Recording: Heraclitus Akimbo with Paul Newman

Artist: Heraclitus Akimbo with Paul Newman

Song: Ratio Requiem [excerpt]

Recorded at Ratio (Decreation – Night 3), June 4, 2017.

Heraclitus Akimbo with Paul Newman - Ratio Requiem [excerpt]

Given the internal and external pressures that come to bear, it's no surprise that no DIY space lasts forever. It still made it a sad occasion to learn that Ratio was winding down its active presence, news leavened slightly with the corresponding announcement of a series of farewell shows, with many artists making a final return to the space. Since its inception, Ratio has been a really important place to me. When it opened, I was having some back problems, and being able to go to a show where I could lay back on the floor afforded me some of the most relaxed and focused listening that I experienced in that period. I not only went to as many shows as I could there (more than thirty, by my count), I was fortunate enough to be able to present a couple bills there was well. So it felt like it was bringing things full circle, in some way, by making my performance debut there during this closing series.

For this set, I was inspired by all those shows I'd seen at Ratio, and I brought back some ghost-fragments of them by putting some of my field recordings from Ratio onto tapes that I mixed in with my synth loops. I also invited Paul Newman — who had played at one of those shows that I had remembered well — to respond with his sax.

[Given this one-off nature of this performance, I have decided to post the whole thing on Bandcamp — you can check it out here.]