Here at On Ensemble each of us has several musical projects we are involved with. Kris and Maz both perform with Taikoproject, Kelvin performs with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and I perform with Hiroshima and have always been into producing electronic music. Two years ago I formed an electronic music duo with longtime friend and two time Grammy winning composer Christopher Tin called Stereo Alchemy. I’m excited to announce our debut album God of Love will be released this Valentine’s Day and is on pre-sale now! We are calling our sound ‘decadent electronica’ a seductive mix of trip-hop, post punk and synth pop that will appeal to fans of Massive Attack, Portishead, The Postal Service, M83 and Nine Inch Nails.

God of Love is a concept album that sets Renaissance and Romantic era poetry to beat driven tracks and epic soundscapes. It features vocals by singers Melissa R. Kaplan (of Universal Hall Pass and Splashdown), Mozez (of Zero 7), and Lia Rose (of Built for the Sea). The album was mixed by three-time Grammy-winning engineer Darrell Thorp (Radiohead, Beck, and Paul McCartney) and mastered by Tom Baker (Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson).

For a preview of the album and a free download of the title track ‘God of Love’ visit: www.stereoalchemy.com.

During our time in Pinedale we ended up eating at the Wind River Brewery three times in two days and even made friends with some of the regulars (shout out to Kenny!). Yesterday we drove from Pinedale to Gillette through terrible weather. It was slow going but we arrived in one piece. Tomorrow we’ll be going out to a local elementary school for a couple of lecture demos. Today we finish our tech early and are settling down to watch the Niners!

For the last few months, friends and I have been working on the lighted-batchi technique with the hopes it will enable more detailed comparison of one’s right and left-hand strikes, as well as comparisons of different players’ movements.

The video below is excerpts of right vs left hand comparisons and Yuta vs Kris comparisons in both betta and slant-drum position. We tried a two-camera shot, as well as more complicated moves at the end. If nothing else, they’re pretty to look at!

With practice, I hope lighted batchi will be a useful tool in our taiko exploration toolbox!

(Hopefully I’ll post a video of this year’s gift to my mom — a praxinoscope made from an old record player! — sometime before next Christmas.)

Hiro and I have just returned from a two-day trip on our new bike. Oh… my… goodness…

We love this bike!

This was perhaps the most fun overnight trip I’ve ever had! We rode up to South Pasadena to have lunch at Charm Vegan , then over to South El Monte for dinner at Thien Tam Vegetarian Restaurant, and a night’s rest in Rosemead. We then took the beautiful Rio Hondo bike path home. The food was great, but it was basically an excuse to ride, and the riding was delightful. Not only is the recumbent comfortable, but the bike inspires amazing responses from onlookers. The weird-looking bike elicits shouts of support wherever we went. It’s hard not to be happy while a guy in a Compton low-rider gives you the thumbs up while a family on the sidewalk applauds and an old guy on the corner yells, “Pump that shit! Pump that shit!” Riding this bike is like being transported to a country where everyone is friendly and the pace of life is just right. The basics of getting around, eating, and talking become a joy.

Meet Alphonse! With a frame made by Greenspeed in Australia, and parts assembled by Bent Up Cycles in Hollywood, this is our dream bike! It’s 10.5′ long, fast, and really fun!

I had long planned to build a recumbent tandem. The bikes are surprisingly expensive, so I figured I could buy the welding tools and pay myself to do it and still save money. But just before the holiday break I happened to learn of a used Greenspeed GTT recumbent tandem going on sale. Suddenly, Hiro and I were excited about the possibility of having a tandem now, rather than five years from now, so we jumped in and bought it.

I’m surprised how fun it is to be recumbent. It feels sort of like flying, and cars generously share the roads with us. It’s easy to chat with your partner and it’s nice to feel the push of another set of legs. We are recent converts to clip-in pedals, which are even better on a recumbent trike where you can’t fall over.

The long-term dream is to be able to do taiko tours on bike. I’m not sure how feasible it really is, but I’d very much like to find a way that future career success doesn’t mean environmental failure.

We’re heading out on a two-day, 65-mile trip right now. More tomorrow on how it went!

What else? I currently have 5 taiko students that are showing lots of progress. One in particular, Megan Janssen, is amazing me with how quickly she learns. This is very, very inspiring. I’m planning next year’s Meidoko Green shows which will this time incorporate more students. If all goes well these shows will definitely be something for you all to see.