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Ever since we collaborated with Patrick on “…Strikes 13″ a few years back I’ve been wanting to write a song in 13/8.  For last year’s FoundatiOn Team Ep I tried a couple and came up with the basic groove and baseline for this song then Maz and I went into the studio and recorded all of this guitar feedback and the beginnings of Bizarre Heroes was born.

Russel and Kaoru really tore it up Saturday night! Listening to them together is like holding two seemingly incompatible truths in your mind simultaneously…  it’s a complete mind #$%#^ but somehow it all makes perfect sense.  Enjoy the track:

Bizarre Heroes – Russel Baba: Alto Sax, Kaoru Watanabe: Fue, Kelvin Underwood: Drums, Masato Baba: Bass, Kristofer Bergstrom: taiko, Shoji Kameda: laptop

Russel, Jeanne, and Kaoru are all now in town in preparation for Works in Progress! We spent about 10 hours practicing yesterday and things are coming together!

Ticket sales are going well and it looks like we might sell out… just 17 tickets remain. If you haven’t yet reserved your seat, please do so today!

Thank you everyone… we’re REALLY excited about this concert!

On Ensemble met with friend and fellow taiko fanatic, David Wells, to learn the brand-new piece he has composed for our upcoming concert!  So far, it’s an all-accoustic, drum-focused piece with a mellow groove and jazz-ensemble-style arrangement. It’s going to be great!  Thank you David for your work on the piece and for collaborating with us for its grand debut!

One of the pieces I’m working on for our upcoming Works in Progress concert is called “Engine Room”. It’s a piece for two people and it’s played on special drum pads affixed with contact microphones.

I’ve been building prototypes of the pads and I met with On Ensemble’s good friend and all-around-amazing-gentleman, Charlie Campagna, recently to get his input. We tried applying a number of electronic and acoustic effects. Charlie was really helpful and I’m excited about the sound we’re getting. Check it out!