Ain Soph Aur

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.

We’re super excited to be performing at the Slow Sound Festival, which is taking place at multiple venues in Long Beach throughout the month of September.

I made a flyer:

Here’s the official poster (pdf).

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.

Glenn Bach, a wonderfully talented artist, writer, and good egg was at the Puka on Monday and, unbeknownst to me, took a bunch of lovely pictures during our performance. I’m not sure, but Shea Gauer of SMGSAP may have taken some too. Anyway, mad props, kudos, and thanks to both for hooking us up with this documentation:

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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.

In celebration of it’s one year anniversary, The Long Beach Musicians’ League is presenting an evening of experimental music featuring Ain Soph Aur, Between Ravens and Crows, and SMGSAP.

Ain Soph Aur is an experimental music duo featuring Karloff (Refrigerator Mothers, The Hop Frog Kollectiv, URCK Records) and Sander Roscoe Wolff (Quiverfish, Blue Dot, Poor Old Joe). They create gently
evolving sonic landscapes using a variety of acoustic, electric, and electronic instruments, found sounds, and effects. ASA will be joined on modular synthesizer by David Bunoan.

Also performing is Between Ravens and Crows. Flail and Thwack, world travelers, bring a balance of creation and destruction to their
performances, smashing home-made instruments, delicately playing Indonesian metalphones, and occasionally causing harm to themselves and others.

SMGSAP is Shea M Gauer and Scott A Peterson. They’ve been using a variety of sources to explore sound and context for nearly 10 years.

I look forward to seeing you there!

While working on Dancing Upon A Foaming Sea, I had a discussion with my friend Loren Nerell, who is a long time and well established electronic music artist whose work is well regarded by many folks around the globe. We talked about a well known technique which involves taking a short audio tidbit and slowing it down repeatedly, until it sounds quite different. This is a technique used by Brian Eno, most famously on his CD, Neroli.

In DUAFS, there’s a short recording of a chime or bell. It looks like a metal heart, no more than 2 inches across, but inside there is some sort of ball and tone bars. I used this as the basis for Swimming in Dark Waters.

One of the great things about working with Karloff is that, when I share something with him, I know that he’ll find just the right thing to connect with my intention, and then take it to a whole new level. His addition of synth on this track is at first sublime, then… well, I don’t want to spoil the surprise.

We may yet add more to this. Sometimes it can be difficult to know when to stop. Still, I am happy to present it as a work in progress. Slip on your headphones, and enjoy:

Swimming in Dark Waters

Please leave a comment and let us know what you think!

In the previous post, a working version of Dancing Upon a Foaming Sea was revealed.  I was in the kitchen one morning and observed an interesting, and short-lived, visual occurance which I documented with my video camera.  It seemed to go nicely with DUFS, so I put them together.  Here’s the result:

A few weeks ago Carl, my collaborator in Ain Soph Aur, emailed me a short audio snippet with the request that I come up with some parts that might sit well with it. The part was strange, with an unusual meter and a chorused bass part that felt elusive. I immediately recorded several guitar tracks, burned them to a CD, and gave them to Carl within the next few days.

Several weeks passed and, to be honest, I’d pretty much forgotten about it entirely. In my email in-box came an MP3, where Carl had taken his original loop, my guitar parts, and added several more tracks as well. I began to get really excited. He then gave me 14 stereo WAV tracks that made up his mix of the tune, and I began playing with those, adding more tracks, processing existing ones, and generally going crazy.

The result is a 33 minute epic of sonic goodness. Now, Carl hasn’t heard this long-form version yet, and it really isn’t complete. I have no doubt that, when he hears it, he’ll be inspired to respond in some way. I can’t wait!!!

Still, he’s away right now, and won’t be back for a while, so I felt moved to share this as it is, knowing that, down the road, it may change significantly.

So, without further ado, behold “Dancing Upon A Foaming Sea.”

[note: this is a very large, 31 MB, file. People with small hard drives or dial-up connections should wait for the CD release]

The title, which comes from Alister Crowley’s description of the Princess of Cups in his Egyptian Tarot book, The Book of Thoth, may change too, btw.

I’ve also posted a screen shot of the project in my Cubase SX3 audio software.

To the best of my knowledge, the track contains the following: Bass, organ, guitar, cornet, recorder, tin flute, bells, voices, plastic tubes, shakers, metal bowls, dog collars, field recordings of seals and birds, a live performance snippet, kalimba, hand drum, synth drums, and a few other things. See if you can find them all!