One of the last concerts I played before the COVID-19 pandemic and the horrific murder of George Floyd was a sound/simulacra with an amazing group of artists including: Cody McKinney (electric bass, voice, electronics), myself (Rhodes, synth, electronics), Aby Wolf (voice, electronics), Kaleena Miller (amplified tap dancing), and Nathan Hanson (saxophones). The venue made a multitrack recording of our show, so since have been unable to continue with our monthly series, Cody Mckinney and I decided to release a live album of music from the evening. Cody wrote an elegant essay (below) about the night, and I mixed and mastered the recordings which are now available on Bandcamp (above). All sales will be directed to advance the Black Lives Matter movement. Please read on to learn more about the album and the artists who made it possible.
sound/simulacra started as a monthly experiment, conceived by myself (Cody McKinney) and my dear friend and collaborator, John C.S. Keston. The name comes from the writings of Jean Baudrillard, the great French, post structuralist philosopher.
The basic idea was to bring sound artists / musicians together from varying disciplines, and see if we could find some universal truths within the framework of improvisation. Many differing sound disciplines seem to have their own language and systems of improvisation. Many of these take a lifetime of study to master, but that is usually based on that discipline’s improvisatory syntax as opposed to the purer language of sound. There was no attempt to try to learn or master other artists’ vocabulary, but rather to seek the commonalities between performers and their systems. Many times, these improvisations revealed certain formal structures; for example, western music theory influence, with our scales and triads and harmonic rules. While other times, they revealed behaviors from the natural world such as bird songs, or moaning, or machinery. [In recent times, we’ve begun to align our lives with many machines, and with that alignment comes a whole host of familiar sounds, structures, forms etc.]
We also have learned to hear how these things sound when they are misbehaving, breaking down, or glitching. All of these examples are ways that music has gone beyond formal instrumentation and has opened up a greater world of sound. These are not new ideas, especially in experimental settings. However, jazz harmony co-existing with prepared piano, and found sounds sonically manipulated through the use of technology may be a newer experience. This is where our little experiment comes into play. Recognizing structure, lack of structure, time, lack of time, tonality, lack of tonality, along with the syntax of certain historical sound practices (jazz, music concrete, noise, 12 tone, etc.) is the place that sound/simulacra has aimed to exist. Acknowledgment of artistic intention, with allowance of anarchy feels like a solid justification of why and what we do.
For several years, Keston and I engaged in this activity in the basement of a nondescript building in NE Minneapolis, where a small club named Jazz Central exists. We would invite different featured guests, alternating who would invite these guests between Keston and myself. Although we both admire and love many of the same disciplines, Keston tends to relate well to electronic artists, synth players, and programmers, whereas I feel more rooted in free-jazz and experimental classical music. Our guests often self identify outside of these crude labels and are fully formed to their own path of discovery.
We eventually landed on a structure for the series that worked quite well. In baseball, the top three batters are serving a role, but especially the 1st batter. The most common function for the lead off batter is to see as many pitches as possible so that they can help the entire team form some basic knowledge about the pitcher they are facing. This ultimately helps inform the batters for the remainder of the game on how to approach their at bat for maximum success. By having our guest play a solo improvised set up top, it allowed Keston and I to form some basic, yet unspoken sense of what materials the performer is interested in playing with, and in what manner they tend to manipulate that material. That thought may never truly enter our minds consciously, however, the process of open minded empathy toward whom you will be collaborating makes for a far more intimate and expansive experience for all parties involved.
In November of 2019, I was asked to curate a series of Monday evening performances at the Icehouse in Minneapolis. The audio contained in this collection is one of those evenings. The rest of the month was filled out with various other projects that I keep afloat such as a piano trio with Bryan Nichols and Lars-Erik Larson. A saxophone trio with JT Bates and Brandon Wozniak. A celebration of the music of American composer, Steve Reich as well as the premiere of a piece of mine entitled no. 7, which is an evening length graphic score, loosely inspired by Shakespeare’s stages of man monologue, performed by a septet of acoustic and electronic instruments.
The lineup on this particular evening features myself and Keston in our roles as bass/vocal/electronics and Keyboard/synth/electronics. Our special guests were Aby Wolf on voice and electronics, Kaleena Miller on tap (being manipulated at times by Keston) and Nathan Hanson on saxophones. Hanson, Miller, and Wolf are three of the most singular and creative voices anywhere in the world, but we are lucky to have them enrich the scene in the Twin Cities. To visually represent what you are hearing, we asked sculpture artist Kate Casanova if we could use a photograph of her piece [germophile] because it reads visually, so beautifully, to what we aim to achieve sonically.
As a final note, this music contains many things. We do not wish for any singular experience to be had. I listen back, knowing this was a final show before the world changed, and physical life became more distant and reliant on technology to stay connected. I hear these beautiful musicians, using their life long study of the technical, come into focus by relying on the instinctual. I hear a reaching out toward one another as well as a great amount of space, as if to say, “I want to understand you.” I also hear empathy, I hear joy, I hear discovery, and I hear tradition. Most of all I hear love.
_Cody McKinney
PS_Release of this record comes months after the horrible murder of George Floyd at the hands of members of the Minneapolis Police Department. A terrible and horrific reminder that Black Lives Matter. All purchases will redirect to various orgs within the back community to help aid in healing and social justice.
Credits
Released November 20, 2020
Recorded live at The Icehouse in Minneapolis, MN. November 2019
Cody McKinney: electric bass, voice, electronics
John CS Keston: Rhodes, synth, electronics
Aby Wolf: voice, electronics
Kaleena Miller: tap dancing
Nathan Hanson: saxophones
Album Cover Artwork: Kate Casanova
Live Sound Engineer: Ryan Mach
Mixed & Mastered: John CS Keston
Produced by Cody McKinney and John CS Keston
Special thanks to: Brian Liebeck and the staff of Icehouse MPLS, Mac Santiago at Jazz Central Studios.
artists:
codymckinney.com
johnkeston.com
abywolf.com
nathanhanson.com
kaleenamiller.com
cover art:
katecasanova.com