Archipelago series post!

Below is my blog post for www.sequenza21.com for the 2/26 New Amsterdam Records "Archipelago" series at Galapagos:

It’s not often that I’m involved in both sets of an evening’s lineup. I’m Beth Meyers and I play viola in janus (also Amanda Baker, flutes and Nuiko Wadden, harp) as well as QQQ (“triple Q”) which is Monica Mugan, acoustic guitar; Jason Treuting, drums and percussion; Dan Trueman, hardanger fiddle. These two acts have shared the stage before about a year ago at Joe’s Pub for QQQ’s album release. But this Friday we’ll share the bill as part of a special New Amsterdam Records and Galapagos series called “Archipelago” at Galapagos Art Space 2/26, 8pm.

The series presents “cross-genre chamber music” and as a member of both janus and QQQ, I can’t think of many other ways to describe each group let alone tie the two together! One group was born from music by the likes of Claude Debussy and has been moving steadily away from classical notation and performance practice as we find the future sound for flute/viola/harp. The other ensemble (please refer to us as a “band”) draws it’s inspiration from folk music written for Norwegian dance and “picking” on the porch as much as it does from contemporary pop/groove and classical counterpoint. So, this “cross-genre chamber music” is a good place to start.

Okay, so there’s another thing that ties us together besides me. It goes without saying that we’re all friends, too. janus was formed in 2002 when Amanda and I were at a party that my then boyfriend, Jason, took me to. One of the first conversations Amanda and I had was about how much we loved the Debussy Sonata for trio and how we’d love to play it together. The story goes that the trio was formed in January (hence, janus) after playing the Debussy and anything else we could get our hands on. Turned out there wasn’t much music out there. But, lucky for us, we were both friends with lots of composers from our respective schools (Eastman and Yale) … and the rest is history.

As for the tale of QQQ… again born out of love for a sound (and in this case my absolute infatuation with all things fiddle - and of course drums) the band came to life on Thanksgiving, 2006. It wasn’t all my doing of course. I was first introduced to “Trolstilt” at the CMA conference a few years before where I also met Dan and Monica for the first time. I have to admit I was not only blown away by the interesting tunes this duo performed on guitar and fiddle, but completely in awe of this instrument I’d never seen or heard before. It’s hard to say which aspect of the hardanger fiddle is more striking, it’s delicate and ornately detailed body or it’s other-wordly sound. I think I bumbled a little while meeting them and definitely said “how can I get one of those?” A few years later while performing a show at Princeton with my now husband, Jason, the four of us got to talking. Apparently Dan had been dreaming of adding a low sound like viola to the duo and drums were the icing on the cake (or the cake itself?). Dan had a few tunes he wanted to play and Jason wrote a few tunes… and history.

But, as much as we’re all friends (in QQQ’s case, two married couples) and part of these two “genre-bending” ensembles, the sounds from these two groups couldn’t be more polar-opposite. At Friday’s show you’ll here QQQ, a band that writes it’s own music, premier two new works:

Dan’s “From Ort”, is a suite of songs featuring vocalist, Daisy Press, and animation by Judy Trueman. This piece is a tribute and memorial to Trueman’s great-uncle, Ort, from Wausau, Wisconsin, who died in 2008 at the age of 102. Ort, whose family was from the Enstad farm in Norway, was a huge fan of the hardinfele (hardanger fiddle). He was also a record keeper, and compiled a huge book of information about the family tree. Judy Trueman, Dan’s mother and Ort’s niece, used photographs from these records to create a beautiful “animated painting” that will accompany the tunes.

From the other side of QQQ’s sound comes a collection of pieces titled “11 words” by Jason, inspired by 11 of the new words added to the Webster Dictionary this past year. These short tunes also call for Daisy to join forces with the band. But like QQQ’s debut album title “Unpacking the Trailer…” hints, it’s hard to know what you’re going to find from words like agroterrorism, abdominoplasti, hoody and crunk. Personally, I’m really looking forward to “yogilates”. The set will be rounded out with a tune from “Unpacking” featuring just the band.

Following QQQ, janus, who collaborates with and commissions composers to write for the group, will take the stage and present music from it’s forthcoming debut album due to drop sometime in Fall 2010. The program features works by Anna Clyne, Cameron Britt, Ryan Brown, Angelica Negron and Jason Treuting as well as a few other surprises. One of the best things about working with so many different composers is that we continue to discover new sounds through their composition. This album is no exception as you’ll hear from these tunes that feature us playing our flutes/viola/harp, adding a little banjo and percussion here and there (literally in the harp), singing and performing with electronics and video… we’re a far cry from Debussy these days!

So, “cross-genre” covers many bases: from janus’s classical chamber music roots to Dan and Monica’s folk background and Jason’s 2 and 4 backbeats in QQQ. Maybe someday soon we’ll have a 12^th word to add to the dictionary that encapsulates this genre of new sounds into a few syllables. For now, “new” also works. Thanks to New Amsterdam Records and Galapagos for programming these two great groups on the same show! Looking forward to sharing a lot of new music with new ears.

-Beth Meyers

Let's reflect for a moment, shall we?

This was our original recording at the So Percussion Space in 2007.
A little makeshift, but we managed to get a demo cd out of it. (Many, many, many thanks to the So guys for allowing us to take over.) Below, however was my mental state when we finally wrapped that experience.









Observe, if you will, the luxurious conditions we just finished recording in.






A little less spastic, a little more sane. We've been lucky.

from in the recording studio

I really wanted to do this because it's just not the same post-recording. So, I'm sitting behind Lawson White at the console of Clinton Recording Studios on 46th and 10th Ave. We're in studio A, which, if you haven't ever been here before is a @$*^ing unbelievable room to make a record in. This room was the home for recording artists including Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, REM, Chick Corea, Sonny Rollins, and Ringo Starr to name a few of the greats. Needless to say, we're humbled by the spirit of this room.

Right now I'm sitting in the sound booth instead of behind the mic because Amanda and Nuiko are laying down the harp percussion for Ryan Brown's "Under the Rug". It's a one-person part but Nuiko's harp is so resonant that she has to sit there and hold on to it so Amanda's knocking doesn't bring out all the vibrations these expensive mics easily pick up. It's a pretty special moment for me to be able to have this perspective which is completely polar opposite to the feeling of being in that big room. I have to relay to you the picture that's laid out in front of me, too. There are no less than 11 mics on tall stands that I'm sure all have impressive technical names and numbers I could only dream of. The visual of them all growing toward the ceiling is like a herd of giraffes reaching up for the birds ear to our sound. And if you squint your eyes it starts to look a bit like a war - the mic stands some sort of army of machinery that has us surrounded. I'm sure they're all necessary to capture the sounds from our 3 instruments (additionally 4: harp percussion, 5: banjo and 6: voices occasionally) - and to grab the "room sound" from a stereo sense. If you're following all of that, then you may have had a recording experience of your own. Or, you might geek out about how some of your favorite albums were recorded. The where, when, weather, and even time of day can be heard if you listen carefully enough. I just heard a stomach growl, so I guess you can even hear what's on the menu. If you believe me, then you'll hear it, too.

The girls are about done with the percussion sounds then it's off to re-record Caleb Burhans's "Keymaster" which was recorded back in the winter of 2007 at the So Percussion rehearsal space in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. A far cry from Clinton. Good thing there were a few other reasons to clean up that recording, which gives us a reason to lay it down in this heavenly setting. Not to say that the So Space wasn't an incredible experience in it's own right (complete with Lawson's make-shift console set up in the back corner of the space, gargantuan felt baffles surrounding us and taking turns turning the heat on in between takes as it was the middle of the winter). We're keeping one of the tunes we recorded there, which also happens to be the title track for the album - Jason Treuting's "I am not (blank)". It's pretty fitting to keep that recording from 233 Norman Ave in Brooklyn not only because Jason's So Percussion resides there but also because that recording of "I am not (blank)" captures exactly what I was referring to earlier. You can totally hear the temperature in the room, the feeling that we really wanted to be there regardless of the circumstances causing our fingers to numb. Jason's piece also asks us to put ourselves in it in a different way than the other tunes on the album. We're improvisers for much of the piece and when it comes to capturing these kind of moments, we already did.

So, it's 1pm and we're on schedule. Just finished Ryan's piece, Caleb up to bat. The rest of the day also includes recording "unintelligible" whispering and backing claps (which I'm MOST excited about from these 3 recording days) for Ryan's piece, crumpling paper for the end of Angelica Negron's "Drawings for Meyoko" which we otherwise finished up yesterday morning, and all of Caleb's piece. The last part of today is something I'm looking forward to so much. We're planning to lay down our version of a piece by David Lang called "Little Eye" which was originally written for "solo cello and 4 non-percussionists". We've thought a lot about how to record all of this music these past 3 days both from a purist standpoint as well as from the side of using modern technology to it's fullest. How do I put this? We want to make a great record that appeals to our ears while still performing relatively what's possible live. This can get hard when you start to use technology at all, right? For example, once you're performing with electronics or a "tape part" then you're already running into issues of balance (especially for the bass of the harp). In this case, we're adding some claps for Ryan's piece where we wouldn't all be able to clap live. But, why wouldn't I want to clap, too? 3 claps just sound better than 1. That's probably the most mild example from this album recording experience. On the other end of things, we're planning to cover 4 non-percussionists with just 2 members of the trio. No apologies. I'd forgotten that So Percussion recorded Steve Reich's Drumming at the Hit Factory a number of years ago (R.I.P. Hit Factory ... apparently Drumming was the last record that was made there). Anyway, Drumming is scored for 9 percussionists, 2 singers and 1 piccolo player. Done live, you absolutely need 12 people. So Percussion is 4 people and they did it themselves. Well, they invited singers and piccolo to record. Only so much magic is possible.

So, you can make magic happen in the studio. I'm witnessing this as I type and will join them in the room after the Indian food is ordered. We're about to record some whispers. Listen carefully...