I started out the year composing Steam / Fans for the visually stunning Fanfare collaboration between choreographer and dancer Jodi Melnick and video artist Burt Barr at the Kitchen in February. It was written up in the New York Times and I'm very glad to have had the oppurtunity to work with both artists. There were no Bessie's this year, but it made the Messies over at Movement Research and Jodi made a Best of 2009 in TimeOut.  There's a limited edition hand-bound score & CD combo should anyone be interested!

 

After all of the, er, fanfare died down, it was time to switch gears - and musical heads - to Gamelan Dharma Swara.  It was a series of firsts for me - playing Suara Sandi at DROM downtown was a personal favorite, and our Spring Concert in May included guest artists Made Sidia and Dr. I. M. Bandem. As always, working with Dharma Swara is mind-stretching, humbling, and enjoyable all around.

 

Compositions For Computer: Vol 1, the retrospective book and cd set I put together the previous year (with stunning photos from John Soares and design by my brother Jeff) had a proper release in Philadelphia on June 7th with the living exhibit, "A View From a Window: from the Outside."  It was written up in Philly's City Paper  - "Music ... from space!".  Nothing wrong with that.  Holly Faurot and Sarah H. Paulson performed alongside Perhaps I'll See You Again (Someday) and Jodi Melnick improvised over Keys to the Crumbling City. Small Press Distribution is carrying the book and cd set.  Pick one up here if you wish.

 

Another release - and this one made BBC album of the day(!) - was the WIAIWYA mega-double-decker tribute record to the Boss, Play Some Pool, Skip Some School, Act Real Cool.  I contributed The Rising, but the clear winner, by far (or at least for those keeping score), is Allo Darlin's version of Atlantic City.  You need to buy this record for that alone.  Really. I'm not kidding. The record made a SoundsXP best of list for 2009. Ok, Born in the USA is a close second.

 

This summer I designed and instrument entirely out of metal called the Jegogunk.  It had its debut at Holly Faurot and Sarah Paulson's Rotten Metal Achievers. It's tuned to the the 7-note per octave Semara Dana instruments at the Indonesian Consulate here in NYC and its rods are designed to be either struck or bowed.  It was fed into the real-time sampling and windowing software that I wrote for Hooked the Scratcher. And the performance gave way to these fantastic Iris Jaffe pictures of Holly and Sarah in mulch.

 

A quick side note here - there is now a fully functional Musique Impossible recording studio at 35 Claver Place (that's in Brooklyn, hipsters...) in case you didn't know (interested? talk to me...)  This summer I took a short break from my own work to work with Gotham Writers' Workshop to record the first in a series of audio lectures with Alex Mindt.  Produced more like an NPR segment than a lecture hall recording, the first is on the topic of Developing and Revealing Character and is due to be released in early 2010.  Hopefully there will be more of them, so stayed tuned for that eventuality.

 

The most far reaching of my works this year, and one of the most beautiful performances I've seen, was Rex Levitates' 12 Minutes Dances, presented as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival in September.  I had the oppurtunity to see the performance first hand and it was stunning.  Two of the five dances were choreographed to my music, and A Passing Thought was written specifically for the occasion. From the Fringe Fest I travelled to London to rock with Jerv and what seemed to be the ENTIRE Where it's At artist catalogue to do what the Brits do best - go to the pub (including a proper quiz night and the hangover lounge)  I did miss what was billed as the best rock and roll show ever with Shrag and Help Stamp Out Loneliness the weekend after I left, though.  Ah well... 

 

Then it was back to Gamelan Dharma Swara - for performances in November at Fat Cat and as part of Performa 09 w/ Brody Condon at the New Museum.  Slightly different venues from the Consulate performances right after in December.  And hey, we made it though Tabuh Pisah and Kebyar Legong! I'm sure there are amazing photographs of this event, but you can watch Putu showin' off his mad iPhone Gamelan skilz - pretty funny stuff!

 

And now that the year is wrapping up, there's been some time for me to get back together with my brother, Jeff, to finish up tracks we started some time ago up at Verdant Studios with Pete Weiss.  This'll be quite a little ep when all is said and done.

 

So there you have it. A busy 2009.  Phew.  Here's looking at 2010!