New Album in Progress!

I'm pleased to announce that I'm going to be releasing an album! With a tentative release date of August 1st, 2011, my plans are to release works I've been experimenting on here in Iceland which I'm been making since September in collaboration with Pittsburgh writer & poet Mark Mangini. Mark sends me texts, and I send him musical 'responses' of various kinds. Then he sends me a poem, or words, or a story in response. It's like The Postal Service, except one of us is doing music and the other is writing, and we have yet to physically mail anything. Okay, it's not like The Postal Service at all. Maybe it should be called 'Gmail:Send!'. Nope, that's a bad idea too.

'Course, there could also be extra treats on the album too, we'll see what happens in the next couple months. One very interesting thing about my working process(es) here in Iceland is that my work has been more about the process of making music and experimenting than really knowing what the finished product is going to be. Or caring, really, for that matter. It's not like I want my work to be crap, but I've rarely made music just for the experience of making it- in the past it's always been about a particular end result, how do I get there, gotta have it done by this time, gotta be for this ensemble, etc. These Iceland works have really been evolving more organically, much different than writing my previous chamber music (more like writing music for Music of North Side Spaces, where each site or place called for a different way of working). But that's a good thing for me, I get bored doing the same thing the same way every time. Except for minimalism, heh heh.

I'm certainly excited to put some more material out there in the world to be listened to. Perhaps a small record label will be interested in picking it up. I hope whatever the finished project turns out to be, it includes some delightful gems for your lovely ears!