Recording: Lender

Artist: Lender

Song: [first piece, part 1]

Recorded at Array Space (MFS 10th Anniversary Celebration: A Night of Improvised Music), February 10, 2019.

Lender - [first piece, part 1]

Every year around Valentine's Day, I tend to remember that it's this blog's anniversary. Then I check back to that first entry, see I'm already a day late, and go on with life. This year, I was thinking about it well ahead of time, and seeing that big, round (and mightily unexpected) tenth anniversary approaching, it seemed befitting to do something a little special. That ended up being a pair of shows, conceptually split into "improvised" and "rock" nights.

For the former, Somewhere There helped out by lending me their regular second Sunday of the month slot at Array, and from there, it was just a matter of winnowing it down from the dozens of people that I wanted to ask to play. It's also one of the perks of putting on a show like this that I could "curate" a set, and throw together a band — like this one — that didn't previously exist. Christine Duncan provided the band name along with her voice and she was joined by Laura Swankey (vox, electronics), Nilan Perera (guitar) and D. Alex Meeks (percussion). The whole thing gelled in a quite satisfactory way, moving from abstract soundscapes into an impromptu spoken word piece from Duncan describing her week's events (three words: Snowmageddon in Seattle). Now I might have to put on another show to make sure this group plays a second time!

[D. Alex Meeks will be one of five percussionists (simultaneously and separately) playing "The Exploded Kit" at Nilan Perera's SynapticCircus night tomorrow (Sunday, April 14th), and will also be joining the picnic blanket of percussionists at The Titillators' historic sixth show afterwards. Christine Duncan and Laura Swankey, as two-thirds of Plastic Babies, will be at The Tranzac on Saturday, April 20th, helping to welcome Finnish jazz pianist Anni Rorke to town.]