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hands

i am playing loads of dance classes these days, about 9 or more a week.  first of all, i love playing dance classes.  well, maybe love is a strong word but the demands placed on the accompanist for these classes are all things that the musician (or any artist for that matter) must have at their fingertips.  improvisation, creativity, strong time sense, connection with sound, with other dancers, with the essence of the movement…..these are all things that as a drummer i need to have honed and ready.

playing dance class, particularly for peggy baker (whose accompanist i have had the good fortune to be for over 6 years or so now) is a great way for me to keep fit—physically, musically, mentally and spritually.  listening to peggy speak about dance and the creative process is one of the biggest influences on me as a musician and on my approach to creating.  i am very fond of saying that i would not be half the musician i am today without my many years of accompanying dance class.

but man my hands hurt.  i’m not getting any younger.

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selected in madrid

one of my audio pieces was just selected for the soundworks program at madrid abierto, a festival of intervention and performance art, TV and radio in february 2008. i had the chance to visit the city this past summer and it is really enchanting, an amazing place.

if you are planning to go, choose february 2008.

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end of summer

the end of summer is nigh.  a different one for me—took a holiday instead of working.  of course now its come to bite me in the butt, but this is in the best way.

scoring the tv documentary Losing My Religion continues.  its looking/sounding good i think.  still working on the nuit blanche projects (see below for more info and a link to one of the pieces).  mark duggan has asked me to record on his new cd in mid september and i will be the percussionist for the small world music festival’s world on a string project, with amir koushkani, rich brown (who is also the musical director), jayme stone, levon ichkhanian, and a few others.  that will be really great—i can’t wait to play the drums again…there seems to be too little of that lately somehow….

and of course the radio theatre workshop led by robert lippok from berlin, being put on by the goethe institute toronto.  4 days of audio art theatre.  woo hoo!  if anyone in the toronto area is interested, email me.  i’m sure i will be writing a post on it….

keep up to date on everything here.

d

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annabelle chvostek’s new cd

the wonderful singer annabelle chvostek (some of you may know her from the wailin’ jennys) is working on a new solo CD, produced by roma baron and vivian stoll (some of you may know them from their production work on laurie anderson’s records).  she’s asked me to play percussion on probably the catchiest track i’ve heard in the last 3 years (and i like catchy tracks).

my first experience with internet sessions—i recorded the tracks at oldmonkeymusic and uploaded them via ftp.  the wave of the future.

check out annabelle’s myspace and her website for release dates and a very entertaining and interesting journal.

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live in berlin aug 4

 dsc01251.jpg

i’m in berlin right now. spent the day sightseeing, although that is the worst word for it.

its a city so full of history. i’m staying in mitte, right near the wall in east berlin. 2 min walk from here is an old guard tower. i have been so overwhelmed with history. its been a very emotional day. i can see why the war is still so alive in the collective memory of the german people.

but, on another note, i too will be contributing a bit to the culture of berlin. i make my laptop debut on aug 4 as part of the daskleinefieldrecordings festival, mangling sound i recorded on my latest trip to kolkata and also plundering my own archives of music and phonographic sound in a live improvised set.

deets:

@ wendel (one of the best places in berlin for organic beer!), Schlesische Strasse 42, U-bahn Schlesisches Tor, Kreuzberg (of course).

21:30 doors, 5 Euro.

peace.

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wow. i think i am really liking this whole video thing.
a great one.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdtPFncgbHo]

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found this on the great blog sepia mutiny.

man.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBxy1R0jitM]

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new CD for dance classes and dancin’

i’ve been working on creating some trax for modern dance classes, as i seem to be getting a lot of requests for this when i accompany dance classes in the school system.

the root grooves of each track are taken from a recording of a class i played for toronto dance theatre company early this year, recorded by the inimitable phil strong.   each track uses these grooves to construct, ah, journeys in sound, spiced with the digital world of electronics.  if i may indulge in marketspeak briefly, the CD is an organic combination of electronic beats, textures and acoustic percussion.

because each track is based on a groove directly taken from a dance class, teachers will be able to find something for each excercise—warmups, tendus, ronde de jambes, across the floor, etc.  non-teachers will also enjoy the cool grooves—perfect for a summer day, riding your bike (riding your bike not recommended with headphones!!!!), or getting places on the subway.

working on a DECEMBER release.  keep listening.