Followers

Monday, October 28, 2013

The Kandinsky Effect to tour Europe and the USA, November/December 2013

The Kandinsky Effect Take Their Electronic-Tweaked Jazz on a Widescale Europe & USA Tour
November / December 2013


THE KANDINSKY EFFECT
Conceived on Paris’s cosmopolitan jazz scene, forged on the road in America, and informed by international currents in electronic music, The Kandinsky Effect is a jazz power trio for the 21st century. Now based in New York City and Paris, the band makes its Cuneiform debut with Synesthesia, a roller-coaster ride of an album marked by fierce grooves, subtle electronic textures, intricate metrical shifts, and a commitment to empathic group interplay.

Featuring Warren Walker on saxophone and electronics, Gaël Petrina on bass and electronics and Caleb Dolister on drums and laptop, The Kandinsky Effect avidly explores a vast sonic territory, including some too seldom associated with jazz. They are searching for new ways to work within the jazz idiom by blending the borders of jazz, rock, electronica, hip-hop and experimental sounds.

Steeped in improvisation and various post-bop vocabularies, the trio has honed a sound described by the Los Angeles Times as “bracing, electronically tweaked jazz.” It’s an approach that erases distinction between front line and rhythm section, as all three musicians constantly direct the music’s flow, changing arrangements and musical movement on the flying by employing several dozen hand cues and other methods. As the group states, "Our music doesn’t have to be harmonically complex to be interesting. The effects are almost a separate instrument. We think of ways to shape the effects around the tune. It’s never ending. Every gig is different and an experiment. The risk is what makes it happen."

TOUR DATES
Nov 1
London, England
The Vortex
11 Gillett Square
London N16 8AZ
info@vortexjazz.co.uk

Nov 3 Chachan, France Track n' Art
66 rue Camille
Desmoulins 94230
Cachan, France

Nov 4 Paris, France L'Improviste34 Quai de la Loire
75019 Paris

Nov 5 Zagreb, Croatia KSET
Nov 6 Cakovec, Croatia Podroom
Nov 7 Ljubljana, Slovenia Gala Hala
Nov 8 Murska Sobota, Slovenia Mikk
Trubarjev drevored 4
9000 Murska Sobota
+386 2 534 98 90 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +386 2 534 98 90 FREE  end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Nov 9 Rijeka, Croatia TBA
Dec 4 Portland, Oregon Lewis & Clark University
Dec 4 Salem, Oregon Willamette UniversityWU Campus - Rogers Music Center
900 State Street
Salem, Oregon 97301
(503) 370-6300 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (503) 370-6300 FREE  end_of_the_skype_highlighting
Room: Rehearsal Hall

Dec 5 Portland, Oregon The Goodfoot
2845 Stark Street
Portland, OR 97214
(503) 239-9292 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (503) 239-9292 FREE  end_of_the_skype_highlighting
Cuneiform Night!
with Blue Cranes and Dylan Ryan's Sand
Dec 6 Reno, NV Biggest Little City Club188 California Ave
Reno, NV 89509
with Yelsa
Dec 7 Truckee, California Moody's Bar and Beats
Dec 8 Sacramento, California JB's Lounge
Clarion Hotel Sacramento
1401 Arden Way, Sacramento

Dec 10 Los Angeles, California Blue Whale123 Astronaut E S Onizuka St. Suite 301
Los Angeles, CA
90012
(213) 620-0908 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (213) 620-0908 FREE  end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Dec 11 Fresno, California Tokyo Jazz
Dec 12 Nevada City, California Stonehouse
Dec 13 Oakland, CA Duende
Dec 14 Sacramento, California CSUS Sacramento Jazz FestivalCapistrano Hall - Music Recital Hall Stage
($10 General Admission - Available online at the Door)
Directions: http://www.csus.edu/music/tickets.htm
(916) 278-7987 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (916) 278-7987 FREE  end_of_the_skype_highlighting




The Kandinsky Effect - SynesthesiaGenre: Jazz / Alternative

Synesthesia opens with the rough and tumble “Johnny Utah,” which has little to do with Keanu Reeves’ surfer/FBI agent in the beloved 1991 film “Point Break,” except maybe a brooding sense of momentum, a relentless drive enhanced by clattering percussion breaks. Like several of Walker’s tunes “M.C.” moves sleekly through a series of sections, each built upon a different rhythmic theme or motif. In the same way, “Walking…” sounds more like a series of helter-skelter sprints over broken ground than a leisurely stroll.

While the band excels at acceleration, The Kandinsky Effect also knows how to slow down, playing melodies that ooze and saunter. On Walker’s “Cusba,” the band displays a knack for mysterious balladry, with a coolly disquieting theme. The atmosphere gets thicker on “WK51” with the clattering march-time snare chatter building cinematic tension, the coiled calm before a deadly confrontation. The album closes with “If Only,” another ominously serpentine line with subtle layered effects that make it clear the trio has absorbed lessons from Bjork, Squarepusher, and Aphex Twin in developing a lapidary but spacious sound.

Over dozens of shows performed in North America and Europe, the well-travelled trio of Walker, Petrina and Dolister had honed their collective sound to a fine polish. The transatlantic met in a studio mid-way between New York and Paris - in Rejkavik, Iceland! - to record their new album. The result was Synesthesia, The Kandinsky Effect’s second release, and the group’s first recordings on American-based, internationally-distributed Cuneiform Records. Featuring 11 captivating tracks that are simultaneously rhythmically gorgeous, groove-laden, compositionally interesting and immediately accessible, Synesthesia promises to spread the sensory magic of The Kandinsky Effect’s transatlantic jazz worldwide.

PROMOTIONAL TRACK //"Johnny Utah" (mp3 download) stream: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube
PRESS MATERIALS // PRESS RELEASE (PDF) - HIGH RES PHOTOS
ARTIST WEBSITES //
www.thekandinskyeffect.com - www.facebook.com/TheKandinskyEffectThe Kandinksy Effect @www.cuneiformrecords.com
"Synesthesia is an inventive album, a relatively rare example of an egalitarian mix of acoustic and electronic sounds. The Kandinsky Effect manages this tricky combination with confidence, crafting music that stimulates the brain and the dancing shoes simultaneously."
- AllAboutJazz
"Walker and company vary the program considerably from track to track, sometimes giving the electronics a prominent role and other times using effects to color rather than dominate the music, and also applying treatments in a way that paints compositional changes in bold relief."
- All Music
"If you like jazz trios but are looking for something new and different from the standard piano trio, this is definitely worth a try. If you love different styles such as electronics, jazz, rock and hip-hop beats melded together in a fresh way, check this one out!"
- Geardiary
"Surging forward with fierceness, groove and trickiness, Synesthesia is a mind-bending, eclectic and challenging sonic stream that doesn’t contain even a shred of pretentiousness, but is full of creativity, individuality, expressivity and outside of the box thinking. An ambitious album that will appeal to fans of Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada."
- Igloo Magazine
"Few trends in popular music have made such an indelible impression on modern jazz as ‘90s innovations in drum-n-bass. The fragmented, lightning-paced beats of Squarepusher and Aphex Twin have been gleefully appropriated by today’s generation of percussionists and the proliferation of effects pedals have made it possible for single-line instruments to create the same electronic soundscapes once the signature of analog synthesizers. Paris/New York trio The Kandinsky Effect takes this approach, firmly grounding their electronic and rhythmic ideas in solid musicianship..... There is a fundamental expectation that a jazz record will be a document of a performance, as opposed to a sonic construction unto itself. The Kandinsky Effect does an amazing job of creating something that satisfies a listener’s expectations for both."- The New York City Jazz Record
"Synesthesia is one hell of a ride that shows the strength and innovations left in jazz music and all the new styles of music created in the 21st century. A must hear experience...
-
Sound Colour Vibration

Video: TODD LA TORRE-Fronted Version Of QUEENSRŸCHE Performs In Budapest



 
Fan-filmed video footage of the Todd La Torre-fronted version of QUEENSRŸCHE performing the song "Empire" on October 23 at Club 202 in Budapest, Hungary can be seen below.
The Todd La Torre-fronted version of QUEENSRŸCHE recently filmed a "mini movie," with the tracks "Spore", "Midnight Lullaby", "A World Without" and "X2" providing the score to a 10-plus minute story, dubbed "Queensrÿche: Ad Lucem". The film was created by Veva Entertainment Co. with director Daniel Andres Gomez Bagby and producer Marco De Molina and was filmed last month on location at Central City Stages in Los Angeles.
Commented Todd: "We decided to take a different approach with this video, which is comprised of four pieces of music from our latest self-titled release, 'Queensrÿche'. It's a conceptual mini-movie music video that invites the audience to scratch beneath the surface a bit, rather than the usual 'chewed food' that so many are used to being fed. We really wanted to deviate from a performance type of video so the music and story-line could be the main focus."

He added: "The overall theme of the song 'Spore' is one that deals with personal demons, relationship struggles, career pressures, personal/professional morals and ethical dilemmas. These are issues we all face on some level and the video touches upon them all.
"'Midnight Lullaby'/'A World Without' deals with the loss of a mother during childbirth, leaving a father as a single parent and struggling to move forward through the turmoil.
"'X2', though it opens up our album, provides for a nice outro to it all. The end result is a roller coaster of emotion in an effort to find a healthy resolve.
"Given our history, we feel that this multifaceted conceptual video, along with a great cast of actors to suit, will really resonate with our fans."
QUEENSRŸCHE's new, self-titled album sold around 13,500 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 23 on The Billboard 200 chart. The record arrived in stores on June 25 via Century Media Records.
"Queensrÿche" marks the debut release from the lineup comprised of Todd La Torre (vocals; ex-CRIMSON GLORY), Michael Wilton (guitar), Parker Lundgren (guitar), Eddie Jackson (bass) and Scott Rockenfield (drums). The drums for the album were recorded at London Bridge Studios in Seattle, Washington with producer James "Jimbo" Barton — the man who engineered and mixed the band's classic 1988 LP, "Operation: Mindcrime", and its 1990 follow-up, "Empire", and co-produced 1994's "Promised Land". The rest of the music and vocals were laid down at several different facilities on the West Coast. The cover artwork was created by Craig Howell, who has previously worked on designs for "Star Wars", SLIPKNOT and "American Idol", to name a few.

Deep Purple News



 
A European version of DEEP PURPLE's latest studio album, "Now What?!", will be released at the end of November. This edition celebrates the success of the CD and the great spirit and excitement of the "Now What?!" tour that keeps bringing joy to many music lovers from country to country.
The record company and the artist would like to stress out that the double CD will be sold to retailers for a price which is lower than the usual price for any new stand-alone live release.
Fans who have purchased "Now What?!" will have the chance to buy the double pack, paying it less than a newly released live album.
Fans of vinyl will have the chance to purchase the live album as a limited heavy vinyl double LP.
The "Now What?! Live Tapes" will be available on all digital stores (bundled with "Now What?!" or available singularly) and all streaming platforms.
Details about the content of a different version of this expanded edition for the U.S. market, to be released in 2014, will be announced later in the year.
The "Now What?! Live Tapes" (European version) track listing:
01. Strange Kind Of Woman
02. Hard Loving Man
03. Vincent Price
04. Contact Lost
05. All The Time in The World
06. No One Came
07. Bodyline
08. Perfect Strangers
09. Above And Beyond
10. Lazy
11. Black Night
12. Smoke On The Water
The 12 live songs have been recorded in Rome, Milan, Gaevle and Aalborg. The live material has been carefully mixed to reflect the sounds and the emotions that came out of the speakers every night. 100% live, 100% real.
"Now What?!", the 19th studio album from DEEP PURPLE, was released in North America on April 30 via earMUSIC, the Hamburg, Germany-based international rock label which is part of Edel Group.
After various songwriting sessions in Europe, the band recorded and mixed the album in Nashville, Tennessee with producer Bob Ezrin (KISS, PINK FLOYD, PETER GABRIEL, ALICE COOPER, KANSAS). The CD contain 11 tracks, including "Out Of Hand", "Weirdistan", "Uncommon Man" and "Above And Beyond". The latter song references the band's late keyboard player, Jon Lord, in the lyric "Souls having touched are forever entwined."
In a recent interview with RadioMetal.com, DEEP PURPLE singer Ian Gillan stated about the songwriting process for "Now What?!": "There were no rules. We started with nothing, except the right attitude; that's all. Every day, it was the same routine: the guys walked in at noon and we all worked until 6 o'clock on the writing sessions. We just stopped at 3 o'clock for a cup of tea. After 6 o'clock, we would go home, have a shower, some dinner and go to bed early, even if I'm always up in the middle of the night, writing lyrics. We start at 10 o' clock the next morning when we're recording. But the writing is always noon until six. It starts with nothing. Ian [Paice, drummer] and Roger [Glover, bassist] would start jamming, playing for an hour non-stop and trying out some rhythms or grooves. They would stop and say, 'No, that's not good,' then start something else and say, 'Remember that. Maybe on Thursday we'll try this again and maybe it'll be a song.' Everything emerged from jamming sessions."

DREAM THEATER's JORDAN RUDESS: MIKE MANGINI Has Certain Skills That MIKE PORTNOY Does Not



 
Justin Beckner of Classic Rock Revisited recently conducted an interview with keyboardist Jordan Rudess of progressive metal giants DREAM THEATER. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
Classic Rock Revisited: Let's start by talking about how the new [self-titled] DREAM THEATER album came together.
Jordan: Well, the way DREAM THEATER usually handles the whole process is, we start by sitting down and discussing where we're all at and where we want to go musically — what we want to create. We do sort of a check-in on where we are personally and musically and decide what we want to create. We've always been very conceptual about things before we start the process of writing. It's been that way ever since I've been in the group and I'd imagine even before that, there was a lot of intricate planning that goes into a DREAM THEATER album.
Classic Rock Revisited: It's got to be an amazing experience to sit in a room with so many great songwriters and see everything come together.
Jordan: It's super exciting. On this particular album, we had the addition of our fairly new drummer, Mike Mangini. It was really cool to have him involved in the writing sessions for the first time. It's a very intense, energy-driven experience that moves from going very fast when we're composing together — sometimes we're blown away at how fast the ideas are coming out — to the slower more analytical parts of the process where we comb over details. The slower parts of making records are usually when I might go write some music down with a pen and paper very slowly and the other guys will go into their own world and take a break or something.
Classic Rock Revisited: I suppose I should ask how the two Mikes [former DREAM THEATER drummer Mike Portnoy and current DREAM THEATER drummer Mike Mangini] measure up to each other.
Jordan: Well, the two Mikes, the new Mike and the old Mike, are both very different people and they're both very different players. Both of them are great drummers, but a lot did change, both personally and musically, for us. Musically, the new Mike has certain skills that the other one does not. For example, he's incredible with mathematics, especially related to music. He was able to bring us some architectural structure that we've never had to this extent before, as far as meters and how different instruments will interact — that was a totally new element that we got to work with. Also, Mangini has a technique on drums unlike any other human on the planet, so that brings an element of change. He also is really fun in the studio has tons of energy which we feed off of. I'm not saying that in any way to put down our last drummer, Mike Portnoy, who is an exceptional talent and a world-class drummer, but I'm saying that some new things were offered to the group.
Classic Rock Revisited: Was there any plans for what this album was going to become before you started writing it?
Jordan: One of the ways we looked at it was that we wanted to make sure that the music that we played was not only what we all thought DREAM THEATER represents but also really be honest about who we are as people and where we're coming from and make sure that we're making music we feel comfortable with. We wanted to be really true to that instead of letting outside influences that don't really relate to who we are as people dictate our music. We wanted to say, "OK, we are DREAM THEATER in 2013 and we are going to be true to the music and true to what we feel this group is," and as long as that mentality is in place, I'm very comfortable with anything that happens.