)

During that performance I played a short saxophone improvisation, self-accompanied by a shruti box (bellows-driven drone) that I managed to operate with the heel of my foot while seated on a stool. Hearing this recording with new ears, I was struck by how much it captured my playing at that time and some of the essence of my 19-year-old self.

Forty-six years later, I've remixed the piece, giving the shruti box a more prominent role and repeating the whole improvisation a second time, backwards. Some additional delay is added without diminishing the original resonance of A200.

Tim Wolf: alto saxophone, shruti box

Photo by Daniel Kelman from summer 1977 during "Urban Cave" performance/installation in Hartford, Connecticut.

A200 Sax and Shruti (2024 remix)

A200 Sax And Shruti (2024 remix)

(July 2, 1989) Live performance by Terrain, with Eternal Wind in the Elizabeth Park Rose Garden, West Hartford, Connecticut. Personnel - Tim Wolf, sanza; Adam Rudolph, tabla; Eric Segal, electric bass; Sue Fisher, keyboard; Anon, keyboard; Ralph “Buzzy” Jones, bass clarinet; Charles Moore, trumpet; Fredrico Ramos, electric guitar.

I first composed and recorded this piece in 1981. Since that time I’ve performed it with various ensembles. This was the last public performance of the piece—an outdoor concert I produced to interpret duo studio projects with a larger ensemble. I invited the Los Angeles-based ensemble Eternal Wind to share the concert with us. The two groups joined together to perform this piece.

Despite the limitations of the live mix, the music shines through on this piece. It deserves a full listen, with wonderfully understated solos by Charles Moore on trumpet, Freddy Ramos on electric guitar and Buzzy Jones on bass clarinet.

This concert was funded by grants from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts and the Evelyn Preston Memorial Concert Fund.

Terrain: Live in Elizabeth Park

1989

The Great Accumulation (live)

This dance mix by Tim Wolf is an outgrowth of the New London Drone Orchestra's May 2020 release, "Isolation/Collaboration" on Enter the Circle ( http://enterthecircle.net ).

In mid-March 2020, the New London Drone Orchestra's gatherings and plans for recording and performing were suddenly interrupted as the United States was coming to terms with the coronavirus pandemic. Home isolation and social distancing protocols were adopted for the greater good. The collective vibe was tense, fearful, and introspective.

To counter this isolation, Tim Wolf, an Orchestra member, put forward a proposal for a collaborative project where members would record solo tracks at home. The tracks would then be shared amongst group members who would assemble and mix them into fully-realized pieces. The Isolation/Collaboration album was the result of this. Once the project was complete, Tim felt the urge to create one more mix, this time adding a drum track to the originally created source material.

Personnel:
Jack Beal — bass guitar, electronics
Jeff Day — electric guitar, Line 6 DL4, iron bar, knitting needles
Amy Hannum — voice, body percussion, water
Alex Khan — Korg MS-20 with analog effects, Eurorack modular synthesizer, tape loops, police scanner
John Schwenk — Continuum Fingerboard, electric piano
Pamela Wilson — sine wave generator, melodica
Tim Wolf — digitally-processed sanza

Produced, mixed and mastered by Tim Wolf

Isolation Dance

At CalArts I had the privilege of playing tanpura (the stringed instrument that provides a constant drone in Indian classical music) at numerous concerts and informal recitals accompanying my friend and teacher, Amiya Dasgupta.

In this piece in three movements, the tanpura is digital, and at times morphed into something completely different from its original sound. The first movement was inspired by early multi-track recordings I made with thumb pianos allowing various rhythmic cycles to overlay and phase each other. The second movement repeats the approach of the first with multiple donso ngoni parts. The percussion at the end is both digital and analog, the latter including Indian pakhawaj as well as Greek and Turkish hand drum loops. The pakhawaj (a double-headed North Indian drum) is in honor of Pandit Taranath Rao (1915-1991), a master of that instrument and the tabla, and someone I also had the great pleasure of sitting behind while plucking the strings of the tanpura.

Previously released as "Swimming With Tambouras" in 2017.

Tim Wolf: emulated DX-7 tanpura, keyboards, sanza, likembe, donso ngoni, samples, and loops

Mixed and re-mastered by Tim Wolf 

Available for download on Bandcamp:
https://liquidterrain.bandcamp.com/album/tai-chu

Tai Chu

Swimming With Tanpuras

Intrigued by the syncopated rhythms of a load of sheets tumbling with tennis balls in our clothes dryer, my wife suggested I record them. I did. Selecting certain rhythmic patterns and looping them, I set about mimicking these phasing motifs with thumb pianos. What evolved was a slow motion, subterranean, dub, laundry deep-dive.

Tim Wolf: clothes dryer recording; likembe, sanza, keyboards

Mixed by Tim Wolf; mastered by synonymist

Available for download on Bandcamp:
https://liquidterrain.bandcamp.com/album/tai-chu

Clean Sheets

At CalArts I studied with Amiya Dasgupta (1924-1994), a North Indian classical sitarist, vocalist, and composer. We became friends outside the classroom and in 1981 I produced a small East Coast tour for him. At the end of my tenure at the school he and I recorded a cassette of several of his compositions for me to take home. One of these pieces was a tarana (a style of Hindustani vocal composition incorporating certain words and syllables) in Raga Sindhi Bhairavi set to Teental, a rhythmic cycle of 16 beats. That recording formed the basis of this piece, a reflection on Amiya and our friendship.

Available for download on Bandcamp:
https://liquidterrain.bandcamp.com/album/tai-chu

Amiya Dasgupta: voice, tanpura
Tim Wolf: voice, tanpura, donso ngoni, berimbau, celesta

Mixed by Tim Wolf; mastered by synonymist

Tarana Memories

I first composed and recorded this piece at Cal Arts in 1981 as a solo work and performed it with ensembles in the eighties. This is a more robust version, combining my interest in phasing and interlocking melodic lines set to a rhythmic cycle of 7 beats with influences of the “spiritual jazz” tradition expressed in the theme. My thanks to Jack Beal and Asa Peters for their participation.

Tim Wolf: likembe, sanza, keyboards, virtual drum and hand pan programming, caxixi
Jack Beal: upright bass
Asa Peters: alto sax, flute

Mixed by Tim Wolf; mastered by synonymist 

Available for download on Bandcamp:
https://liquidterrain.bandcamp.com/album/tai-chu

Tai Chu (The Great Accumulation)

This is a live, solo home performance. All parts (with the exception of pre-recorded beats) were first recorded and looped, then mixed live. Simple mastering followed.

The instrumentation of donso ngoni (Bambara hunters' harp), likembe and sanza (thumb pianos) was processed through a virtual rig that employed numerous applications of the Valhalla Super Massive plugin. (Many thanks to Sean Costello and his team for creating Super Massive.)

Recorded on the eve of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. This is an aspiration of hope.

Aspiration 2020

As the United States approached 500,000 deaths from COVID-19, and the world surpassed 2 million, I found myself drawn to the old bugle call commonly known as "Taps". This rendering is a single track of a Hohner Echo Harp (harmonica) processed with Valhalla Delay.

Taps

Liquid Terrain is the work of musician and visual artist Tim Wolf. He describes his work as liquid terrains: fluid landscapes. He has studied Indian classical music, practiced disciplines of improvisation, and worked as an audio engineer and music and live performance producer. Formerly a saxophonist and vocalist, he now performs on several traditional African and digital instruments. Other recordings and visual work can be seen at http://www.liquidterrain.com . Some music is available for download and streaming at https://liquidterrain.bandcamp.com .

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