Many Happy Returns to Reis Alter on her RezDay!
The show started out a little loose as we put the timing together and then Deceptions Digital came and she wanted to play too. She loves to do pick-up gigs at Cat's Art MusikCircus so we settled on four half-hour sets.
The first set was Aldo Brizzi playing some of his instrumental compositions.
The type of music Aldo Brizzi plays for solo isn't the same as what he does when working with Reis so the performance today gave us an excellent taste of both. He even composed one piece specifically for Reis' RezDay.
Aldo's music always features outstanding percussion. Just going with a four-beat and a back-beat on two is not going to do it for him. He makes the most exotic rhythms and it's incredible stuff as he is formally trained in music but he also plays a lot in Brazil where he integrated those rhythms as well. The result is extraordinary. His percussion is rich with so many sounds and it has a mystical depth to it.
There was a segment in Aldo's set that featured a sitar musician whose name I cannot possibly spell. You might never think a sitar would work well with synth compositions but Aldo is the one to make it work and it never sounds contrived. The musicians who can weave very different sounds into a fabric that maybe no-one ever heard before are the ones I admire the most and Aldo is incredible at it.
You can visit Aldo's Web site to learn more about his instrumental work as he plays with some extremely cool musicians and the results are fascinating. Take a look at Aldo Brizzi's site.
Reis Alter came up to the stage for the second half-hour set.
Today is Reis Alter's RezDay and it sure seemed like she had fun with it. Maybe you wouldn't want to work on your RezDay but Reis and Aldo requested it. For a musician, playing is about as much fun as you can possibly have while people are watching.
Reis Alter has a voice that can go from delicately angelic to as sexy as you can be without getting arrested. With Aldo and the incredible foundation he creates, Reis can fly as high as she likes with it and the result turns into a journey. People in the audience will sometimes suggest what impression comes to them and many times that is a vision of flying over a jungle with multi-colored birds all around. Through it all, Reis flies like the Angel from the movie, "Brazil."
I couldn't stay for her whole set as I needed to get equipment staged to play back in the Fort Worth Rockhouse. You can find more about Reis and Aldo on their Artist Profile on Cat's MusikCircus Web site.
Silas Scarborough played the third half-hour set.
I knew I had to stay cool as I would be playing another party in a couple of hours. You can tell yourself that but still you want to blow out anything you possibly can. Blowing it out won and I took skin off some fingers for it which gives some masochistic goodness as it will make them stronger.
The opener was "I Love Rats" as doing anything synthy after the brilliant stuff Aldo does would have just been ridiculous. Therefore kick it straight up with guitar as loud as it will go. This song is total musical carnage but I love doing it and people keep asking for it.
There was a time when I was very much intimidated by people with the musical stature of Reis and Aldo listening to my show. So instead I'm thinking after any mistake, uh oh, Cat heard that. Uh oh, did it again, Cat heard that. There is no punishing vibe in it but rather I know she can hear many things others can't so that sets a MusikCircus standard and I'm glad Cat sets it high.
Mostly I find myself going with hammerhead stuff in these shows and that's been very cool. Invariably if I ask if people want something slow or blow something up then they'll request demolition. OK, let's get on with that!
Deceptions Digital came up after that for the final half-hour set.
There is one thing you should never do with Deceptions Digital (DD) and that's to call her a DJ. She isn't a DJ at all as she takes music she has played herself along with samples she collects in some mysterious way and she mixes this together with some magic she probably does on a computer. The result is exceptional as she is another for mixing highly-disparate sounds to create an overall impression that's all her own.
One of the most unusual songs she does is her version of Beethoven's "Für Elise." You may not know the name but you have definitely heard the music at some time in your life. DD takes the piece in all kinds of unusual directions and that may be disturbing if you don't believe the piece should be altered. If you're ok with that, you'll hear a piece that's quite compelling as you wonder just what the hell will she do with it next. She holds it together by bringing back the opening theme every so often for just long enough to keep you tight with where it started. It's unusual but that's a big part of what makes it cool.
This really was a multinational night as Reis and Aldo were performing from Italy, I was playing in Texas, and DD was playing from Germany. That's one of the finest kinds of Second Life magic as you would have to be some kind of downtown high-roller to be able to afford any kind of international linkage like that but you can have the virtual analog of it for free in Second Life.
Cat Boucher put all this together and people don't see the work in it but there's one hell of a lot. She gives more of herself to music than anyone I've ever known.
The show started out a little loose as we put the timing together and then Deceptions Digital came and she wanted to play too. She loves to do pick-up gigs at Cat's Art MusikCircus so we settled on four half-hour sets.
The first set was Aldo Brizzi playing some of his instrumental compositions.
The type of music Aldo Brizzi plays for solo isn't the same as what he does when working with Reis so the performance today gave us an excellent taste of both. He even composed one piece specifically for Reis' RezDay.
Aldo's music always features outstanding percussion. Just going with a four-beat and a back-beat on two is not going to do it for him. He makes the most exotic rhythms and it's incredible stuff as he is formally trained in music but he also plays a lot in Brazil where he integrated those rhythms as well. The result is extraordinary. His percussion is rich with so many sounds and it has a mystical depth to it.
There was a segment in Aldo's set that featured a sitar musician whose name I cannot possibly spell. You might never think a sitar would work well with synth compositions but Aldo is the one to make it work and it never sounds contrived. The musicians who can weave very different sounds into a fabric that maybe no-one ever heard before are the ones I admire the most and Aldo is incredible at it.
You can visit Aldo's Web site to learn more about his instrumental work as he plays with some extremely cool musicians and the results are fascinating. Take a look at Aldo Brizzi's site.
Reis Alter came up to the stage for the second half-hour set.
Today is Reis Alter's RezDay and it sure seemed like she had fun with it. Maybe you wouldn't want to work on your RezDay but Reis and Aldo requested it. For a musician, playing is about as much fun as you can possibly have while people are watching.
Reis Alter has a voice that can go from delicately angelic to as sexy as you can be without getting arrested. With Aldo and the incredible foundation he creates, Reis can fly as high as she likes with it and the result turns into a journey. People in the audience will sometimes suggest what impression comes to them and many times that is a vision of flying over a jungle with multi-colored birds all around. Through it all, Reis flies like the Angel from the movie, "Brazil."
I couldn't stay for her whole set as I needed to get equipment staged to play back in the Fort Worth Rockhouse. You can find more about Reis and Aldo on their Artist Profile on Cat's MusikCircus Web site.
Silas Scarborough played the third half-hour set.
I knew I had to stay cool as I would be playing another party in a couple of hours. You can tell yourself that but still you want to blow out anything you possibly can. Blowing it out won and I took skin off some fingers for it which gives some masochistic goodness as it will make them stronger.
The opener was "I Love Rats" as doing anything synthy after the brilliant stuff Aldo does would have just been ridiculous. Therefore kick it straight up with guitar as loud as it will go. This song is total musical carnage but I love doing it and people keep asking for it.
There was a time when I was very much intimidated by people with the musical stature of Reis and Aldo listening to my show. So instead I'm thinking after any mistake, uh oh, Cat heard that. Uh oh, did it again, Cat heard that. There is no punishing vibe in it but rather I know she can hear many things others can't so that sets a MusikCircus standard and I'm glad Cat sets it high.
Mostly I find myself going with hammerhead stuff in these shows and that's been very cool. Invariably if I ask if people want something slow or blow something up then they'll request demolition. OK, let's get on with that!
Deceptions Digital came up after that for the final half-hour set.
There is one thing you should never do with Deceptions Digital (DD) and that's to call her a DJ. She isn't a DJ at all as she takes music she has played herself along with samples she collects in some mysterious way and she mixes this together with some magic she probably does on a computer. The result is exceptional as she is another for mixing highly-disparate sounds to create an overall impression that's all her own.
One of the most unusual songs she does is her version of Beethoven's "Für Elise." You may not know the name but you have definitely heard the music at some time in your life. DD takes the piece in all kinds of unusual directions and that may be disturbing if you don't believe the piece should be altered. If you're ok with that, you'll hear a piece that's quite compelling as you wonder just what the hell will she do with it next. She holds it together by bringing back the opening theme every so often for just long enough to keep you tight with where it started. It's unusual but that's a big part of what makes it cool.
This really was a multinational night as Reis and Aldo were performing from Italy, I was playing in Texas, and DD was playing from Germany. That's one of the finest kinds of Second Life magic as you would have to be some kind of downtown high-roller to be able to afford any kind of international linkage like that but you can have the virtual analog of it for free in Second Life.
Cat Boucher put all this together and people don't see the work in it but there's one hell of a lot. She gives more of herself to music than anyone I've ever known.
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