The Squid's Ear Magazine


Leap Of Faith Chinese Orchestra: Magic Squares (Evil Clown)

A unique and fascinating edition of the Leap of Faith Orchestra, bringing special guests Jimmy Zhao, Yazhi Gao, Jiaxin Winky Wan, Ziya Gao, and Kaixin Hou performing on Chinese instruments to join with the core duo of David Peck on clarinets, saxophones, clarinets & flutes, Glynis Lomon on cello, aquasonic & voice, along with percussionist/drummer Michael Knoblach and bassist Scott Samenfeld.
 

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Personnel:



David Peck (PEK)-clarinet, contralto clarinet, contrabass clarinet, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, bass flute, tarota, guanzi, novation peak, moog subsequent, prophet, [d]ronin, theremin with moogerfooger, 17 string bass, gongs, plate gong, Englephone, danmo, log drums, brotosaurus and tank bells, cowbells, Tibetan bowls, bells and chimes , orchestral chimes, balafon, xylophone, almglocken, orchestral anvils, bells, seed pod rattle, flex a tone

Eric Dahlman-flugelhorn, overtone voice, moog subsequent, novation peak, Linnstrument controllers, game call

John Fugarino-trumpet, slide trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone, moog subsequent, novation peak, Linnstrument controllers, log drums, wood blocks, bells, seed pod rattle, danmo, Englephone

Tom Swafford-violin

Aleksander Nivette-violin, crotales, moog subsequent, novation peak, gavel, Linnstrument controllers, nord stage 3

Jimmy Zhao-Chinese folk percussion

Yazhi Guo-suona, bass suona, guanzi, hulusi

Jiaxin Wan-guzheng

Ziya Gao-pipa

Kaixin Hou-Chinese percussion

Moyu Zhang-piano, voice, novation peak, Linnstrument controllers, syntrx

Scott Samenfeld-electric upright bass, electric alto recorder, algaita

Michael Knoblach-Quartz Crystal Singing Bowls, various shakers, devil chasers, split bamboo mallets, LP udders, Fisher Price Happy Apple, wooden clacker, bells Bodhran, copper bowl, enamel bowls, sand blocks, African circumcision rattles, slinky, tit-fers, wooden billiards triangle, meinl helix bowls, xmas ornaments, tiny sleigh bells, glass furniture carpet protectors, ratchets, tiny seed pod shakers, huge and medium seed pods, party time balloon pump, wooden robot, Griswold cast iron skillets, flex-a-tones, vibratones, whisk, abacuses, basket of rocks, turtle skin rattle, egg beater, happy apple, pitchforks, devil chasers, wood shakers, fisher price turtle, fisher price bee, first years clown, humpty dumpty toy, spooky world noise makers, plastic tubes, castanets, Victorian children's rattles, antique Asian bronze children's rattles, healing balls, mortar and pestle, confirmation bells, wooden bell, sleigh bells, elephant bell, sistrum, antique sheep shears, axatse, scalp massagers, basket rattles, metal rattle, African wood blocks with stone inside, dinosaur and star teething rings, bags of marbles, water filled mason jar, magic wands, water filled lobster pot, palm frond rattles, plastic ball rattles, American Percussion busy box drum

Joel Simches-live to 2 track recording


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Label: Evil Clown
Catalog ID: 9365
Squidco Product Code: 34830

Format: CDR
Condition: New
Released: 2024
Country: USA
Packaging: Digipack
Recorded at Evil Clown Headquarters, in Waltham, Massachusetts, on January 27th, 2024.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Leap of Faith is the core duet of the Leap of Faith Orchestra (LOFO) comprised of PEK on clarinets, saxophones, clarinets & flutes, and Glynis Lomon on cello, aquasonic & voice. The ensemble is based in Boston and dates back to the early 90s. We utilize a huge arsenal of additional Evil Clown instruments to improvise long works featuring transformations across highly varied sonorities. At times, the core unit has been a trio or even a quartet. The longest running core unit was comprised of PEK, Glynis and drummer Yuri Zbitnov, who played for the last couple of years of the archival period and the first 5 years of the reboot starting in 2015. The ensemble has always been highly modular, and our many recordings (well over 100) feature the core unit in dozens of configurations with a huge list of guests and occasionally as only the core unit with no guests. Currently, the core unit is the duet of PEK and Lomon and we are regularly presenting LIVESTREAMs to YouTube from Evil Clown Headquarters with other guest performers.

According to the declared band aesthetic above, I generally do not credit a performance to Leap of Faith or one of its variations unless Glynis is on the session. This time, Glynis had a family issue and could not make the set, but I am still going to call the ensemble Leap of Faith Chinese Orchestra. There are two previous performances by the LOFCO with various Chinese musicians brought by Jimmy Zhao. Jimmy had a band with percussionist Michael Knoblach, trumpeter Eric Dahlman called and a few others called the JMDE Quartet. Early on in my association with Michael Knoblach (the Expanse project) Michael brought the entire JMDE Quartet for a few sessions with me as the fifth player. These sets were credited to Expanse Meets the JMDE Quartet. The next time Jimmy came he brought more Chinese players, and I invited Glynis, Tom Swafford (vln), Kit Demos (b) and Steve Skop (b) for a western string section. This was the first set credited to the LOFCO.

For this edition of the LOFO I have titled the ensemble the Leap of Faith Chinese Orchestra... Not because it is like a traditional Chinese Orchestra, but because it is Leap of Faith Orchestra with a strong Chinese element. The declared aesthetic intent of the LOFCO is to combine traditional Chinese instruments and aesthetic with modern free improvisation in a large ensemble format. Even without Glynis, for this set we had 13 performers, so the aesthetic intent was met, and I decided that it did not make sense to credit the performance to some other ensemble name.

For Magic Squares we have 3 horns, 3 western strings, 6 Chinese musicians and Michael Knoblach on percussion. The main studio room fits at most 6 players if there is a drummer, 8 or 9 without a drummer. Typically, the overflow goes in the kitchen, most often the drummer since that also isolates him in the recording and helps the mix. 13 was such a large unit that we put the percussion in a third room, 4 of the Chinese players in the kitchen and the horns and western strings in the studio proper. The video mix has 8 cameras, one of which is handheld by camera operator Paul Brennan. Paul was very busy for this set, since we couldn't get complete coverage from the static cameras and Paul ran around trying to cover as much as possible the action that was out of frame of the static cameras.

Anyway, this large unit follows up on the earlier LOFCO sets with a dense work of sound, sometimes with the Chinese sounds forward, sometimes with the improvisors forward, and sometimes a more even blend of cultures. It's a fascinating aesthetic problem and one that I will schedule as often as I can in the future..."-David Peck, from the liner notes


Artist Biographies

"PEK (aka David Peck) is a multi-instrument improviser who plays all kinds of instruments including saxophones, clarinets, double reeds, percussion, electronics and auxiliary sound making devices of all kinds.

PEK was born in 1964 and started playing clarinet and piano in elementary school. In 7th grade he started saxophones, first on alto, then switching to tenor in high school. He spent 10 years playing in rock bands and studying classical and jazz saxophone with Kurt Heisig in the San Jose CA area before moving to Boston in 1989 to attend Berklee where he studied performance with George Garzone. While Berklee was an excellent place to study harmony, voice training and other important aspects of a conventional formal music training course of study, it was not a very good environment for learning contemporary (or pure) improvisation (apart from his work with George). PEK did find, however, that Boston had a thriving improvisation scene, and it was here that he developed his mature pure improvisation language.

During the 90s, PEK performed with many notable improvisers including Masashi Harada, Glynis Lomon, William Parker, Laurence Cooke, Eric Zinman, Glenn Spearman, Raqib Hassan, Charlie Kohlhase, Steve Norton, Keith Hedger, Mark McGrain, Sydney Smart, Matt Samolis, Martha Ritchey, Larry Roland, Dennis Warren, Yuri Zbitnov, Craig Schildhauer, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Leslie Ross, Rob Bethel, Wayne Rogers, Eric Rosenthal, Taylor Ho Bynum, Tatsuya Nakatani, James Coleman, B'hob Rainey and George Garzone.

PEK met cellist Glynis Lomon when they played together in the Masashi Harada Sextet which existed between 1990 and 1992. They developed a deep musical connection which they continued following the MHS; first with the Leaping Water Trio for a few years and then with the first version of Leap of Faith in 1994. Leap of Faith was very active in Boston from that time until 2001 and went through a series of several core ensembles which always included both PEK and Glynis. Other key Leap of Faith core members during this period were Mark McGrain (trombone), Craig Schildhauer (double bass), Sydney Smart (drums), Yuri Zbitnov (drums) and James Coleman (theremin). Leap of Faith was always a very modular unit with constantly shifting personnel and many different guests. The early Leap of Faith period concluded in 2001 with a dual bill at an excellent room at MIT called Killian Hall with George Garzone's seminal trio the Fringe.

At this time, PEK changed careers for his day gig, returning to college for a computer science degree and beginning to work in the structural engineering industry at Simpson Gumpertz & Heger. He became far too busy to continue the heavy music schedule, and preferring not to do music casually, he entered a long musically dormant period.

Flash forward to early 2014. PEK was a regular mail order customer of Downtown Music Gallery, the premiere specialty shop in Manhattan for free jazz, contemporary classical and other new music. While in New York on SGH business, he went down to DMG and had a lengthy conversation with proprietor Bruce Lee Gallanter about the early Leap of Faith period. He then sent Bruce a package of about 15 CD titles from the 90s and was pleasantly surprised when Bruce managed to sell nearly all of it. This public interest in the old catalog spurred PEK into getting back into performance. He reformed Leap of Faith with Glynis Lomon (cello, voice, aquasonic), Yuri Zbitnov (drums) and newcomer Steve Norton (clarinets and saxophones) and started to record and perform in early 2015.

Now having access to financial resources always absent in the early period, PEK began to accumulate a huge collection of instruments both for himself and also to expand the palate of Leap of Faith and the other projects soon to follow. He acquired new recording equipment and many new saxophones, clarinets, double reeds, metal and wooden percussion instruments, electronic instruments, signal processing equipment and other sound-making devices from many cultures. He revived his old record label, Evil Clown, and created reissues and new releases for much of the early period work by Leap of Faith and many of his other projects to sell at shows, DMG and the internet (around 100 archival titles).

The Arsenal of equipment has a grand purpose: To establish a large scale aesthetic problem to use the instruments to make long form broad palate improvisations with dramatic transformation and development. The very broad palate enables the long improvisations to evolve with very different movements and pronounced development over their length. PEK started the Leap of Faith Orchestra, a greatly expanded Leap of Faith, to achieve this purpose along with a number of smaller ensembles which are sub-units of the full orchestra including String Theory (focusing on orchestral strings), Metal Chaos Ensemble (focusing on metallic percussion), Turbulence (horn players), Mekaniks (electronics) and Chicxulub (space rock). In all, the Evil Clown roster includes over 40 musicians who contribute to one or more of the various projects, with PEK participating in all of them. Leap of Faith has also had some special guests like Steve Swell (trombone), Thomas Heberer (trumpet), Jeremiah Cymerman (clarinet) and Jim Hobbs (alto sax). The Leap of Faith Orchestra happens whenever several of these groups play together at the same time, or the ensemble exceeds 7 or 8 players. The Full Orchestra is a special case discussed below.

The current roster is comprised in part of: - Core Leap of Faith: PEK, Glynis Lomon, Yuri Zbitnov (Steve Norton has since left to go to Graduate School) - Percussion: Andria Nicodemou (vibes), Kevin Dacey (perc), Joe Hartigan (perc), Syd Smart (drums) - Strings: Jane Wang (cello), Clara Kebabian (violin), Tony Leva (bass), Mimi Rabson (violin), Kirsten Lamb (bass), Brendan Higgins (bass), Silvain Castellano (bass), Rob Bethel (cello), Kit Demos (bass), Matt Scutchfield (violin), Helen Sherrah-Davies (violin) - Piano: Eric Zinman, Peter Cassino, Emilio Gonzales - Horns: Dave Harris (tuba, trombone), Charlie Kohlhase (saxes), Bob Moores (trumpet), Sara Honeywell (trombone), Forbes Graham (trumpet), John Baylies (tuba), Dan O'Brien (woodwinds), Zack Bartolomei (woodwinds), Kat Dobbins (trombone), Steve Provizer (trumpet, baritone horn), Matt Samolis (flute) - Electronics: Greg Grinnell, Jason Adams (electric bass, electronics) - Guitar: Dru Wesely, Grant Beale, Chris Florio - Voice: Dei Xhrist

Evil Clown is documenting the ongoing solutions to this aesthetic challenge by creating limited CD editions and digital download albums of every performance and studio session by this array of ensembles. Interested audience can track the development of the grand scale project over the many releases - over 80 albums recorded and released so far between Jan of 2015 and March of 2017. All of the bands are highly modular, changing personnel and instrumentation with each meeting. The result is an enormous amount of music that shares the same fundamental improvisational language but differs from event to event greatly both in sonority (overall sound) and specific detail.

For the full Leap of Faith Orchestra, PEK composes a graphic notation score to guide the improvisation. The full Orchestra is comprised of roughly 20 players from the roster and performs twice a year. Two performances have occurred to date - The Expanding Universe in June of 2016 and Supernovae in November of 2016. Composition for Possible Universes is completed and the work will be performed on May 28, 2017 with another performance (score not yet begun) scheduled for November.

The scores use a device called Frame Notation where written English descriptions of the overall sonority desired and simple graphic symbols are given durations for each player on their part along with direction on when to play and when not to play. The directions are put in little boxes called frames which are arranged on a timeline and are simple enough to be immediately understood by the performers. Horizontal lines, called Duration Bars, extend across the page indicating when each Event (the Frame + the Duration Bar) begins and ends. An Event can be intended for the full ensemble, a defined group within the ensemble (for example, Metal Chaos Ensemble), a custom group (for example, Tubas), or an individual (for example, Andria Feature).

Parts are the full score annotated with Hiliters so that each player's instructions stand out. They can clearly see their individual instructions, but can also see the big picture, enabling far more knowledge about the pending actions of the rest of the ensemble than typical in pure improvisation. The players track the elapsed time on a very large sports clock. There is no melodic, harmonic or rhythmic information specified. This system allows PEK to compose detailed Ensemble Events without having to notate pitches or rhythms which would require significant rehearsal to accurately achieve."

-All About Jazz (https://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/pek)
3/31/2025

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"- Performed with free jazz icon Hal Russell & his NRG Ensemble, Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, Travis Chandler Philharmonic, Auddity, Rakalam Bob Moses, DMJE quartet and DME trio. Dahlman has appeared on Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty's Discovery Channel soundtrack "Bridges".

- Music appears in the documentary film "The Bear Cult" (2015 Hyperion).

- Studied with Ingrid Monson, Dave Frank, Anthony Davis & John Luther Adams."

-Evil Clown (http://www.evilclown.rocks/bio-eric-dahlman.html)
3/31/2025

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"John Fugarino received his Bachelor of Music from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He then attended the New England Conservatory of Music and earned a Masters in Music Composition. John has performed and taught trumpet in both the classical and jazz idioms. Has performed a wide range of music including Orchestral, Jazz, Rhythm and Blues, Free Form Improvisation and Microtonal Music. Currently John can be seen playing his own jazz compositions and lead trumpet with "The Hornzone" an R&B/ Funk band. John is a music teacher at the Butler Middle School where he teaches in the Midi-Music Lab and directs the school Jazz Ensemble. Trumpet recordings are on the Lyra Ohm label and Zoning Records. Orchestral music recorded by the Radio and Television Orchestra of Bratislava."

-Real School Music (https://therealschoolofmusic.com/instructors/john-fugarino/)
3/31/2025

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"Tom Swafford grew up in Seattle, studied composition with Louis Andriessen (Amsterdam), Olly Wilson (U.C. Berkeley) and John McDonald (Tufts U.), and has been active as a violinist and composer in a wide variety of music communities since his arrival in New York in 2007. He has presented concerts of his music at Roulette Intermedium and The Stone. He recorded and toured Europe in the group Kef, with bassist Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz and guitarist Aram Bajakian. In 2015, his 11-piece ensemble String Power released its debut album. His musical theater piece, Bad Actor, was performed at the Tank in 2017. He recently recorded a duo album with bassist Zachary Swanson, and a trio album with Swanson and drummer Dalius Naujo."

-Tom Swafford Website (https://www.tomswafford.com/bio.html)
3/31/2025

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Jimmy Zhao is a Boston area musician and improviser, performing on erhu, bandhu, other Chinese instruments and viola.

-Squidco 3/31/2025

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Yazhi Guo: "Co-founder and founding President of the American Academy of World Music, performer, educator,and musical instrument reformer, active on the international stage. He is good at playing suona and a variety of Chinese and Western wind instruments. He is recognized by the industry as one of the best suona performers in the world, and he is committed to integrating Chinese music with world music. Graduated from the Traditional Music Department of the Central Conservatory of Music in1990, and stayed on to teach at the school; in 2000, he became the principal of suona of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra (HKCO); in 2012 he went to the United States to study, and also gave lectures and held lectures at Harvard University, Philadelphia University of the Arts and Berklee College of Music concert. He won the Pro Musicis International Award in New York in 1998 and the Hong Kong Artist of the Year Award in 2013. In 2015, he obtained the Artist Diploma of Berklee College of Music, and He has led the Berklee College of Music Band to visit China and Singapore many times.. He has recorded more than adozen of solo albums, many of which were released globally. The Suona active core developed by him won the second prize of Science and Technology Progress Award of the Ministry of Culture in 1993; he also developed Polyphonic Hulusi and and Guzheng transposition double-slot bridge, which has attracted much attention in the industry. In 2021, Co-founded the American Academy of World Music and the "Two Tune" World Music Ensemble in Henderson House.

Art achievement:

Guo's invention of the suona "Living Core" was awarded the "Second Prize for Progress in Science and Technology" by the Ministry of Culture, which made a major breakthrough in the performance of traditional suona in converting all modes and temporarily changing sounds. Zhao Songting, the master of the flute, praised it as: "Small invention, great achievement". Now "live core" has been used by many people in ensemble and solo. Guo used the suona live core to cooperate with many composers to develop new suona works, giving suona a new position.

Awards:

In 1998, Guo won the Pro Musicis International Award at Carnegie Hall in New York, the United States. The American "Qiao Bao" described it as "an important step for Chinese national wind music to go global". In July of the same year, he was selected as one of the most outstanding musicians in China, and he performed at the concert to welcome US President Clinton's first visit to China, which was highly praised. In 2013, Kwok won the "Hong Kong 2012 Best Artist Award (Music)" and the "Chinese Culture Communication Contribution Award" issued by the Confucius Institute in the United States. In 2016, he was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation by the Governor of Massachusetts and the Mayor of Boston in recognition of his strong support for local culture and arts.

Artistic resume:

Yazhi Guo studied jazz at the Berklee College of Music in the United States and obtained the Artistic Diploma in 2015. In 2013, he was invited to participate in the Cleveland Arts Festival in the United States and the Chicago Summer Music Festival in 2014. He has participated in the Chinese New Year Gala held by the Confucius Institute in various parts of the United States for several consecutive years, and received the Chinese Culture Communication Contribution Award from the institute.

In June and September 2016, two concerts of fusion jazz "One night in Beijing" and modern classical music "Desert River" were successfully held in Berkeley Recital Hall (Caf Hall) and the world-famous Jordan Hall (Jordan Hall) successively. Different styles of concerts.

In the 1990s, Guo was a popular suona musician in the Beijing recording studio, recording suona music for hundreds of films and TV shows, as well as for the Spring Festival Gala over the years. Kwok is also a popular Chinese musician in the Hong Kong pop music industry. He has been invited many times to be a special guest in large-scale concerts by Hong Kong singers such as "Da Ming faction" Huang Yaoming, Li Hackin and Liu Meijun. CCTV "National Music Fragrance" and Hong Kong TVB "Tuesday Archives" produced special introductions for him, CCTV International Channel's 2007 special topic: "Hong Kong Character Yazhi Guo - Suona is also fashionable"; In 2007, he was invited to be the first national instrumental music of CCTV The judges of the TV competition performed "One Night in Beijing" at the awards TV show, which was refreshing.

Over the years, as a soloist, Guo has often cooperated with orchestras and folk ensembles of many countries and regions around the world; he has premiered many modern-style suona concertos such as "Calling the Phoenix", "Trace No. 4" and "The Great Desert". He has published more than ten solo albums such as Rivers of Water, Yazhi Guo's Wind instrument World, and Listening to Birds. CCTV has a special report: Guo Yazhi, a character in Hong Kong, "suona is also fashionable". In 2016, RTHK traveled through China and the United States and produced an exclusive interview documentary "Master" for him. The Geneva Forum commented: "He is the focal point of the stage, impressive" and was called "China's Louis Armstrong" by Boston Radio."

-Yazhi Guo Website (https://www.yazhiguo.com/bio)
3/31/2025

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Jiaxin Wan is a guzheng and keyboard player from Beijing, China, who studied at Berklee College of Music and currently lives in Boston, MA.

-Jiaxin Wan Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082838417789&sk=about_contact_and_basic_info)
3/31/2025

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"I'm a Boston-based musician who plays all kinds of Jazz and improvised music. I grew up in the New York City area (New Jersey) and moved to Boston in 1970. I attended Berklee and have performed around New England ever since.

Music is an avocation for me. I was called early, and I play every day. I get up in the morning and make coffee, feed my cats and pick up an instrument. My practice routine is really a series of meditations. I don't practice, I play. I learned a long time ago that the word play meant exactly that. For me, it isn't work; it is simply the joy of playing. Improvisation requires that you be in the moment, fully present and an open vessel. Performance challenges me to bring that state of being into the public space.

I currently play in a number of groups. My band Muse Stew has been together since 1990 and performs my original compositions as well as arrangements of tunes I like. There are two Muse Stew CDs: Crossings, recorded in 1996 and Muse Stew Live at The Zeitgeist Gallery, recorded in 2004. Muse Stew performs regularly.

I'm also a member of the Sounds of Swing Orchestra which is a 16-piece big band. I've been holding down the bass chair for 35 years. In the 80s and 90s, we had lots of work playing "society" gigs at the Copley Plaza, Parker House, Harvard Club, etc. We played lots of weddings and annual gigs at the Marblehead Yacht Club. As the DJ thing emerged, wedding gigs became scarce. We've transitioned from being a working band to becoming a rehearsal band over the years and only occasionally play in public. The band is my extended family. Many of the best musicians in the Boston area play in the group, and we've got several composers and arrangers, enabling us to have original charts and a huge library that grows all the time.

I also enjoy performing free improvised jazz whenever possible. Recent performances have included a concert of free jazz and poetry at the Arlington Center for the Arts (ACA) this past January, a Muse Stew concert also at ACA this past May, and a couple of performances with Avant Unguarded at the LilyPad in Cambridge in June and July.

In addition to performing and producing shows, I'm a long-time member of Sustainable Arlington and a member of the Arlington Cultural Council. I'm an arts and climate activist who is trying to work to maintain our humanity, dignity and create a sustainable and humane future. All forms of Art are all about self-expression and empowerment. That's why we artists are so dangerous and scary.

I am, therefore I play music!"

-Scott Samenfeld Website (www.musestew.com)
3/31/2025

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"Joel Simches: A multi-instrumentalist born 10/18/65, Joel Simches has been an active member of the Boston music scene for 35 years, played in well over 40 bands, traveling the world as a musician, audio engineer, tour manager and record producer. He has worked with a diverse array of bands including Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys, DeVotchKa, Bang Camaro, Dresden Dolls and Big Dipper, to name a few. He has also written for The Noise and Boston Soundcheck Magazine. Currently a staff engineer at Watch City Studios, Joel also plays in Count Zero, Joe Turner and the Seven Levels, Butterscott, Nisi Period, Didactics, Curious Ritual and is executive producer/talent booker of On The Town with Mikey Dee on WMFO."

-Evil Clown (http://www.giantevilclown.com/bio-joel-simches.html)
3/31/2025

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Track Listing:



1. Magic Squares 1:09:39

2. Ordinary Vectors 5:16

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Large Ensembles
Boston Area Improvisers
Asian Improvisation & Jazz

Search for other titles on the label:
Evil Clown.


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Wormholes
(Evil Clown)
A dynamic collective session from a quintet — led by multi-instrumentalist David Peck with Bonnie Kane (sax, flute, electronics), John Fugarino (brass, percussion), Albey onBass (bass, drums), and Jared Seabrook (drums, gongs) — featuring a richly textured three-horn interplay over an expansive rhythmic foundation, balancing harmonic shifts and spontaneous energy with a strong sense of structure.
Turbulence
Wormholes
(Evil Clown)
A dynamic collective session from a quintet — led by multi-instrumentalist David Peck with Bonnie Kane (sax, flute, electronics), John Fugarino (brass, percussion), Albey onBass (bass, drums), and Jared Seabrook (drums, gongs) — featuring a richly textured three-horn interplay over an expansive rhythmic foundation, balancing harmonic shifts and spontaneous energy with a strong sense of structure.
Various Artists
Evil Clown Shorties Volume 4 (2024)
(Evil Clown)
A curated collection of 14 short improvisations from Evil Clown's modular ensembles, this fourth Shorties Volume distills the essence of expansive, long-form performances into concise yet potent expressions, featuring 31 musicians across 7 ensembles, these spontaneous works, recorded during warmups and soundchecks, offer a dynamic snapshot of the label's ever-evolving sonic landscape.
Metal Chaos Ensemble
A Great Python Spews Venomous Kerosene Upon the World
(Evil Clown)
Exploring chaotic rhythms on metallic instruments, Metal Chaos Ensemble is one of the most prolific Evil Clown ensembles, producing over 50 albums with a signature sound of gongs, chimes, and horns, recently recurring as a sextet blending rock elements; here configured as a quintet without a bass performer, in a distinctive work that begins with a PEK narrative.
Expanse Percussion Edition
Clang-A-Thon Fantastique
(Evil Clown)
Expanding on a decade of exploratory improvisation, this session unites a diverse septet of seasoned and new Evil Clown musicians in a dynamic live performance recorded at Evil Clown Headquarters, blending horns, percussion, electronics, and an extensive array of unique instruments to create concert-length transformations of groove, chaos, and textured sonorities in the ensemble's signature avant-garde aesthetic.
Various Artists
Evil Clown Shorties, Vol. 3 (2024)
(Evil Clown)
Drawn from 13 albums across eight ensembles and featuring 29 musicians, this third volume offers an excellent introduction to the concise improvisations recorded as soundchecks before long-form works, providing distinct snapshots of Evil Clown's dynamic creativity and showcasing the evolving sonorities and modular ensemble interplay that define their unique sonic universe.
Neurodivergent
Stigma
(Evil Clown)
Blending the improvisational richness of the Evil Clown aesthetic with the playful chaos of wacky banter, Neurodivergent — featuring Count Robot, DNA Girl, Tim Mungenast, and Evil Clown regulars — delivers a dynamic, genre-defying performance uniting spoken-word absurdity, a diverse array of instruments, and spontaneous musical transformations in an embraceably unpredictable listening experience.
Turbulence Orchestra
Monsoon
(Evil Clown)
Capturing the expansive sound of the Turbulence Orchestra, an eight-piece ensemble blending winds, percussion, electronics, and unconventional instruments in a 70-minute improvisational journey through evolving textures and sonorities, reflecting the group's mastery of large-scale, transformative improvisation and the dynamic aesthetic of Evil Clown productions.
Turbulence
Squalls
(Evil Clown)
Led by David Peck, Turbulence brings together its core horn players — Michael Caglianone, Bob Moores, John Fugarino, and Peck himself — alongside bassist Scott Samenfeld and percussionist Michael Knoblach, to explore an evolving palette of sonorities blending jazz-inspired interplay, diverse instrumentation and innovative electro-acoustic sounds through transformative improvisation.
Various Ensembles
Evil Clown Shorties Volume 1
(Evil Clown)
Presenting 14 concise improvisations from 13 albums performed by 6 ensembles and 27 musicians, Evil Clown Shorties Volume 1 highlights the modular spirit of Evil Clown's roster, blending dynamic sonic concepts into standalone "Shorties" under 10 minutes each, crafted during soundchecks yet fully formed, providing an engaging sampler of the long-form works they complement."
Turbulence
Agita
(Evil Clown)
Expanding the boundaries of the Turbulence aesthetic in a quintet blending wind instruments, electronics, and percussion, with longtime collaborators and new roster member Faruq Hassan introducing a dynamic drum 'n bass vibe via the SP404 MK2, using David Peck's Broad Palette Improvisation concept to unite horns, electronics, and auxiliary instruments.
Neurodivergent Orchestra
Monsters Keep Interrupting My Science
(Evil Clown)
Blending the playful spontaneity of improvised banter with the experimental ethos of Evil Clown, Neurodivergent Orchestra (AKA The Wacky Banter Orchestra) expands to a nine-member ensemble — featuring bass, drums, horns, electronics, and auxiliary instruments — to deliver a dynamic and transformative performance driven by both humor and adventurous collective improvisation.



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

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