Adventures Inside A Grand Piano

If there’s one musician who has a deep connection to ZXE it’s Matteo Ramon Arevalos; a true artist of the piano. http://www.matteoramonarevalos.org is a link to his website. He has played with us a number of times and if he lived in New York City instead of Ravenna, Italy he would probably be a member of the band. That would even things out in the band to two Italians and two Americans.

I first saw Matteo play at the Italian Consulate on Park Avenue. The program consisted of modernist Italian composers featuring Fausto Razzi of which Matteo made an album called Per Piano of Razzi's compostions. A remarkable album. One thing that struck me about Matteo's performance was his fingers spent as much time inside the grand piano as they did outside on the keyboard itself. I wound up being invited to go to a dinner with him after the concert and there I invited him to improvise with ZXE. At that rehearsal I lent him my digital piano where he proceeded to play either the lowest notes imaginable creating these thunderous sound clusters that shook the floor or attacking the highest notes sending a rain of angelic sounds on top of us. What I never heard was middle C or anything else that could be described as a normal piano sound. 

He’s precise and yet playful. I’ve seen him in concert probably more than anyone else except for John Cale or King Crimson. In concert I've seen him "prepare" his grand piano with hand made toys, mosaics (I did mention he is from Ravenna, Italy) and even ping pong balls that bounce every time he plays the keyboard and clammer back down on the strings creating a secondary percussive element. Although I am emphasizing his playful nature; he is a formidable, classically trained pianist of the highest order.  

For our ZXE recording session with Matteo we rented a grand piano from a funky place uptown. West Fifty something. In the opening of the final recording you can hear sirens go by in the distance. Typical New York. “We’re recording here” (think Midnight Cowboy). Because he can’t keep his fingers out of the inside of the piano nor his toys, for that matter, I wanted to post a sign “Verboten” over the the inside of the grand piano but I knew he would just ignore the sign. Also I’m not sure he reads German. Here is a short video clip of his contribution to Sound of Music.

https://vimeo.com/391077464

It was a joyful New York afternoon spent with one of my favorite people on this or any other planet. 

On my next blog I will introduce you to one of my favorite composers.

Till then,

Richard

Tears In The Waterfall

The six chord progression of this tune has been lingering for many years. I was never happy with the arrangement or combination of vocals and mostly acoustic instruments so the attempts to record it were put aside for a while. This is an early example of a home recording of it with the Sardinian singer Roberta Setzu. At the time the working title was L'inventa Canzoni which translates to The Song Inventor.  

https://soundcloud.com/zero-times-everything/linventa-canzoni-edit

When I started working on new material for ZXE’s Sound Of Music I decided to give it an other shot ZXE style; those six chords came back with an entirely different purpose and feel. I plugged in my Les Paul and started fiddling with preset sounds on my computer to find a suitable one for the main arpeggio - it didn't take long. BINGO, there it was. A pretty hot and compressed signal, Marshall type amp but with the neck pickup, volume at 2, treble at about half was exactly what I was looking for; so I added the 4,1,5 turnaround to resolve the loop.

I put on my headphones and started to record the first track, - it all made sense , the music played itself; a feeling of warmth and sadness was with me in the room. What you'll hear is the second take. To record the second guitar track I looked for a different sound but came back to the main arpeggio preset. I chose a slightly brighter sound with the switch in middle position.

What was needed at this point was a melody with some sort of crescendo to complement the other two tracks. While trying different distortion types I came up with the idea to try the simplest melody; one note, the root, for each chord. I liked it right away. Crescendo = Steve Hackett Volume Swells; one of my and Tony's heroes. I am not sure about Richard. I think he was into disco back in those days. In fact, he was the Disco King of Queens, New York. After a few takes I felt I had enough material to work with. I ended up using the first take along with the ending of the second one.

https://soundcloud.com/zero-times-everything/tears-in-the-waterfall-edit

Perhaps the most significant part of this piece is the title. One late afternoon in the Fall of 2019, I was taking an afternoon walk with my wife in Battery Park and going back home through the Ground Zero Memorial. While walking along the north pool, I suddenly started to hear the tune in my head and felt chills up my spine. Five or six more steps and that music had a name.

I realize this year will be the twentieth anniversary of that tragic day which I personally witnessed with my own eyes and ears. What I remember the most is the drone of the first plane passing over of our apartment before crashing with a deafening sound followed by total silence. 

True story.

I hope all those souls found peace in whichever heaven they chose.

True story

Ciao,

Pietro

Razorblade Keychain

To help announce the opening of our pre-sales fundraising campaign, we released a track I (mostly) wrote, called Razorblade Keychain. You can listen to this track at:  https://zxevery.bandcamp.com/track/razorblade-keychain. This is a bit about how this piece evolved.

I had this idea of two guitars panned hard left and right playing on and off the beat at a quick tempo, with no indication of meter/time signature. I mocked it up at home, working title “Numetal,” and it sat there as a cool sounding idea for a long time. Eventually, in our periodic ritual of my playing fragments for Richard, he perked up at that one and strongly suggested it become a ZXE piece.

So, how to flesh it out? Bass and drums come crashing in, in a long 7/4 (4x5 + 8). But more sections and some contrast were needed. So, guitars playing rhythmically off each other but in 7/8 and different harmony - that took a little while to find - and with a little more space for the bass and drums, and a tacet bar of 5/4 for a break. So far, all Pietro and me.

But something was still missing. So I went to Richard and asked him to create a spacey ZXE middle section, so that the piece would kind of encompass the entire world of Zero Times Everything, from the raucous noisy side to the ambient, spacey side. An experiment, who knew if it would work? He delivered a perfect middle section: ambient and slightly disturbing synths combined with Pietro’s and my spacey guitars he had recorded in some session or other - he is a tireless comber through hours of recorded and filmed works to find the bits of value. To that he added some ominous slide guitar of his own for that extra last bit of dark, almost country-ish feel.

Then Pietro comes pounding back in on the left, the drummer counts the band back in and we’re off again, leading to an unabashedly proggy 7/8 guitar riff ending.

Next step: a real title. I’d had this image of a keychain with a bunch of keys and old rusty razorblades, and the title “Razorblade Keychain” seemed to fit the piece better than “Numetal.” Amazingly, Richard found a keychain with a razorblade on it and made the image that accompanies the piece. Not something I’d want in my pocket, though.

I did have a mixing concept for this piece. I wanted it to sound as if it had been recorded inside John Bonham’s ear canals.

Tony Geballe

Bird Radio

One of my favorite galleries in New York City is The Microscope Gallery. It's a gallery that bases itself on time based material. They often have events there and on one of these occasions I sat next to two visitors from London. We began to chat. Little did I know at the time that these two visitors were extraordinary artists; Chiara Ambrosio and Mikey Kirkpatrick. Much to my delight, I discovered Mikey is the possessor of an extraordinary voice and performs under the moniker Bird Radio. https://birdradio.bandcamp.com is his bandcamp page. 

I’m also including a link to a Youtube video of Bird Radio performing Fear from his record Oh, Happy England. One thing I find striking is the use of cello and electric bass guitar. At about the midpoint between 01:35 and 01:36 (yes, a fraction of a second) the bass comes in and hits one note establishing the bottom range; stretching the harmonic range that was prior locked in a quiet midrange cage. It's a beautiful moment. And have I mentioned that this guy can sing?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSyQLiQGSvs

Although there are songs that have singing or recitation, as another principle I have for Zero Times Everything, there is no lead singer. I often feel lead singers carry the identity of a particular band and I did not want that for ZXE. Then the question arises, when you have a song that requires singing who do you ask? It can be tricky because someone's voice, although beautiful, can be wrong for that particular track. This has happened to me before. One time in particular when I really needed a classically trained singer but wound up with more of a pop singer. It was a beautiful, strong voice but wrong for the material. When the band decided to do a blasting, take-no-prisoners rendition of the classic Brian Eno track Third Uncle I only had one voice in my head - Mikey's.

Luckily for me, Chiara and Mikey seem to take a winter pilgrimage to New York City once a year, although obviously not during this pandemic. One of the last times they were in New York I took advantage and invited Mikey to my studio to sing a few songs I was working on; one being Third Uncle. Attached is a clip of Mikey in what I call “spitfire mode” as he blasts through Eno’s lyrics, waving arms and all. Sometimes I imagine this clip on repeat and never ending.

https://vimeo.com/524511812

Mikey also hosts his own radio program called Crookit Dreams from London on Friday nights at 10:00pm BST which is 5:00pm in New York City. It's a wonderful eclectic mix of what is inside Mikey's brain. This Friday night, April 2nd, I have been invited for an interview to talk about Sound Of Music and a few other endeavors. Here is the archived radio show:

https://www.mixcloud.com/birdradio/crookit-dreams-episode-15-the-cities-are-alive-with-the-sound-of-music-zxe-special/

On a side note, If you recall from my first update missive I said how I know when material I bring to a ZXE rehearsal won't work is when Pietro slowly and defiantly rolls a cigarette, puts down his guitar, leaves the room and smokes it. One of the songs Mikey sang that afternoon is one of those dejected/rejected ZXE songs but a wonderful thing happened because of that rejection. I formed another band called The Heavenly Escape Beauty Corporation - which is a name I took from a hair salon in Queens - and used that material unfit for ZXE along with other material I had and used it for the new band. Touché! I invited Mikey to be a part of the band along with Welsh singer Katy Lewis. Yes, shameless plugs are not beneath me. Our first album Eternal Love Songs For Stranded Lovers In Abandoned Cities will be released in May. Rejection is never an end. I’ve also recently played guitars and synths on Bird Radio's next upcoming release The Wild Lakes which is going to be breathtaking. I am privy to the music. Keep an eye out for that.

Till next time,

Richard

Die Nacht Ist Leben Part 5

That night, after recording the “terrifying wall of delay” I crossed McCarren Park and went to a club in Williamsburg to see my friend Mike Evans play drums (more on him in another update). There were quite a number of bands playing that night and included on the bill was a guitarist named Reg Bloor. I knew nothing about her. I remember standing in the back of the club when this petite woman with hair length that appears to have never been cut stepped onto the small stage without fanfare and immediately destroyed the place with six electric strings. I had never witnessed anything as visceral as that before. She was a one woman wrecking crew. Extraordinarily impressive. I usually never do this but I felt compelled to get closer and film the event. I luckily had my camera with me. After she performed (if you could call it that) she sat at a table and sold her CD’s. I went up and bought every available CD she had. I also showed her the footage I shot and asked if I could make a video from it. This footage eventually became a music video for Brain Fluid & Microchips.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDRwr5P12SA

As the days passed the thought of pairing her with Bruce McClure’s “wall of terrifying delay” became overwhelming. I told her that I had 25 minutes of a film-projector-produced-rhythm-bed that I would like her, along with ZXE, to improvise to. I’ll never forget her reply. She said “Richard, all my material is around two minutes in length. Twenty five minutes would be a marathon for me.” I replied, “Lot’s of people run marathons.” That was met with silence. Then I said, “OK, let me just send you the audio file and let me know if it’s something you could work with.” A few days later she said, “yes this is definitely material I can work with.”

I’ve described the afternoon of our recording session many times and probably some of you have already heard it but it bears repeating: It was like having a tiger rip your head off and you beg the tiger to do it again. At the rehearsal I played Bruce’s audio three times for a total of seventy five minutes of improvisation that I thought I would edit into eight minutes or less. But when I listened back to the three versions of improvisation I realized that Reg played the same thing three times. She actually composed the material she played. This was remarkable. Miraculous, really. This was a far cry from her usual two minute compositions. What you mainly hear in the second part of Die Nacht Ist Leben is us doing our best to keep up with the mighty Reg Bloor. I've included a short video of the recording sesseion that still resonates with me to this day.

https://vimeo.com/338727226

The long and very intense instrumental section to Die Nacht Ist Leben needed to be broken down into units in order for the band to actually talk about them. Listening to the music I came up with these titles that I felt were descriptive of the music I heard.

Section 1: The Ballad 

Section 2: Uncharted Space 

Section 3: Dueling Guitars 

Section 4: Interlude - Synth

Section 5: Screech With Guitar Bursts

Section 6: Interlude - Pietro’s Run Over Reg Trickles

Section 7: Storm Fury With Faulty Sirens

Section 8: Interlude - Tony’s Thrash Over Reg Squiggly Bits

Section 9: Avalanche Including Vincent Price Riff

Section 10: Elevator To Hell

Section 11: After The Apocalypse

I realize that one needs to hear the music in order to verify if these descriptions are apt. For the forseeable future we will not be streaming any of Sound Of Music. At some point we will upload it to Bandcamp but even from that site you will not be able to audition every track - so if curiosity and a sense of adventure fills your spirit then there's really only one thing to do - join our campaign. It's a great help in presenting new music to the world. 

Reg Bloor is also the maker of exquisite abstract drawings. You should go to her website to see them. She also makes drawings with a character called Sckitz that lovingly cuts people to pieces with copious amounts of projectile bleeding. Here is her rendition of Sckitz putting my head in a meatgrinder, Pietro hanging on hooks with broken limbs, and Tony’s brains exploding with a hook through his head. It is by far the most accurate portrayal of our recording session together.

Every Thursday night at 6:00pm EST Reg plays guitar and answers questions from her apartment on Twitch. And this Thursday is an April Fool's Special. Everyone should definitely check it out. And she answers any and every question. Don't take my word for it. Just ask her. 

https://www.twitch.tv/regbloor

In my next blog I will introduce you to a man in the guise of Bird Radio.

Till then,

Richard

Die Nacht Ist Leben Part 4

If you listened to the MP3 to my last blog for Die Nacht Ist Leben, at the very end of that sound file you can hear a chugging rhythm. That rhythmic element was made by Bruce McClure. The conception for this song that I had in my head was to have a quiet opening that explodes into a long harrowing middle section and the remnants of this explosion then become the coda and return.

Bruce McClure is an experimental film artist who feeds hand crafted loops through film projectors that generate blasts of flickering light and also the original pulse of sound. This sound is then fed through various guitar pedals to make (what I call) a “wall of terrifying delay." I have shared a studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn with Bruce and various other artist types for the last 14 years. I'm leaving this studio behind at the end of March and as a parting gift I'm buying Bruce 14 raw oysters - one for each year he has subjected me to his "wall of terrifying delay." It's the least I could do.  Did I mention that it's really loud. Recently they blew up the Kosciuszko Bridge that we are practically underneath to make way for a spanking brand new bridge. That explosion came close, but not quite, to rivaling Bruce's volume. 

I have included a video I made of him working because a video of his working methods are worth far more than a ton of explanatory words that I can dream up.

https://vimeo.com/529361301

Although we work with percussion players, ZXE does not have a full time active drummer in the band which means we're always thinking of ways to create rhythm whether we're banging on objects in my studio or finding and manipulating loops fed into Kaoss Pads, recording the repetitive grind of machines, etc.. I also wanted to reach out and work with other artists that I knew in NYC for this record since it was going to be a double album and here was an opportunity to do just that. I asked Bruce's permission if I could record him and then use that material for an underlying rhythm bed for ZXE to play over. I wound up recording over three hours of Bruce’s “wall of terrifying delay” and edited the three hours down to 25 minutes for ZXE to experiment with. I then scheduled a rehearsal with Tony and Pietro and was eager to present them with this strange, machine generated rhythm - but a funny thing happened before we got a chance to rehearse.

I met Reg Bloor.

Till next time,

Richard

Die Nacht Ist Leben Part 3

One of my principles to lyric writing for Zero Times Everything is not to write lyrics but to either find them or have someone else write them. As I wrote in my first update, I wanted lyrics to be sung over the synth melody - but what? When I’m looking for inspiration I usually don’t like to look very far and there on my desk at that moment was Sven Marquardt’s “Die Nacht Ist Leben” in German. 

 For those of you who don’t know, Sven Marquardt was born in East Germany and lived in East Berlin as a Punk with a capital P. I was in East Berlin twice when the wall was up and can attest to the fact to live like he did at that time in that place took guts. He’s a great photographer that photographs the unnatural in natural light. He’s also the infamous bouncer at what is considered one of the greatest and most difficult clubs to get into in the world: Berghain. One night, in a distant April month, he let me in for one of the best nights of my life. Two nights, actually,

With the need for lyrics in mind, I picked up the book and read the flap. With my limited German I could make out essentially what he was saying and the words resonated as a manifesto. A manifesto for club culture in Berlin and around the world. I started singing the words to myself to the synth melody and it fit like a glove. What's that called - serendipity? After acquiring the rights, I needed to find a singer.  

In my head I heard a female contralto voice. Someone like Cher or Marlene Dietrich. I asked a couple of NY avant artists but that didn’t work out. I even recorded an English friend who studied German but it still didn’t sound authentic enough although it was beautiful in its own right. Desperate, I reached out to my friend Klaus Killisch (who is an extraordinary Berlin artist that I am in a band with called KaiSaR along with EnkidU rankX) and he replied “I just heard the exact voice you’re looking for at a club the other night; a singer named Daria Neumann who sings with Uri.” I asked Uri - an artist who just released Welt Computer with the moniker RUI Beats; check it out on Bandcamp here: https://riubeats.bandcamp.com/album/welt-computer -  if he could record her at his studio. When I first listened to the audio files Uri sent me, I collapsed in my chair. Sometimes you can search years for something and never find it but right here was lightning in a box. Pow! I was knocked flat. It was the voice I heard in my head. No. It was far better than that. Listen for yourself.

https://soundcloud.com/zero-times-everything/daria-with-zxe

In my next blog I will explore machines that make music in our continuing anatomy of a song.

Best wishes,

Richard

Die Nacht Ist Leben Part 2

This blog is a continuation from the first one I wrote. In that missive I brought a short synth melody/chord sequence to a ZXE rehearsal for Tony and Pietro to liven up. Now I’ve known Pietro for many, many years. He is one of the guitarists I admire most and feel blessed that he is a part of this band. I intricately know his and Tony’s guitar prowess. One of the things I’ve learned is Pietro has the ability to change my conception of a song. Some musicians add elements to the existing material and that, in and of itself, is amazing. But some musicians have the ability to actually change the actual conception of the material. And that is Pietro’s gift. It’s impossible to imagine the song without that key element. If you compare today's MP3 attachment from the one on my first update you will hear what I mean.

https://soundcloud.com/zero-times-everything/synth-intro-with-pietro

 The minute Pietro plugged in his guitar he turned what I thought was going to be a simple mellow synth tune into a guitar ballad. I remember being in the studio and hearing his pick gently slide across his guitar strings on the first beat - actually right before the downbeat - and I realized immediately then and there that he changed my conception of the song entirely. And I loved it.

 What strikes me about his playing is the clarity, the bell like tones, the use of inversion and arpeggiation, and, most importantly, the use of space. He plays only when necessary and blasts a power chord only when it is demanded. I think of him as our secret weapon except it’s no secret.

I wanted to add lyrics and a singer to this piece and in my next update will explore that aspect of the song. Till next time.

Richard