GARMONBOZIA SERIES, PART 1

In 2014, Sophia Uddin and I started a new improvisatory duo we called Garmonbozia, based around using processed violin and electric piano to create ominous atmospheres. I am now working on releasing all of our recordings in a semi-archival series. The first 2 duo sessions from the end of 2014 will be properly released this Friday, March 22:

STUDIO SESSION 1: October 8, 2014

The initial three improvisations were recorded at our home studio on October 8, 2014, with the intent of celebrating Halloween with some spooky music. I released them on Soundcloud around Halloween 2014. In that same session, we also tried performing a couple songs from Interior City, including album opener ‘Arrival in a Distant Land’. This version became the framework for how we performed the song live with a full band. This was our first time experimenting with these patches, and we felt the results were successful enough that improvisations in this style became part of our repertoire. This proper album issue of the first session features a new mix, in addition to a previously unissued recording of ‘Arrival in a Distant Land’ with a few new overdubs (including the vocal take). A listening party will be taking place on Friday evening, 7:30PM EST – RSVP here!

STUDIO SESSION 2: November 17, 2014

Our second session in this style occurred a little over a month later, yielding two more improvisations. Early this year, I decided to send the raw tracks from that session to Ryan Fitz-Henry of Australian bands Forecast Tomorrow and Solkyri. He used these tracks as raw material for his new collaborative album with Ryan Pracy, Forecast Tomorrow’s ‘Concussion’. They described this project on their Bandcamp:

This EP is a collection of experimental drones, field recordings and improvisations. It also features several guest appearances from friends of the band who share our sympathies for those in Palestine. Now on release of the complete EP, over 30,000 deaths have been recorded. The majority of this is women and children. The EP is presented for $1 on Bandcamp. Any amount you choose to pay will be donated to Act for Peace. We will donate everything.

Concussion II, III and IV feature guest improvisations by Gabriel Riccio and Sophia Uddin of The Gabriel Construct. Gabe has always been passionate about the freedom of the Palestinian people and wanted to contribute some of his project’s darker improvisations to the project, including his hypnotising keyboard work and Sophia Uddin’s haunting violin. We were more than happy to oblige and what resulted was inspiration for several more tracks on the EP.

Ryan Fitz-Henry used one of our November 2014 Garmonbozia improvisations as the basis for ‘Concussion IV’, and used some of the violin from the other improvisation in ‘Concussion II’. He also used the dark ambient piano improv I posted on Youtube in 2014 as the basis for ‘Concussion III’. Said improvisation was recorded in 2012 on a University of Pittsburgh practice room piano into a laptop microphone, so the recording quality was quite poor. I’m amazed at how good Ryan made it sound!

On the note of duos, the first song by my new black metal duo with Diogo Tabanez (who I previously collaborated with on a track called ‘Bleeding Lights’) went live today:

In a dark moonlit night, during a winter more north as the moon, within the deepest bowels of the northern forsests, fate wanted that a certain pursuer of dark alchemies, a necromancer of renown, a wizard of ill repute, knower of all that is grim, peddler of horrible curses and dark poems of the underworld, crossed paths with an indescribable creature. The dark mage asked the denizen of the undergrowth, “O ye of spiny hide and snouty visage, where dost thou hail from? What otherworldly secrets are kept in thine dark lair? How has thee been dealing with the divorce?” – to which the critter responded “I’m holding up, man, thanks for asking. I’ve been picking the guitar back up again and stuff, it’s helping me quite a bit actually. Hey, tell you what, how about we swing by my place and I show you some stuff I’ve been working on? We can even try and fit in some of those lyrics of yours, if you’re still doing those”.

The lich lord then let out a bellowing laugh, like the roar of a thousand-year-old undead dragon, and said: “Hah! A most fortuitous rendez-vous indeed, my barbed compatriot, for I have with me a slough of dark verses, veritable elegies of the underworld, cursed symphonies of fell madness… truly, Dom Satanas himself could have not come up with such execrable sonatas! Let us go at once, to shower this land with dark, and cold, and grim, and dark!”. The odious conjurer then whistled for his hounds of war, and off went the entourage to create the most blighted ballads this accursed world has ever seen. And thus was born ðøgeþístlr. The correct way to pronounce ðøgeþístlr is not to actually say it but instead to howl like a wolf in a night as cold as the dark.

Lørd Tenebröus (Diogo Tabanez) – Dungeon Synths, Samples, Whispers, Lyrics, Structure
Divorced Hedgehog (Gabriel Riccio) – Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Keyboards, Drum Programming, Riffs, Mixing
ᚨᛚᛖᚲᛊ ᚾᚨᚱᚢᛞᚨᚹᚷ (Alex Narveson) – Cover Art

Interviews and More Records

Last month, I made my debut as an interviewer for Make Weird Music, interviewing artists I’ve collaborated with about their new records. Many thanks to Anthony Garone for allowing this to happen!

First, I interviewed my good friend and collaborator Sacha Mullin:

The interview was mostly about his new record, ‘Casino Wilderness Period‘, which I contributed to in several ways. Give it a listen below:

Next, I interviewed Ben Spees of The Mercury Tree:

I sang on the title track of their new record, ‘Self Similar‘, which is a microtonal album, mostly in 17EDO. You can stream it in my previous post.

I also sang on the opening song of Travis Orbin’s new record, ‘Silly String III‘, in addition to engineering Sophia Uddin’s violin parts, Sacha Mullin’s vocal spot, and a piano VST:

I played piano on the closing song of Cheer-Accident’s new album, ‘Q-Pop‘:

That song also features Sophia Uddin, who wrote its main idea.

We were also involved in another CHEER-ACCIDENT record which releases on February 23rd – an easy listening record entitled ‘Vacate‘, engineered by Steve Albini. My sole contribution was the magic organ chord on ‘Postmarked’. You can pre-order it below:

2023 Update

The Mercury Tree Guest Spot

I have made my microtonal debut singing lead vocals on the title song of the new record by Portland band The Mercury Tree, Self Similar. The song is in 17EDO, and also features Tom Shad on piccolo bass and Deja Indigo Yerger (of Cryptic Ruse fame) on guitar.

New Editions of King Crimson Sheet Music Books

Score Book Bundle
The King Crimson ‘Discipline Era Transcriptions’ has been reprinted in a third edition, and the ‘THRAK: The Complete Scores’ books has received a second edition update. These books are available at the new 7D media store alongside 3 of my other sheet music books for US customers. International customers can order these new editions through Burning Shed, either individually or as a bundle.

Travis Orbin’s 2023 Solo Records

I served as the vocal producer on Travis Orbin’s ‘This is a Self-Titled Record’, in addition to playing keyboards on two songs engineering Sophia Uddin’s violin parts on four songs:

I also did some engineering work on ‘The Neon Suite’ on his new record ‘Delectable Machinery II’:

Travis also recently released a double album of soundscapes, ‘The Soundtrack of Nonexistence’, which you can check out here.

New Chamber Music Recording: Flirtation? (2014)

In 2014, Duo Verico (Sam Lorber and Becki Simon) commissioned me to write an 8 minute piece for flute and alto saxophone to be performed at the Navy Band International Saxophone Symposium in January 2015. They just finished editing a video of a new recording of the piece, which can be viewed above. The piece was an interesting challenge for me, as I’m a very chordal musical thinker – writing for 2 monophonic instruments was a bit outside my wheelhouse, even moreso with a deadline, but it was fun to take on. I did a bunch of nonsense involving 9-tone serialization of Messiaen’s 3rd mode of limited transposition. I hope you enjoy listening to it! You can also listen to the piece on Soundcloud.

In other news, I moved to Baltimore, which is the reason for the long silence.

PODCAST APPEARANCE: YOU SHOULD CHECK IT OUT

I recently appeared on the podcast You Should Check It Out, which is co-hosted by Greg Loman, a fantastic guitarist who played on quite a bit of future TGC material. He worked with Roger Waters at Walter Reed hospital with the group The Resilient and collaborated with his son Harry Waters on The Halcyon, a short film on Dust. I had a great time talking to Greg and his friends Nick Kline and Jay Rossman. This is the first time I’ve gotten to publicly talk about my own music outside of form interviews, and I debuted a few clips of new material. I also talked a bit about the new King Crimson book, so check it out!

Episode #076 – Special Guest: Gabriel Riccio (Part 1 – Creating Music)

Gabriel Lucas Riccio is a vocalist, composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, transcriber, and engraver from Salisbury, MD, currently residing in Chicago, IL. You can find a whole lot more about him on his website (TheGabrielConstruct.com). He was so much fun to talk to that we’ve split this conversation up into two episodes.

This week we dive into Gabe’s music & process. His first album Interior City, released as The Gabriel Construct in 2013, was his first major endeavor in a studio setting & he poured everything he had, creatively speaking, into the project. Believing the project would be therapeutic and finding himself, at the end of it, unsatisfied with the result, he spent the next few years struggling to create more music while he contributed to other artists’ projects. He also spent that time learning to cope with his depression. The process has been long but he’s rounded a corner the last 18 months and he’s brought some fantastic new music to share with us today.

We’re thankful to Gabe for coming on the show and hope you join us next week for Part 2, where we dive into his work transcribing King Crimson. Have a great week everyone!

Songs:
The Gabriel Construct – Inner Sanctum
Gabriel Riccio & Sophia Uddin – Between Entwines
The Gabriel Construct – Hiding a Light
The Gabriel Construct – Build

Episode #077 – Special Guest: Gabriel Riccio (Part 2 – Transcribing King Crimson)

This week we bring you the second half of our conversation. About 7 years ago, Gabe uploaded a transcription of King Crimson’s “The ConstruKction of Light” to YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kd5kG4847I], completing his senior comprehensive exams. A few hours later, a positive comment from Trey Gunn appeared & the two connected. Gabe went on to transcribe a book for Trey Gunn (and another for The Stick Men) before tackling King Crimson. With a team of proofreaders & Trey’s assistance, the completed “King Crimson: The Discipline Era” is now available. It includes all three 1980s Crimson records: “Discipline”, “Beat” & “Three of a Perfect Pair”. We really get into the weeds on this one & it is absolutely delightful (hope you agree)!

*Unfortunately it’s recently sold out, but we believe more will be coming in the near future…so keep an eye out if you’re interested!

Thank you again Gabe for coming on the show & have a great week everyone!

Songs:
King Crimson – Neal & Jack & Me
King Crimson – Dig Me

KING CRIMSON – THE DISCIPLINE ERA TRANSCRIPTIONS

Order now at https://musicscores.bandcamp.com/merch/the-discipline-era-transcriptions-king-crimson

Limited edition, full-band transcriptions + tabs of one of King Crimson’s most innovative eras:

Discipline
Beat
Three Of A Perfect Pair

All three releases meticulously transcribed by Gabriel Riccio.
Editing and tabs by Trey Gunn.

This version of King Crimson (Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, Bill Bruford) shocked the world with the pioneering musical language brought forth on the “Discipline” release in 1981. They went on to record two more albums in this configuration — “Beat” and “Three of a Perfect Pair”.

Gabriel Riccio set the standard for deep and thorough transcriptions with the King Crimson “THRAK” book. Trey Gunn was a member King Crimson for 10 years and has worked with Robert Fripp for nearly 20 years.

Proof-readers include Matt Tate, Dean Pascarella and Anthony Garone.

Produced on high-quality paper in 9″x12″ format, spiral bound for lay-flat-open reading. 256 pages.

Pieces included:

Discipline —

Elephant Talk
Frame by Frame
Matte Kudesai
Indiscipline
Thela Hun Ginjeet
The Sheltering Sky
Discipline

Beat —

Neal and Jack and Me
Heartbeat
Sartori in Tangier
Waiting Man
Neurotica
Two Hands
The Howler

Three of a Perfect Pair —

Three of a Perfect Pair
Model Man
Sleepless
Man With an Open Heart
Dig Me
Industry
Larks Tongues in Aspic (Part III)

Tony Levin’s “The King Crimson Barbershop”

New Travis Orbin Albums & Interview

Anthony Garone recently interviewed Travis Orbin, Sophia Uddin, and I for his Youtube channel Make Weird Music:

The interview is about Travis’s 3 new solo releases, which you can hear below:

Silly String Redux (Bandcamp)

Finite Complete (Bandcamp)

Finite III (Bandcamp)

Physical copies of all 3 records can be purchased at Travis’s Big Cartel Store.

ENGINEERING WORK – AFROMAN, TRAVIS ORBIN & MORE

Over the past year, I have recorded the following in my home studio:

-Afroman’s beer ad dance song, ‘Cold Fro-T-5 and Two Frigg Fraggs’. I contributed the 808 drums and recorded Afroman rapping, singing, and playing guitar, bass, and keyboards.

-Travis Orbin’s sixth solo release ‘Finite II‘ came out today. I engineered Sophia Uddin’s violin parts:

I also ran sessions for the violin, trumpet, trombone, saxophone, and upright bass parts on Travis’s fifth release and debut full length, ‘Silly String II‘:

-Matt Tate’s bass parts on Stephan Thelen’s upcoming record ‘Fractal Guitar‘, featuring David Torn, Henry Kaiser, and Markus Reuter.

-I engineered, co-produced, and helped arrange the vocals on Baroche’s debut EP, ‘Sides‘:

I also recorded Sophia Uddin’s 7-string violin parts on the opening track.

-Two songs, ‘Viotar‘ and ‘El Touba‘ for Sophia Uddin’s group ‘Folklear Nuclei’.

-Sacha Mullin’s second Christmas EP, ‘Snow & Such‘, was entirely recorded and mixed in my apartment. I edited some vocals on his sophomore record ‘Duplex‘ and have been helping him to record demos for his next record. I also played keys with Sacha on Chicago Acoustic Underground, Episode 701.

-I recorded and performed a guest vocal spot on Instar’s track ‘One Word at a Time’ from their EP ‘The Ex Nihlio Cycle‘, also featuring Travis Orbin:

I am always available for engineering work, so contact me if you’re interested in hiring me.

THRAKBOOK

Firstly, I’ve got a few shows coming up in Chicago. I have my first gig with Sacha Mullin since 2015 – it’s a CD release show for his new record Duplex. Sophia and I are doing a duo gig as The Gabriel Construct. Then Pavlov3 is reforming for our first gig of 2017.

-7/15/17 Sacha Mullin at Cafe Mustache (CD Release show)
-7/16/17 Gabriel/Sophia duo with Nine Worlds Ensemble at Uncommon Ground Devon
-8/28/17 Pavlov3 with Sonar at Reggies Music Joint


I’ve been working with Trey Gunn on a sheet music book for King Crimson’s THRAK for quite a few years now, and it ships September 1! You can preorder it here.

Here’s a sample… Bruford playing sextuplets phrased in 5s against a 4/4 groove while Fripp improvises:
SEXSLEEPEATDRINKDREAM

On a somewhat related note, here is a sample of a piece I engraved and helped orchestrate for Markus Reuter:

Sun Trance by Markus Reuter (short cut) from Dennis Kuhn on Vimeo.