Showing posts with label Chris Conway. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chris Conway. Show all posts

[S05E05] November 2023 - Andrew Levine

(photo credit: © 2022 Nuno Martins)


The November 2023 episode of the Theremin 30 podcast features ambient, experimental, and improvisational music from the USA, England, Australia, Portugal, and Germany. Host Rick Reid interviews Andrew Levine about his recent album Quadruple Quadrature Questions. (photo credit: © 2022 Nuno Martins)

FEATURED MUSIC*

*The full-length recordings featured in this show were used with the knowledge and permission of the artists and composers. Please support the artists by visiting their websites, purchasing their recordings, and attending their performances. 

ADDITIONAL MUSIC

INTERVIEW GUEST

CALENDAR OF THEREMIN EVENTS

MEDIA LINKS

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST

CONTACT

CREDITS 

Copyright 2023 Rick Reid 


--------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIPT

Please note: This transcript was created with the help of speech-to-text AI.  It may contain some errors.

David Brower  0:04  
This is Theremin 30. 30 minutes of Theremin music news events and interviews with a new episode about every 30 days. Now here's your host from Denver, Colorado, USA, Rick Reid.

Rick Reid  0:19  
Hey, welcome to the November 2023 episode of the Theremin 30 podcast. For the next half hour I've got some new and not so new Theremin music from around the globe. I think we can all agree that the Theramin is an unconventional instrument that can be used to play conventional music. On past episodes, we've heard jazz, pop, rock, classical and other familiar styles. This time around though, I'm going to feature some unconventional music, ambient, experimental and improvisational performances that take the theorem and in some interesting and unusual directions. We'll hear recordings by Eric Ross, Chris Conway and Peter Whitehouse, and My special guest this month is Andrew Levine from Hamburg, Germany. He has several new albums out and we'll be talking about how he recorded one of them during his concert tour of Portugal earlier this year. And I do want to mention up front that the music selections for this episode were a bit too long to neatly fit in the 30 minute format of the show. So I'll be playing excerpts from the full length recordings. To get our Sonic journey started. Let's go back to the future from the 2014 Eric Ross album Music from the future here is a track called Pluto's court.

We started the show with a track called Pluto's cord from the 2014 Eric Ross album Music from the future for Theramin and ensemble. If you aren't familiar with Eric, be sure to check out my interview with him and the June 2019 episode of Theremin 30. After that, I played Theremin immersion a brand new track from Chris Conway. It's from his Theremin ocean dreams album, which is actually a stripped down reworking of his deep ocean dreams album. Chris edited a single version exclusively for this podcast. After the break, I've got the Theremin 30 calendar of events and another dreamy experimental Theremin performance from Peter Whitehouse. Then later in the show. I'll interview Andrew Levine about his new album quadruple quadrature questions. So stay tuned.

It's time now for a look at that Theremin 30 calendar of Theremin events. On Thursday, November 23. Charlotte Dubois has a concert in Turku of France on Saturday, November 25. The radio science orchestra performs at the National Space Centre in Leicester, England. On Sunday, the 26th supernormal are onstage in Portland, Maine, USA. On December 2, Torvalds. Jorgensen performs with the castle state orchestra in Kassel, Germany. It's the first of several concerts they're featuring film score music. On December 16. Miss Terry performs holiday music with organist Yan Willem doctor in our house Germany, and on December 17, electric storks are performing and Rotterdam, Netherlands. For details about these events and many more, check out the interactive calendar on Theramin thirty.com. If you have a Theramin related event you'd like me to list on the calendar send me a note with all the details you can reach me with the contact form on the Theremin 30 website. Peter White House of Brisbane Australia is a relative newcomer to that Theremin. But he has already shared some really interesting experimental recordings on his SoundCloud page. Here's an ambient drone piece he calls stretched cacophony.

That was stretched cacophony by Peter Whitehouse. You can find more of his experimental Theramin recordings on SoundCloud under his username Wanko 42. Right after this break, I chat with Andrew Levine. So stay right where you are.

Andrew Levine is an experimental electronic recording artists based in Hamburg, Germany. He has at least six albums out this year, including one called quadruple quadrature questions. I caught up with Andrew a few weeks ago to ask a few questions of my own. Andrew Levine, thank you so much for being on the Theremin 30 podcast.

Andrew Levine  16:05  
Yeah, thanks for the invitation. Rick, I'm happy to be here.

Rick Reid  16:09  
You have some of the most interesting and different music than I've ever played on the show. I don't know if you'd call it new music or experimental. What's the word you give for that style of music you play? Well, I

Andrew Levine  16:20  
usually say free improvised music, but there is actually so many potential names for that. The first one, actually talking about this kind of music was Karlheinz Stockhausen. And he called it intuitive music.

Rick Reid  16:37  
What does that mean to you?

Andrew Levine  16:38  
Well, it means to me that basically you go into a concert or a recording session with like, no preconceived ideas. The only thing you will definitely talk about his how long you're going to be playing. And maybe who was going to start, but sometimes even that is not defined.

Rick Reid  16:55  
There are no rules other than the length of the performance. 

Andrew Levine  16:59  
Yeah, there are really no rules, you would listen to what is happening, good listen to what happens when you try to play the instrument. I mean, we all know the Theramin. So especially if you try to use the full range, so maybe like five or six octaves or something, then the techniques that are developed for what I call Theramin plus, so just using the Thurman to determine the pitch and using my other hand to mix different cameras in real time, you don't really know what you're going to be getting. I mean, you know, this is going to be a high note, this is going to be a low note, this is going to be somewhere in between. But depending on which Thurman you play, is the ether wave. Or is it the Clara Vox which is quite linear,

Rick Reid  17:46  
you play the open Theremin to you. 

Andrew Levine  17:49  
Yeah, I play the open Theremin. And that's actually really nice for for traveling because it's really small as everyone else. And it's quite a good Theramin. And the calibration function works well, although sometimes it drifts. But with this kind of music, you can basically also depend a bit on what you get from the instrument. The thing is, if you try to listen to what is happening with your fellow musicians, and if you just like see what you get from the instrument, you're going to find, hopefully, find the direction that you want to move in and then you just take that direction, and then possibly you pick up something that here somewhere else or you're contrasted, you try to develop a small melody just because you feel like it, you might quote something I mean, why not? You just try to keep an open mind and see where the music will take you

Rick Reid  18:44  
Did you start out with more traditional mainstream music education?

Andrew Levine  18:48  
Yeah, so I've been playing the violin since I was about six years of age. And then at some point, I started singing. And when I was about 1718, I spent one year in the United States on a scholarship in McLean, Virginia, I went to school with like a lot of music possibilities, and I wasn't a choir and in an orchestra and choir was just like so much easier. You don't have to practice on like, nobody expects a singer to train for six hours a day. And that's the normal time you have to spend playing the violin. So I gradually drifted from violent towards singing then I started taking singing lessons and enjoy that very much. And when I came across a Thurman and it came, like across my path several times, watching some YouTube videos, something and in 2010 I decided to just go ahead and buy one and I got the ether wave plus because I thought well has this interesting possibility of also taking out control voltages and using that for something I didn't have any idea what it was about, actually, at that point, but I thought really cute my options open. And the moment I set up the Thurman the moment it had, like warmed up and and was able to do something I realized why it made sense to have studied violin that long and have studied boys because it's like so close, you have to be able to correct quickly when you're like slightly off or more than slightly off. And you have to praise in a way that it's like a vocal ease, like when you're singing. So all of these things helped me but of course, I still came from a background of written music. So you have a sheet of music, and you can read it and you can just play with a violin, you can sing it, whatever. 

Rick Reid  20:39  
Now you've had a really busy year, you did a tour of Portugal and recorded several performances and put that out as an album. You've got a new album out quad, Dre. 

Andrew Levine  20:50  
It's quadruple quad what your questions.

Rick Reid  20:54  
And what is that title mean? 

Andrew Levine  20:57  
Well, we have four people asking all kinds of questions. And we were like set up in kind of like, square shaped arrangement. And stuff was just like bouncing around from one to the other. And I just had this idea that oh, this sounds like a crazy title for the crazy music that is like behind that.

Rick Reid  21:21  
Now was this recorded in a studio? 

Andrew Levine  21:25  
Yeah, I was in Lisbon, the end of April. So I did like some solo concerts. And then I went to Porto, for one I came back to Lisbon. And Ernesto, the alto player picked me up on May 1, which was actually not that easy, because there was a demonstration going on in the middle of town. And he got out of his car and waved at me and I saw Rocky, that must be the guys. So there was two of us AirMesh to go to Vegas, the alto player and Hulu Pena, he plays bass clarinet. And we drove for a while to a small studio outside of Lisbon that is owned by flax, and he's a guitar player who comes from the rock music. But he's grown tired of rock music and is very much interested in trying something new and finding new things and working with the experimental music scene here and he has a small studio, which is quite cramped.

Rick Reid  22:24  
And then you have more than just your Theremin in your corner of the room.

Andrew Levine  22:29  
This was a more reduced set because I was flying. I took the open Thurman, I took small modular rig, because the open Thurman has these beautiful control voltage outputs. So you can do a lot of stuff with that. And I took the stereo field, I took a cracker box. And I took the Zoma pipe microphone. On this trip,

Rick Reid  22:49  
the stereo field, it's got like circles with metal contacts that you touch with your fingers.

Andrew Levine  22:55  
It's actually like a crackerbox, a double crackerbox and steroids. More or less.

Rick Reid  23:01  
We'll have to have listeners look up a cracker box. Yeah. And that's something that Yeah, well defies definition, probably.

Andrew Levine  23:07  
Yeah, it's actually the first circuit bending instrument, which was developed in the 1970s. And you have these six touch plates that you can connect with your fingers. And basically you become part of the circuit. So I really like that disparity between Thurman where you don't touch, and the cracker box and the stereo field where you do touch because if you don't, there is like nothing happening. And you can use the stereo field to make all kinds of crazy noises. But you can also use it to create control voltages. You can also use it to process audio. It's an amazing instrument.

Rick Reid  23:49  
Do you use hand signals? Or is there any other way that you can communicate with the fellow musicians while you're recording and while you're performing?

Andrew Levine  23:57  
Well, mostly you just listen very, very attentively to what's going on. Because that's also an indicator if you like being too loud, I mean, you you're supposed to be able to listen to everything that's happening. So en esto he plays like very, very gentle stuff on his alto. So he's like fiddling along, or like I don't know, we're using the word from his bowl to make like very, very soft sounds. And then there is Bruno. He's making louder or softer sounds with the bass clarinet. And then there's the electronics coming in from flax, and you basically listening to everything and that's actually the best connection because you can listen 360 degrees, you can hear everything that's going on around the view. Whereas if you look someplace, you can only like connect to one or two people that are standing where you're looking, 

Rick Reid  24:52  
and how can people listen to your album or better yet, buy it. 

Andrew Levine  24:55  
It's available now on Bandcamp of course, but also on Apple Music iTunes, Amazon mp3 I mean you can get this album, quadrupled quadrature questions you can find that basically everywhere right now

Rick Reid  25:09  
to wrap up this episode of experimental Theremin music here's an extended excerpt from quadruple quadrature questions this track is called Dream of the Bumblebee you can hear the full length version of this track on Bandcamp.

Thank you so much for joining me once again on Theremin 30 And thanks to this episode's featured artists Eric Ross, Chris Conway, Peter Whitehouse and my special guest Andrew Levine. Be sure to click on their name links and this month's show notes. And as always a special thanks to the listeners who support this podcast with small one time or monthly donations. Until next time, I'm your host Rick Reid. I'll see you again soon somewhere in the ether.

David Brower  29:48  
You've been listening to the theorem 30 podcast visit Theremin 30 on the web at Theremin 30 dot com.
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[S04E06] January 2023 - Conall Gleeson and Alexx Mazonowicz

 

Alexx Mazonowicz and Conall Gleeson



In the January 2023 episode of the Theremin 30 podcast, host Rick Reid plays theremin music from the USA, France, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. Rick's special guests are Music Director Conall Gleeson (right) and Thereminist/keyboardist Alexx Mazonowicz (left) of the New Note Orchestra. They will be performing in Brighton, England on February 14th.

FEATURED MUSIC*

*The full-length recordings featured in this show were used with the knowledge and permission of the artists and composers. Please support the artists by visiting their websites, purchasing their recordings, and attending their performances. 

ADDITIONAL MUSIC

INTERVIEW GUEST

CALENDAR OF THEREMIN EVENTS

MEDIA LINKS

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST

CONTACT

CREDITS 

Copyright 2023 Rick Reid 


--------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIPT

Please note: This transcript was created with the help of speech-to-text AI.  It may contain some errors.

David Brower  00:04

This is "Theremin 30," thirty minutes of theremin music, news, events, and interviews, with a new episode about every 30 days. Now, here is your host from Denver, Colorado, USA -- Rick Reid.

Rick Reid  00:20

Hey, welcome to the January 2023 episode of the Theremin 30 podcast. I'm your host, Rick Reid, back after taking some time off to concentrate on other projects. I hope you missed me because I have to admit, I did miss you.

This episode is one you won't want to miss, because I have new theremin music from the USA, France, Mexico, and England.  And my special guests are Conall Gleeson and Alexx Mazonowicz from the New Note Orchestra.  They will be playing a concert in the Brighton, England, area on Valentine's Day.

To get things started, I am going to play a song that first appeared on the Octopus Project's 2007 album "Hello, Avalanche." I played it once before, back in September of 2021. This time around, though, it's a new arrangement recorded last April in the Moog Sound Lab in Asheville, North Carolina, to showcase the redesigned Moog Etherwave theremin. Yvonne Lambert plays the Etherwave in the traditional way, and bandmate Toto Miranda uses another Etherwave as a CV controller for a Moog Matriarch synthesizer. Here is The Octopus Project with "I Saw the Bright Shinies."

Rick Reid  08:51

"We started the show with The Octopus Project with their reworking of  "I Saw the Bright Shinies" recorded in the Moog Sound Lab. You can watch their video on the Theremin 30 YouTube playlist. After that, I played a brand new live-looping performance by French multi-instrumentalist and composer Charlotte Dubois. Charlotte performed that piece with a Moog Claravox theremin and a Moog Grandmother synthesizer. You can see her performance on the Theremin 30 YouTube playlist as well. There is a link to the playlist in this month's show notes at Theremin30.com. 

After a short break, I'll be back with the Theremin 30 calendar, some theremin news headlines, and a new recording featuring Ernesto Mendoza. And later in the show, I'll visit with Conall Gleeson and Alexx Mazonowicz from the New Note Orchestra. So, stay tuned!

Rick Reid  09:54

It's time now for a look at the Theremin 30 calendar of theremin events!  

Aleks Schurmer is featured in the soundtrack of the new French-language movie "Mistral Spatial," now playing in theaters in Montreal, Canada.

On January 27th, Yoko Onishi hosts the monthly RCA Theremin evening on YouTube.

On January 28th in New Bedford, Massachusetts, James Bohn will present a lecture and theremin demonstration prior to the Magic of Disney concert by the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra.

On February 8th, Thorwald Jorgensen performs in Montreal, Canada, and About Aphrodite has a concert in Hamburg, Germany.

Over the weekend of February 10th, Dorit Chrysler and Charles Hobbs will present a series of events in Graz, Austria, to celebrate the opening of the "Calder Plays Theremin" art installation.

And on Valentine's Day, the New Note Orchestra will be performing in the town of Hove near Brighton, England. We'll hear more about that later in the show.

For details about these events and more, check out the interactive calendar on Theremin30.com.

I also want to take a moment to share a couple of recent news items with you.

First of all, congratulations to Icelandic recording artist Hekla Magnusdottir for earning Album of the Year honors in the Rekyavik Gravevine music awards.

Also, thereminist Kip Rosser is helping raise awareness and funding for the Juliet Shaw Legacy Project, a campaign to preserve the archives of one of America's earliest professional thereminists. You can find details about the project by following the link in this month's show notes.

Now, let's get back to more music with a very cool new track from "Tharsis Project" featuring Ernesto Mendoza and Jon Carr.  This is called "Time Traveller."

Rick Reid  16:08

That was "Time Traveller," a new recording from "Tharsis Project" featuring Ernesto Mendoza on theremin and synthesizers and Jon Carr on drums. You can learn more about the artists by clicking on their names in this month's show notes.

Coming up after this break, I'll visit with Conall Gleeson and Alexx Mazonowicz from Brighton, England's New Note Orchestra, so stay right here.

Rick Reid  16:57

The New Note Orchestra is an eclectic music ensemble based in Brighton, England, that uses musical collaboration to help people in recovery from addiction. I recently visited with their music director Conall Gleeson and their keyboard and theremin player Alex Mazonavich, to find out how this most unusual charity organization works and how they incorporate the theremin in their live concert performances.

Conall Gleeson  17:02
Yeah, thank you for having us.

Alexx Mazonowicz  17:26
Thanks for inviting. 

Rick Reid  17:28
Conall, you're the music director?

Conall Gleeson  17:30
That's right. I've been working with New Note Orchestra since 2016. And what an amazing journey it has been for me. 

Rick Reid  17:37
And Alexx, you play keyboards and, of course, theremin. 

Alexx Mazonowicz  17:41
Yep, that's right. 

Rick Reid  17:42
What is the New Note Orchestra? 

Conall Gleeson  17:45
Well, New Note Orchestra was set up in 2015. Its focus is to attract people who are in recovery from drugs and substance abuse and using music as a way to sustain their sobriety and their well being. What we do is try to develop those persons as musicians. They've had a whole journey where they self-identified and come to terms with their addiction. People want to move on from that kind of way of self-identifying. And we help them self-identify as musicians, so they come as addicts and become musicians. And that's how we like to see it. 

Rick Reid  18:17
So, Alexx, how did you get involved with the orchestra? 

Alexx Mazonowicz  18:20
I am in recovery. And I have been in recovery for almost 15 years and a couple of months it will be since I had my last drink. I joined in 2020, about a month before we all locked down actually for COVID. It was just after I'd moved to Brighton, but I heard about the group from a friend in another recovery group. Somebody just mentioned to me about the orchestra. And I looked it up online and kind of liked what they were doing. And I listened to some of the music. I was quite impressed by it. And so I just found out where they were practicing. And I turned up one Tuesday in February 2020 With my theremin under my arm just basically where do I plug in? 

Rick Reid  18:34
What was that like to have a thereminist show up? 

Conall Gleeson  19:01
Oh, it was so weird because primarily we've got lot of people play guitars, we've got people doing keyboards, and we also have a multitude of people playing hand chimes. So when a theremin arrived at the door with Alexx I was thinking, well, how are we going to work this one into our sonic ambience? But Alexx has proved to be very versatile and imaginative with his theremin. And it's been a blessing and a wonderful addition to the orchestra. 'Cause it can do two things: it can play melodies, it also can add these strange textures to the sound that we make, you know. So that's really fantastic. 

Rick Reid  19:35
I guess we should define the word orchestra because the New Note Orchestra is not a traditional symphony orchestra. 

Conall Gleeson  19:42
It's called an orchestra because it's quite large in size, a bit larger than an ensemble or a band, though might have 20 to 25 persons so it kind of in size and embodiment constitutes an orchestra. That's where the name originally was come from, but we might call ourselves an electric orchestra. 'Cause we're plugged in, we're amplified. And we're a lot of guitars, we've got some wind instruments. And we've got lots of synths and we've got a theremin, yeah.\ 

Alexx Mazonowicz  20:06
I think orchestra, though, is a good description of the ambition of what we're trying to do. I think if we just called ourselves a group, a lot of people would be expecting a rock group or something like that. Whereas with an orchestra, there's this idea of something big and very long, ambitious pieces, that we did. So, it works for me. 

Conall Gleeson  20:24
Yeah. 

Rick Reid  20:26
I'm curious, from your point of view, Alexx, how you find your place in the orchestra. And I mean that both sort of philosophically as a thereminist, and also practically, where you need space around your instrument to be able to perform it correctly. 

Alexx Mazonowicz  20:34
One of the reasons I joined was because I wanted to play my theremin with a group, right? And I think that's a problem that a lot of thereminists I've spoken to have is that they spend a lot of time practicing at home, maybe playing to backing tracks, or tracks that they recorded themselves. Whereas I used to play electric guitar in alternative bands, and I missed playing with other people. And I've always liked to be a little bit different, right? Why would we choose such a difficult and weird instrument if we didn't like being different? So philosophically, where I like to fit within the group when I'm on theremin is kind of by bringing different textures to it. I play a Claravox now. I've got the delayed circuit on it. And it's got the different settings on it, which are really useful for bringing new textures in. And we do one piece in which people are playing recorders and stuff to emulate birds. And I like to actually break the rules and touch the pitch antenna with my fingers to try and make that chirping sound. Also, the Claravox has the white noise circuit on. I've used the software app to connect the pitch antenna to the filter. The Claravox has got that very beautiful Moog filter on it, to try and create kind of a wind effect. And you put that with some delay. So I can get a lot of textures that way. And that's really interesting, because when I started playing Ttheremin seriously, which was only about five years ago, I wanted to kind of get away from using it as a sound effects machine, which you know there's a little snobbery within the theremin community used for sound effects, which I kind of agree with to a point because when you can get melodies out of it they're very beautiful, but you know, in the orchestra situation, you give what you can, and I'm playing with other people. And sometimes it's really nice to be able to do that. 

Conall Gleeson  20:38
When we perform, we've kind of scripted our pieces. But when we get together, and we're collaborating, we're all improvising, and we're responding to the sounds other instruments make. So in that respect, it's really exciting then, finding how a theremin might blend and to add an interesting texture to a guitar drone, or to get to the theremin to sound like a percussion instrument. When we collaborate or meet every Tuesday, we're exploring these different ways that a stheremin might work with the rest of the orchestra. 

Rick Reid  22:53
I can imagine situations where you have to tell Alexx, you know, we don't really need a theremin in this song. 

Conall Gleeson  23:01
That's part of the flexibility and the genius of Alexx because he can also play the keyboard. It's never a case that we don't need a theremin. But it's often the case that we need someone to do some of the synth work. And then that's where Alexx brings in his expertise as well, because he's so talented. He's got such a wide range of skills, you know. Got to use them all. 

Alexx Mazonowicz  23:19
You flatter, you flatter me so, Conall. Going back to what you were talking about actual space. I think in the early days, I set my theremin up when we rehearsed, actually quite apart from everyone. And I'd be playing and people would come up and go, Oh, what's that? And, you know, obviously, the pitch would suddenly change. On stage it's been okay, I sometimes have to tune the pitch antenna quite tight, just to kind of make sure that nobody else gets into range. But we're a big group, so we have to have big spaces to play in anyway. 

Conall Gleeson  23:54
Ironically, the theremin takes up a lot of space doesn't it? 

Rick Reid  24:00
Also you have to have an amplifier. So how does that work? 

Alexx Mazonowicz  24:04
We've already got people playing bass guitars and electric guitars and we've got like rock drummers in there as well. So generally people are kind of fighting the volume. But Conall does a fantastic job of actually getting people to turn down. For me, learning to sit back a little bit whether I'm playing theremin or keyboards, there's been a really big learning experience. actually learning to step back a bit in the mix. It's been really good. But again, I've got a Claravox so I can always plug some headphones in. I can monitor the pitch on a pitch pedal. And I do have a small practice amp, and I'll use that sometimes at a low volume just to make sure I can hear. 

Rick Reid  24:44
Now you have a show coming up in February called Love Fest. Tell me about that. 

Alexx Mazonowicz  24:50
Love Fest, yeah. Well that's on Valentine's Day and we are playing in a church down the road with a few other artists from Brighton, but it's an alternative love show. So it's not just about romantic love. We're talking about brotherly love. We're talking about lots of different types of love. And we've got some kind of alternative love poems that we're going to be reading over our normal repertoire. But yes, an alternative Valentine's evening. 

Rick Reid  25:18
Thank you very much for taking the time to visit with me and I wish you good luck with the concert coming up. Love is always a good thing. And music is always a good thing. 

Conall Gleeson  25:27
Yeah, thank you. And I love your show. It's great. 

Alexx Mazonowicz  25:30
Yeah, it's fantastic. Thank you very much for everything you do, Rick.

Rick Reid  25:33

If you live in southern England, make a date to see the New Note Orchestra's Love Fest concert on Valentine's Day. Follow the link on the Theremin 30 calendar for details. Also, check out the New Note Orchestra website at newnote.co.uk.

Now with the time remaining, let's listen to an excerpt from a new experimental music piece by Modulight, a collaboration between thereminist Chris Conway and synthesist Jez Creek. From their recently released second album, "Liminal Vision," here is "Primordial Descent."

Rick Reid  29:06

Thank you so much to the Octopus Project, Charlotte Dubois, Tharsis Project, and Modulight for allowing me to share their music with you. Also, a big thanks to Conall Gleeson and Alexx Mazonavich from the New Note Orchestra for visiting with me. And a special thanks goes to the folks who support my efforts with small one-time and monthly donations and by shopping in the Theremin 30 online merch store and pro shop.  

If you'd like to get involved with this podcast, I'm always on the lookout for new, professional quality theremin music to play on the show and expert guests to interview.  So, reach me through the contact form on the website.

Until next time, I'm your host Rick Reid. I'll see you somewhere in the ether.

David Brower  29:50

You've been listening to the "Theremin 30" podcast. Visit Theremin 30 on the web at Theremin30.com.
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[S03E03] July 2021 - Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel

  

Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel


The July 2021 episode of the Theremin 30 podcast is a special, super-sized edition. It features music from England, Spain, the USA, Russia, Germany, and Australia, plus an interview with Scott Burland and Frank Schultz of Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel. Host Rick Reid also previews the upcoming Worldwide Theremin Academy.

▶️ Listen to this episode on your favorite podcast platform.

FEATURED MUSIC*

*The full-length recordings featured in this show were used with the knowledge and permission of the artists and composers. Please support the artists by visiting their websites, purchasing their recordings, and attending their performances. 

ADDITIONAL MUSIC

INTERVIEW GUEST

CALENDAR OF THEREMIN EVENTS

MEDIA LINKS

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST

CONTACT

CREDITS 

Copyright 2021 Rick Reid 

----------------

TRANSCRIPT

Please note that this is a computer-generated transcript.  Some errors have not yet been corrected.

David Brower  0:04  

This is Theremin 30, thirty minutes of theremin music, news, events, and interviews with a new episode about every 30 days. Now, here's your host from Denver, Colorado, USA, Rick Reid.


Rick Reid  0:19  

Hello! Welcome to Theremin 30. I came up with the name of this show to indicate that it's 30 minutes long and comes out every 30 days. But you probably noticed that I don't always stick to that 30-day rule. So here it is the beginning of July and I didn't even get a June episode out at all. So to make it up to you, I'm going to break my other rule and let this episode go beyond the 30-minute mark. In fact, this show is going to be longer than two regular episodes. This will give me a chance to play a few really cool longer tracks that wouldn't easily fit into the usual episode format. My special guests this month are the Atlanta Georgia-based ambient group duet for Theremin and lapped steel. And later in the show. I'll fill you in on the Theremin Academy worldwide online events set for July 24 and 25th. So let's get this supersized edition of Theremin 30 started with a new track featuring Uk thereminist Alexx Mazonowicz. This group called New Note Orchestra is made up of musicians who use their talents to help each other with recovery from addiction. They'll be putting on a live streaming concert this first weekend of July July 4 from Brighton England. Tickets are free and there's a link to all the details in the Theremin 30 calendar at Theremin30.com. From their Kind Rebellion album, here's New Note Orchestra with a track called "Astral's Journey part 1."


Rick Reid  15:06  

We started the show with New Note Orchestra featuring Alexx Mazonowicz. They'll be playing live online on July 4. After that, I played "El Mensaje del Rio" or "The Message of the River" from the newest album by Paulo Pascual called Modulador de Ondas, be sure to check out the music video on the Theremin 30 YouTube playlist. Coming up next I'll take a look at the Theremin 30 calendar of theremin events. And I'll play a super-sized theremin track from Chris Conway. So stay tuned.


Rick Reid  15:52  

It's time now for the Theremin 30 calendar. Look at Theremin-related concerts, workshops, and other events happening around the world in the weeks ahead. The first weekend of July Dorit Chrysler will be participating in the Heroines of Sound festival in Berlin. That's actually already started but there are some events left so if you're in the area, be sure to check that out. As I mentioned New Note Orchestra presents a live-streaming concert from Brighton, England on July 4. Leif Rapids will be performing at the Calgary Folk Music Festival on July 23. Itchy-O plays the Denver Sculpture Park on July 24th. Yoko Onishi presents another RCA Theremin Evening on her YouTube channel on July 24. The World Wide Theremin Academy takes place on July 24 and 25th. I'll tell you more about that later in the show. Stranger Strings presents a free lunchtime concert in London, England on July 30. Marla Goodman presents a summer series of theremin recitals from her front porch in Bozeman, Montana, USA on most Thursday evenings. Lydia Kavina continues her Sunday evening workshop series. And Shueh-Li Ong hosts a couple of new episodes of her Music and Chat show this month on YouTube. For details about all of these events and more, check out the interactive calendar on Theremin30.com. And if you have an event that you'd like me to put on the calendar, send me all the details through the website, Twitter or Facebook. Now here's another new recording that was just too long to play in a regular episode from Chris Conway's Splendid Isolation album. Here's a song called "A Genteel Conversation."


Rick Reid  25:05  

That was "A Genteel Conversation" by Chris Conway. It's from his new album Splendid Isolation, which is made up of improvisations he recorded in his home studio in Leicester, England during the pandemic lockdown. To learn more about Chris and the other artists in this episode, visit Theremin30.com and click on their names. Later in this extended edition of the Theremin 30 podcast. I'll preview the 2021 worldwide Theremin Academy. And right after this break, I'll visit with the members of Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel. So stick around.


Rick Reid  26:06  

as you might imagine, Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel is a two-member band consisting of a thereminist Scott Burland and lap steel guitar player Frank Schultz. I played their spacey, ambient music a couple of times on previous episodes. They have a brand new album out so I invited them on the show to talk about that, and about their creative collaboration process. Scott and Frank, thank you so much for being on Theremin 30. 

Scott Burland

Thank you, Rick.


Rick Reid

Let's start with you. Frank. Tell me how you describe your band and its music to people who aren't familiar with Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel.


Frank Schultz  26:42  

I start out with the name and see what kind of look I get from the person I'm talking to go from there. 


Rick Reid  26:49  

Do you have a certain label that you like for the kind of music you create?


Frank Schultz  26:54  

 It's improvised music but more towards the ambient side of things.


Rick Reid  27:00  

And Scott, why don't you tell us how the two of you got together?


Scott Burland  27:03  

I've known Frank for a long time we were involved 16 years ago, maybe you know large group improv session with 15 people on stage. We knew each other. We said hello and got set up. And Frank was playing lap steel. And I had my theremin. And Frank had trouble hearing himself. And there was a bass player standing directly in front of me. And so I was having a hard time getting any kind of signal out of the theremin. And we were both a little disappointed in the outcome of that. But a few months later, Frank called and said, "Hey, would you be interested in trying to lap steel and theremin together?" and I thought that was a great idea. And so we started practicing probably early in 2006. We get together every couple of weeks, and we were both learning our instruments. At that time, I was really a newbie at the Theremin and Frank was learning the lap steel. And also we were using Ableton Live to add effects to our sounds. And so we're learning how that worked. And then things went on from there.


Rick Reid  28:05  

I think people would know the lap steel from country music or maybe Hawaiian music and one of my favorite guitarists Steve Howe uses a steel guitar on some of the Yes recordings. It sounds different when you play it. I listened to your albums and I'm not sure if I'm hearing guitar or not.


Frank Schultz  28:21  

Yeah, exactly. I never learned how to properly play lap steel guitar. So as Scott learned the theremin I learned the lap steel. I learned in a style that suited what we were doing together versus learning the instrument traditionally. So I think that's probably why it sounds the way it sounds.


Rick Reid  28:42  

You have these long, sustained, beautiful shimmering sorts of sounds. And I assume that it's difficult to hold the note that long. How do each of you do that with your respective instruments?


Scott Burland  28:53  

It's challenging to sustain notes for a long time just because of the way the theremin is played. So that's where effects come in. And I can, you know set a long delay or reverb and play around with that. And if I have to adjust my hand that's controlling the pitch, I can do that to try to nail the pitch.


Rick Reid  29:14  

For the lap steel Are you using an E-bow or a Vo Wond or some other sort of device to excite the strings?


Frank Schultz  29:21  

I have used the E-bow probably 10 times in the last 15 years.


Rick Reid

Oh!


Frank Schultz 

To me, it gives a weird harmonic ring that doesn't suit my lap steel very well. But I've been playing a little bit around with that and muting the back part of the string. So it doesn't seem to vibrate quite as much in the sounds a little bit better. So working on that a little bit primarily though, it's the use of violin bow... or effects.


Rick Reid

Oh, okay. 


Frank Schultz 

...or effects.


Rick Reid  29:53  

I tried out lap steel a little bit last year. I got an inexpensive lap steel to try to imitate what I thought you guys were doing and I never could figure it out trade secret right there, I should have you explain how you improvise the music,


Scott Burland  30:07  

there's really not a lot of discussion. But we typically rehearse at Frank's house and his stuff is set up, I show up, set my stuff up, and then we start playing, there's really no discussion about what we're going to do, we start playing, and then it may go for 15 minutes, it may go for an hour and a half. Frank will set the tone, whatever that is, whether it's a rhythmic thing or a drone, or he's bowing the lap steel. And then I'll just listen for a minute and then try to decide what's going to work with that. And then we just go from there, I can change it up. And then Frank can react to that, or vice versa. And next thing we know, it's 45 minutes later,


Rick Reid  30:46  

do you set up some rules for yourself so that you don't repeat a motif or an effect that you've already done on another recording?


Frank Schultz  30:53  

I don't, I tend to use the same types of effects that I've used for a while and just try and tweak those, but nothing really pre-planned.


Rick Reid  31:03  

You have a new album out right now I'm going to attempt to pronounce it. I think it's called Oh-mau-mua. Is that close?


Scott Burland 

So close? It's ʻOumuamua.


Rick Reid 

Say that again? 


Scott Burland 

ʻOumuamua.


Rick Reid 

And what does that mean? And how did you come up with that title?


Scott Burland  31:20  

Ê»Oumuamua is a Hawaiian word. And it translates as messenger from afar arriving first, it was the first Interstellar, what would you call it Frank, first interstellar... 

Frank Schultz  31:32  

Object... 


Scott Burland  31:33  

...object that was...


Frank Schultz  31:34  

...to come into our solar system. 


Rick Reid  31:36  

Oh, so this is that long space rock...


Frank Schultz

Yes.


Rick Reid  31:39  

...that was in the news, what a year or two ago?


Scott Burland

It was observed in 2017.

Rick Reid  31:45  

And did you come up with the title first, and then created music to fit the title? Or was it the other way around?


Frank Schultz  31:51  

We created the music first, and then went through the recordings, and then decided how to handle those as a project, which includes titles and themes and that kind of thing. 


Rick Reid  32:03  

You have one of the tracks as kind of a single Hector, you have a music video out for that we do we have music videos out for Vesta and for Hector. And I say kind of a single because both of those tracks are about eight minutes long. So it's not your typical single, right?


Scott Burland  32:20  

We have trouble with a three-to-four-minute scenario. The four-minute mark is just about when things start to take shape, and kind of make sense. So we go with that it's hard to make all the things happen in four minutes.


Rick Reid  32:31  

I've been to a few ambient shows, and I performed in an ambient show once. And it's definitely a different experience than going to a rock concert, I was curious about how it feels to be performing live for an audience that's drifting off into hypnosis as you play.


Scott Burland  32:47  

I go back to our first performance, which was in December 2006. And I think it struck both of us how quiet The audience was, you could hear a pin drop out there, it doesn't happen every time. But when it does, it's just a nice -- it shows a level of respect for the music. But it also just helps us to not be distracted by people talking or opening up beer cans. And we've played rock clubs, we've had to deal with that. But also, we've played the same venue and have had super quiet crowds. Our preference would be that people just weren't in that sort of dream state where they're just letting the music flow through them and or just listening.


Frank Schultz  33:25  

I think for me, that was the first grouping that I've played in that was this ambient or this droney. At first, I think I was a little concerned that there wasn't much of visual enticement for the audience. And I guess that can play one of two ways either. One way you hopefully good way is people just focus on the music. And so from that, we started showing some film, and I think the film actually helped folks not trying to either figure out what we're doing or wonder why we're not moving. a filmmaker here in Atlanta, Robbie land has cut quite a few films for us to take on tour and actually project live one more entail. I think we've just have gotten accustomed to folks that come out to the show and they don't really expect to rock and roll show. And we certainly don't provide that.


Rick Reid  34:15  

So how can people find out about your new album and any upcoming live performances?


Scott Burland  34:21  

The best place to listen to our music and purchase our music is through Bandcamp and that's DFTALS.bandcamp.com and then through our website, which is duetonline.net and that's typically where we have our tour schedule or upcoming shows listed. 


Frank Schultz  34:43  

You can purchase digital copies of our music through Apple Music and Amazon and all that stuff and as well as on Bandcamp. If you want to go straight to the source then Bandcamp's in place to go. 


Rick Reid  34:55  

This new album is a double album and the CD is limited to 120 five copies. So that's a collector's item. And I do want to mention that your most recent album before this new one came out in the height of the pandemic lockdown and you donated proceeds from the sales to support some nonprofit organizations in the Atlanta area.


Scott Burland  35:19  

Yeah, there was an organization called Giving Kitchen, which helps food service workers during the pandemic to help pay rent or bills or with health situations or health insurance. And then there was another organization, Atlanta Musicians Emergency Relief Fund, which provided help to musicians in those same ways. 


Rick Reid  35:40  

That's really a great and kind gesture and also sets a good example for other artists who might be able to do something similar.


Scott Burland  35:47  

We were pleased to be able to do that. And also just to be able to donate some money to organizations that benefited many of our friends and acquaintances here in Atlanta.


Rick Reid  35:56  

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit with me. And I've been a fan for a few years. I really enjoy your music and it was great to meet Scott a couple years ago at Moogfest.


Scott Burland  36:06  

Thanks for having us. Thanks for listening.


Frank Schultz  36:08  

We appreciate your support over the years for sure. Love the podcast.


Rick Reid  36:12  

Let's listen now to something from their new album that would be too long to play in anything but this supersized episode of Theremin 30 here's Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel with a track called "Vesta."


Rick Reid  44:45  

That was "Vesta" by Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel. Check out the music video for that track on the Theremin 30 YouTube playlist up text I've got more details on the worldwide Theremin Academy so stay tuned


Rick Reid  45:11  

Theremin Academy is an ongoing series of coordinated workshops held each year in France, Germany, England, and Switzerland. Past editions of Theremin Academy have featured workshops and performances by some of the most accomplished professional thereminist from around the world. Of course, the global pandemic forced the cancellation of most Theremin Academy events last year and the first half of this year. So the organizers have come up with a worldwide Theremin Academy that you can attend from your own home. It'll take place on July 24, and 25th. And it'll run continuously for 38 hours. So you can drop in whenever it's convenient and stay for an hour or all day, and everything will be recorded. So if you need to, I don't know sleep or something, you can watch the parts you missed. There will be performances and workshops conducted online from Europe, the USA, and Australia covering a wide range of musical styles and there will be sessions for both beginning and advanced players. There will also be presentations on Theremin history and technology, including the session just for a moment there are many owners, the whole event will take place live over zoom, and you'll have the chance to play in a live Theremin ensemble with other musicians from around the world. It looks to be a great couple of days of learning and fun. If you play Theremin, I'm sure you're aware it can be difficult to meet and collaborate with other Theremin players. So this is a wonderful opportunity for all of us. And I should mention that I'm not involved in planning or organizing the event in any way. But I just think it's going to be a really cool event and I hope to see you there. The registration fee for the event is 30 British pounds. And you can get the details and the full schedule online at Theremin.Academy. There's no dotcom in that it's just Theremin.Academy. And with that in mind, I'm going to finish off this supersized episode of the Theremin 30 podcast with an extended set of recent releases from three of the scheduled presenters and performers at the worldwide Theremin Academy. Lydia Kavina, Oleysasa Rostovskaya, and Miles Brown. I'll have track titles and other details after the set or you can follow along and this month show notes at Theremin30.com


Rick Reid  1:05:49  

We started that final set within "Whims of the Weather for two theremins and accordion" by Lydia Kavina from the album In a Nick of Time. That track features thereminist Lydia Kavina and Trautonia Capra with button accordionist Roman Usipey. The album was recorded back in 2013, but was just released earlier this year. Then I played "Mutation" with Olesya Rostovskaya on Theremin, Sergei Letov on electric saxophone, and Vladimir Goulokov on electric vibraphone from their new album At 9pm After Lockdown. The trio recorded this live improvised performance in Moscow on August 1 2020, the first day after the lifting of lockdown restrictions there. Then we ended that set with an excerpt from Transmogrification a new album by The Narcoleptor, an experimental collaboration between Australian thereminist Miles brown and harpist Mary Doumany. Lydia, Olesya, and Miles will be participating in the worldwide Theremin Academy in late July. Check out this month's show notes for a link to more details in the full schedule of workshops and performances. And that wraps up this special edition of the Theremin 30 podcast. I'll be back around the first of August with a brand new episode and the more fun-sized 30-minute format. I'll have new music from Kevin Sinnott, Japan's 100 member matyromin ensemble Mabel and Da, Steve Stroud, and maybe you. And one final note, if you've been enjoying the podcast, please help me make it grow by leaving a review on the Apple Podcasts website, by recommending the show to your friends, purchasing logo gear in the merch store, or by sending me a small gift to help cover my expenses. Also, consider advertising on the show if you have an album or workshop or some other event that you'd like to promote. You can visit the website for more details about all of that or send me a note through Facebook or Twitter. Also, please do what you can to support the theremin recording artists. Of course, this podcast couldn't exist without their talent and generosity. Until next time, I'm your host, Rick Reid, mind your control zone and we'll see you again soon.


David Brower  1:08:03  

You've been listening to the Theremin 30 podcast. Visit Theremin 30 on the web at Theremin30.com.


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