SnowGhost Music

When I got word from Ed Patuto at Montalvo Arts in Saratoga that the Bleeding Edge was going to happen and that I was selected to curate the festival, I started my artist search in the Bay Area. I knew that I needed an established act to get the ball rolling. Ed suggested Matmos, an avant-garde electronic music duo made up of Drew Daniel, Martin Schmidt, and friends of his from the Art Institute in San Francisco. After a few weeks of emailing back and forth, I made a trip out to SF to meet them. Ed had set up a breakfast at a great little restaurant in the Mission, and we got together and talked about electronic arts and the Bay Area scene over eggs. We all agreed that the people of San Jose, being in the epicenter of technology, had to meet some high expectations, and so far, they hadn't. The idea intrigued Martin and Drew. I showed them pictures of the studio and told them that I would love to have them out sometime. We left if at that, and kept in touch over the next month or two via email.

As The Bleeding Edge Festival ideas flew on to the chalk board, Robert Crouch, my co-curator, suggested that we facilitate a collaboration between artists, to be showcased at the festival. These works were to be totally unique to The Bleeding Edge Festival. I could provide my production facility and skills to help make the collaboration a reality - the studio would definitely be a nice carrot to dangle in front of some creative minds. Because of Matmos’ creative flexibility with samplers, they were the perfect candidate to record, splice, reverse, and rearrange innocent artists' work. So we approached them with the idea, and they gratefully accepted, suggesting that they work with long time friend and collaborator Zeena Parkins. Zeena had worked with them on various Bjork projects, so the format wasn’t new. But the freedom was new, as this was the first time that they would work together as Zeena Parkins and Matmos.

A few weeks before they arrived, I got word that Mark Lightcap from Acetone would be accompanying them as well. Martin and Drew arrived first and we had one evening to go over everything that was to be accomplished during the week. We also had the next morning to make a stop at the local Army Navy outlet, to find anything uniquely ‘Montana’. Leaving the store with bags filled with noisemakers in tow, I knew that we were in for a good week.

Drew had put together some basic outlines in Digital Performer, his sequencer of choice; the rest of the group would supplement the ideas. We would combine takes into a single composition, over the course of a few improvisational sittings. Wobbly’s Jon Leidecker would later provide the editing glue to bring all of the pieces together into a single work.

Drew’s station was on a fold-up picnic table, in the middle of Studio A, complete with E-Mu Sampler, Apple iMac, and a Roland W-30. Because their music is so ground-breaking, I was expecting to see the latest in gadgets, but was pleasantly surprised with their setup that “didn’t crash like a Mac”. Drew joked that because of Matmos’ extensive touring, a lot of his gear was damaged, and outdated, and that he often scoured eBay to find the same units. He had spent what seemed like a lifetime gathering samples. Unfortunately, this lifetime lived on proprietary E-Mu and Roland disks. Also in his quiver were an assortment unique sound sources, such as aluminum fire blankets, batteries, and balloons. He ran all of these sounds through his computer and mixer, and then on to me as a stereo line. He wanted to give the other musicians something to track, leaving the editing of his performance for later. He played his samples live with faders or keyboards, and used a single mic for effected vocals and other sounds. I just ran him through the SSL mic pre(amp)s with a little compression, just in case anything came in too hot.

Martin, who often plays a more organic role in Matmos, had a Roland V-Synth to compliment his voice and percussive noisemaking. He also took a liking to our Steinway, so I miked it up with a pair of 414s through the SSL for ease. Upon discovering the TC Voice Live pedal’s can be used for more than just live performance vocals, we set Martin up with a SM57 on the floor. I ran everything from marbles in his mouth, to dumbek, to ‘Hot Lips’ elk calls through the Voice Live processor. He would reach for a snare drum, or clap his hands to provide rhythm. He would squeal through a balloon to provide ear-piercing dissonance. He tip-toed over the keys of the piano to bring the improvisation to a satisfying end after lengthy uncomfortable passages. Overall I was very impressed by Martin’s creative spirit, and his musical ability, despite his humble renouncement of the notion that he was a trained musician.

We came to find that Zeena Parkins, a well-known classical and avant-garde harpist, actually knew Wayne Horvitz (I recorded his band Varmint earlier that year) through their association with Tzadik, John Zorn’s label. He professed that she was ‘it’ on her instrument, and that her dynamic prowess would prove to be a rewarding experience. He was telling the truth. We were fortunate enough to find a local harpist who was willing to let us use her harp for the week. I had never worked with a harpist, so I asked a lot of questions about the tone and resonance of the harp, and she was very candid. We used with a pair of subcardiod Schoeps Mk21s, one at the foot of the harp, and one more towards what I called the chest. The mics gave us the advantage of cardiod and omni characteristics, isolating the bass and treble strings enough to get a good stereo image, but not direct enough to sound unnatural, or SUPER-STEREO. The harp was a beautiful-sounding instrument, with a very even response, making it easy to record; the MK21s through the DW Fern sounded immaculate. Zeena also brought her one-of-a-kind electric harp, complete with pickups in unusual places, a fretless section, and a whammy bar. The options seemed limitless. This was a very unusual instrument, and Zeena, stacked with pedals and prepared techniques, put up a wall of sound to be reckoned with. Zeena had a very calming way about her, despite the intensity she expressed in her playing.

Acetone guitarist Mark Lightcap played the role of the swiss-army-knife this time. Very easy-going, he was open for experimentation, and believe me, Matmos had some ideas. I would consider his style of guitar playing to fall in with most alt-country rockers, conjuring up the looseness of a Neil Young solo. He experimented with our Bluesboy amp (miked with two SM57s, front and back, the phase of the rear mic flipped) and Zvex fuzz pedal, finding the combination to be quite versatile, going from glassy cleans, to warm rhythm crunch, to in-your-face lead fuzz. With a few of his own pedals, he had more than enough textures to paint with - I almost forgot to mention that Mark is also a visual artist. During one improvisation, with Mark playing guitar live on the floor, I processed the sounds with poly-rhythmic reverse delays and a touch of chorus, from the Eventide Orvile. The Artist/Engineer collaboration resulted in a trance-y breakdown, one of my favorite parts of the collective improvisation. Mark also brought with him a tuba, in an Army-issue sack. It was almost as if he believed that the dings, caused by many careless airport hands, contributed to its unique tonal character. Ever heard a tuba chorus-ing with itself?

After a few days of loading the hard drives with great sounds and ideas, it was time for the gang to head to San Francisco for The Bleeding Edge Festival, to perform some of the composition realized at SnowGhost. Following a very fresh and inspired live performance, and frankly, one of the best in the show, it was time to hand over the hard drive to Jon Leidecker from Wobbly. He would spend the next 6 months massaging the material into something that ebbed and flowed, pierced and soothed, burned and cooled. His creative arranging and sound design talents manifested themselves in “Wobbly”, named by Matmos for it’s editor.