Live Shot #7!

 

Cellist Crystal Pascucci, Berkeley Art Festival Building, circa 2015. Talent plus intelligence equals focus.

Live Shot #6!

 

Paul Winstanley, Berkeley Arts Festival Building, circa 2015. Paul's main instrument is the electric bass. He uses all kinds of extended techniques, and always searches for new sounds. His project Music For Hard Times is really great.

Live shot #5

 

Aaron Sheppard, American Primitive guitarist, Emerald Tablet Gallery, SF circa 2012.

Live shot #4!

 

Well, technically not a live shot! 

This is Eric, also known as Grawer. He's a drummer, an engineer, and just a great person. His contributions to KFJC are immense, and if you aren't aware of KFJC, go and find them NOW. The best radio station in the world, KFJC is a true friend to independent artists of any and all flavors.

Another live shot!

 

Joseph Noble and Will Alexander at Meridian Gallery, SF in 2012. Both of these men are published poets, and I can't recommend their work enough. If there's a piano in the room, Will can be found there. He loves to play music, as does Joseph.

Bryan Day/Seymour Glass-Crooked Doppler; tanzprocesz Records cassette, 2021

 

To paraphrase good old Michael Corleone, just when Disaster Amnesiac thought I was out, I get pulled back in! Recently I'd been suffering through feeling at a loss for music to listen to and review, but thankfully along came yet another surprise package from Public Eyesore headquarters in Richmond. This was entirely good and welcome news, and I began to listen to Crooked Doppler, the new cassette collaboration from Bryan Day and Seymour Glass as soon as I was able to free it from its packaging.

What one will find on Doppler is the sounds of two very established artists/writers (me reviewing the guy behind Bananafish? gtfo!) delving deeply into their respective methods and fusing them into pieces that integrate them seamlessly. As Disaster Amnesiac has listened to this cassette, these pieces have always felt cogent and coherent. The attention to detail and pure awareness that Day and Glass clearly brought to the production of this release is evident throughout. They leave tons of spaces and gaps in-between the noisier parts, spaces and gaps which allow the perceptions to process and prepare, and even dare I say relax as the sound worlds reveal themselves. Even a waterfall of literal glass breaking sounds at one point does not collapse into incoherence (not that that ever should!) but instead becomes a musical timbre within the gestalt of the piece in which it is contained. 

Speaking of timbres, Disaster Amnesiac has certainly felt pleasure in seeming to be able to identify some of Day's invented instruments from theirs. Having seen him play live more than a few times, it's been really satisfying to recall them as I've listened to what I believe to be their distinctive sounds.

In addition to such aspects, the listener of Crooked Doppler will be treated to odd moans, crinkling clicks, mysterious synthesized buzzes, radio broadcast voices, found sounds of the urban variety, even what seemed to be Glass quoting a Gospel hymn. All of this and more within a matrix of deftly organized Music Concrete that would surely appeal to a wide swath of musical adventurers from the scruffy post-Industrial dudes to the serious intellectuals of academia; there's sonic goodies for them all within this release. 

Be sure and take a bite, but remember to take your time chewing, as you'll not want to miss any of the richly complex flavors of Crooked Doppler.

Another live shot!

 

Continuing with the theme from the previous post, here's another shot of an SF Bay Area musician, taken by Disaster Amnesiac out in the wild. This is Bill Noertker, bassist and composer. Bill's compositions are often inspired by visual art. This photo was taken at SF Musicians Hall Local #6. 

I will be posting some more shots from a cache that I have been going through. I really like their candid nature, and hope some others will, too.