You know, the usual…

Paul!

  After spending countless hours working on making life more complicated, I’m really enjoying the simplicity of Paul Kerekes’ wonderful website, whose open and inviting atmosphere befits such a kind and generous person.  Can’t wait to get back into Paul’s lovely trio for himself and New Morse Code in a February installment of New Music New Haven!  Below is the first part of his forthcoming piece…

Mariel

H and I play some Golijov, in a live performance from the 2012 Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.  I'll post the video of what happened directly after this piece asap. More audio is on New Morse Code's site.  

Ruckus NYC

I'm extremely excited about Ruckus NYC,  a one-day conference and concert on art and the web happening September 29th at Cooper Union.  Old-friend and former No Signal co-conspirator Kevin Clark has wrangled a FULL day of interesting dialogue about how new media has affected the arts, tied it together with some sessions about making life as an artist work nowadays, and topped it off with a concert, featuring some amazing groups that have harnassed the web to build their ensemble, increase their visibility, and produce their unique art. I'm happy to say that New Morse Code will be playing a short set amidst a great line up featuring Sylvana Joyce and the Moment,  and Deb Oh and the Cavaliers, Florent Ghys, Jody Redhage, Kings, and old pal Zach Herchen.  Hannah and I are on between 8:30 and 9:30, and will be playing some  music by Osvaldo Golijov our own arrangement of one of  Andy Akiho's tunes.

Check out the full concert schedule here, and the conference proceedings here.

Here's what K has to say:

The entire arts world is a million tiny experiments in how to live the life of an artist, and we’re all waiting for the results. Ruckus NYC is our way of sneaking an early look at the data.

We’re bringing together a massive group of artists of all different kinds, and looking at their experiences. How does an animator who lives on grants, fellowships, and one-time gigs create a living and make the art he wants to make? How does a rock-band leader with a day-job find the time for her rehearsals, gigs, and songwriting? How do you balance playing the saxophone, teaching music, and being a recording engineer? How much work does it take to build an ad-supported arts blog? How do you balance different personas online when some of your art isn’t quite Safe For Work? How far will “1,000 True Fans” really get you?"

Kevin, Victoria and Zach made an AMAZING Kickstarter video, which serves Ruckus' box office and marketing department.  Hope to see you there!

Squeak Squeak, Plunk Plunk.

I'm back from six amazing weeks at Norfolk (more on that soon) and all moved out to gorge-s Ithaca (more on THAT soon, as well), but I wanted to share this live recording Hannah and I made of Martin Bresnick's Songs of the Mouse People, a fabulously clever (albeit brief) meditation on Kafka's last short story.  It's one of many shiny new live recordings on the new New Morse Code website.  Like all labors of love, it's a work in progress, so keep checking back as Hannah and I update and tweak things, edit video, and argue about font sizes and margins. If you're more interested in solo music, check out my new video of the vibraphone portion of Manoury's Livre des Claviers.    Enjoy, and stay tuned for more news, a new calendar page, important links, recordings, musings, reports, and complaints!