Ain Soph Aur

We had created two tracks (the first two of the last three studio tracks listed on the music page) collaboratively. Each was created by sending small bits of audio back and forth between us, manipulating and/or adding bits, and building the tracks in a fairly organic process.

The first track, titled Those Deeper Natures, began with a brief two syllable segment of a Buddhist chant that Sander recorded. It features an environmental recording he made inside the food court at a Japanese market in Costa Mesa, and also includes a rather beautiful drone section.

Carloff is an avid collector of old vinyl records. Somewhere, he found one that was recorded for Brigham Young University, for an English Lit class. This particular record is focused on the spiritual poetry of William Blake, specifically his poems of Innocence and Experience. Carloff created a rather complex and subtle set of edits of this material, which sort of became the frame around which Tiger Tiger grew.

Sander started working on ASA’s third and final studio track just as Robert was going back to school. He remembers Carloff’s instructions were, “DRUMS! I want drums!” Sander took the clicks and pops from his old record and created a rhythmic part in 7/8. He tried, for months, to line up drummers, but it seemed like every time he got close, something would interfere.

Eventually, Sander connected with Brian Campbell, who had studied Hindustani percussion for years, and played for festivals at local temples. He listened to the clicks and pops on ear buds, and Sander recorded multiple takes of him jamming to it. Brian also performed the vocal parts, which Sander chopped up and reassembled them as they are in the final track.

Almost immediately on the heels of that, a previously elusive jazz drummer, Alan Cook, said he was finally available, and Sander recorded multiple takes of him playing various things in his kit. None of these takes from Brian or Alan had any kind of timecode or reference to the click, or to each other. They were all ‘wild,’ and needed to be aligned by hand, which took a very long time.

Sander wanted a kind of culmination just before the big change, so he used a recording of a rather weird, pulsing, water feature in the sculpture garden of the Cerritos Civic Center. He then added heavy drum samples, and took a recording by trumpet player Dave Williams and completely deconstructed it, and reassembled it. He used another recording, of a different fountain, at the very end because the splishly splashy sound evoked the fluidity of Brian’s tabla performance. The Ruling Affection, with starts and stops, took probably a year to finish.

Here are some project screen shots of The Ruling Affection:

We were invited by Actuary’s Dustin Johnson to open a show featuring several experimental music luminaries, including The Degit Noor Fakirs, Actuary, Amps For Christ, Koonda Holaa, and VJ Franz K. Both of us were in a good place, and ended up someplace special.

Circumambient Superficies – Live – 11-18-12

In June we were invited to perform live in the studios of the Monday night Open Windows show, curated by Steve Baretta and Ustad Morelock, on KillRadio.org. It had been quite some time since we’d played live, together, so we were both really excited to do our thing. The set seemed to unfold in the blink of an eye, and Ustad’s description of it was “Fucking ZEN!” Anyway, here’s the recording:

The Hidden Nexus – Live on KillRadio.org’s Open Windows – June 25th, 2012

You can also listen to our post-performance conversation.

We’ve continued to receive kind comments from people about this performance, which is always nice.

The celebration of Ain Soph Aur’s 2nd anniversary was an opportunity to acknowledge our previous work, and look forward at the same time. In discussions with Carl, we came up with the idea of inviting artists who had performed with us before. In the past two years, we’d performed with 6 artists. Unfortunately, Hermit The Flog now lives in Portland, and Naill Morgan isn’t old enough to get into bars. Happily, all the other artists, David Witham, Jeremy Morelock, David Bunoan, and Christie Scott, were all willing and able to perform with us. To maintain parity, we invited two other artists to join us: Kirk Pickler and Mike Weber.

The idea we had was for the guest musicians to each have 20 minutes on stage with us, including a 10 minute overlap with another guest. We even made a schedule:

Intro 00-10 Sander/Carloff
10-20 + David B
20-30 + Kirk
30-40 – David B +Christie
40-50 -Kirk +Mike
50-60 -Christie +David W
60-70 – Mike +Jeremy
70-80 -David W
80-90 SRW & Carloff
90-120 Everybody!

(The ‘+’ indicates when an artist should begin, and the ‘-’ indicates when they should end.)

The schedule was never meant to be rigid, but more of a guide. Good thing, as we didn’t do a very good job of explaining it to our guest artists. Still, the performance did have a nice ebb and flo to it.

Although there were a few technical issues to contend with, I felt that the performance was, overall, quite good.

We recorded the two hour performance from the mixing board, and also made a room recording.

For those who feel daunted by navigating through a 2 hour performance recording, I’ve excerpted a 10 minute segment where Kirk Pickler plays a beautiful flute solo, one that features the lap steel stylings of Mike Weber, and another where Carl and I have an impromptu melodica duet, accompanied by David Witham on manipulated organ, and Christie Scott on vocals toward the end.

There are a total of seven 10-minute excerpts. You can find them all on the ‘Audio Tracks‘ page.

If you’re interested, I posted some anticipatory musings about the performance.

We extend our sincere thanks to our family and friends for their love and support, and to Ken Huntington for being open to hosting us.

Carl and I are starting a new studio project that began with four tracks of drums, (Frame Drum, Clay Drum, Tambourine, and Baking Sheet) recorded by SRW.   (Yes, a track that has a beat!)  

To that, Carl added voice, Chinese Moon Lute, violin, and some processing.  Once back in my hands, I added several tracks using my Industral Guitar Indy Rail lap steel.  Lately I’ve been using an alternate tuning:  G2 G3 G3 G3 G4 G4.  That’s right:  Three octaves, all G!

We’re still expecting contributions from David Bunoan, David Witham, and Christie Scott.  Still, while we’re patiently waiting for them, I thought I’d share the work in progress:

On This Road

12/08/09 – We just got David Witham’s contribution back, and WOW!  I really love it.  I’ve been listening to it obsessively, and I have all kinds of ideas. I find it really inspiring.

It stands well on its own, but I can sometimes hear parts that could be added… Dunno.

12/13/09 – Things keep unfolding in surprising and wonderful ways. I was chatting with an old High School chum, Janis Tanaka, who is an excellent professional musician. She’s been Pink’s touring bassist for at least her last two albums, and has played in a bunch of bands over the years, including the rather infamous L7.

I was talking with her about her current creative efforts, and sharing some of my own. She asked, “When do you get together to record?” We don’t, I explained, and showed her the links to several source tracks, and some links to various works in progress. The next day, I found this in my email inbox. She’s recorded a synth bass part over David Witham’s track, and it is DOPE!

I love the internet!

We’ve added a new ‘Releases‘ page to our blog because we now have an official release!

The Hop-Frog Kollectiv’s sporadic roaming festival, Nomadic Transmissions, took root in the Mojave desert this last weekend. 25 performances over two nights, lots of good friends, etc. I wasn’t up for camping, so drove out Saturday afternoon and arrived just after dark. We were schedule to play at 8 PM but, due to some last minute changes, went on a bit later. As is our habit, we often invite people to join us and, last night, vocalist Christie Scott (Bavab Bavab) lent her dulcet tones. Due to an oversight by both Carl and myself, we didn’t record the first part of our set but, at some point, Carl hit record and we captured the last half of our performance. I’m so glad he did.

Here is Upon the Lips of Angels.

I’ve uploaded a few photographs of the event to facebook.

Wow!  I felt really good about tonight’s performance.  It was great having David Witham sit in with us and, not surprisingly, his talent and artistry contributed greatly to the evening.

The event was well attended, and people seemed to enjoy what we did.  (that’s always a nice bonus!)

We should have photos soon but, for now, here’s a recording of the show:

The Appearance of Innocence

Because we were using two (2) PA systems, one for Carl and one for me, with David split between them, I wasn’t able to get an accurate board recording.  Although you can hear some talking, and the occational passing vehicle, the recording is actually quite nice.

Thanks to everyone who came, and thanks to all who support us in other ways.  We really appreciate it.

Carl and I performed at Echo Curio last Saturday.  It was a fun show.



Listen to the board recording:

The Inner Restraints Of Conscience

You can also see some photos.

Last night, Ain Soph Aur somewhat prematurely celebrated their one year anniversary at the place where it all began back in February of 2008: The Puka Bar. More specifically, Ken Huntington’s Long Beach Musicians’ League helped to ‘midwife’ ASA into existance by asking me if I wanted to organize an evening of eclectic music performances.

Last night, Carl Off and I were joined by David Bunoan, a celebrated local guitarist, amp tech, and all-round good egg. He used some unique Moog-designed pedals, and a tricked-out iPod Touch, to create all kinds of tweets, warbles, and wails. It was great! Carl and I had our usual contingent of bells and whistles (literally).

The recording is about 25 minutes long, and goes through several distinct phases. It starts out quite quiet, and gets quite loud. As with all of our recordings, I recommend a listening with a good set of headphones.

The performance was entirely improvised, unplanned, and wonderfully intuitive.

Following our set, SMGSAP and Between Ravens and Crows performed great sets of their own.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s Epiphany’s Labor.