Bicycle Family by Ten72

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Nils Westdal has been quietly toiling on his third ten72 effort, Bicycle Family, for four long years. And finally it has reached his meticulous standards for release. The compositions produced in this collection glisten with polish yet grate with a filthy grit in all the right places. As with all Unearthed Music releases, every single track is playable in full on the releases page. So, listen for free, or support independent music by purchasing the album either directly from UEM, iTunes, or your e-distributor of choice. Here’s one of my favorite downtempo masterpieces from the album, Water Color Dream.

Water Color Dream
by ten72, 2010 © Unearthed Music

Graham O’Brien CFCs Video Featuring Alicia Wiley and Eric Blair

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ACB contributor, friend, and collaborator Graham O’Brien recently released an excellent solo album titled Live Drums available November 27, 2010 on NOECHO Records. On it he collaborates with a variety of artists, including the piece titled CFCs with Alicia Wiley and Eric Blair of No Bird Sing. This stop-motion animated video featuring the track was made entirely by 15 year old Malone Mischke. What is entirely surprising to me about the video is the artistic maturity, sensibility and confidence of the imagery paired with the music. Congratulations to, Graham, Alicia, Blair, and Malone!

The Somethin’ Else #5: I, Synthesizer

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The Somethin’ Else #5, curated by Jon Davis, will take place Friday, October 8, 2010 at the Franklin Art Works, 1021 E Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis. The theme this month is synthesizers.

I’ll be playing my restored Sequential Circuits Pro-One as well as my preferred axe, the Rhodes in the group DGK (Davis, Glenn, Keston) featuring Jon Davis on bass and bass clarinet, and Tim Glenn on drums.

The roster of artists playing this event has reached a total of eleven for four hours of synthesized madness. Artists include The Radar Threat, Moonstone Variations, DGK, Slapping Purses, S/M, SMAK 10K, Soaking Rasps, Dreamland Faces, Low-Gain, Spacebar, and John Vance.

Here’s one of my favorite live recordings from the last DKG performance to give you a taste of what’s to come.

DGK Live on August 30, 2010 (Track 1)

Jred Smyth Triggered Drum Performance

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Graham O’Brien and I really enjoyed our Ostracon performance at the In / Out Festival recently. Part of what made this festival for us was all of the other incredible performers and speakers at the event, such as Rosa Menkman and Peter Kirn. One prominent example was Jred Smyth who gave an energetic and inspired solo drumming concert featuring triggered sounds that transformed the work into evolving structured compositions. Checkout the video clip above of Jred Smyth with Blair Neal on visuals.