Bumping into... Ayal Senior

Bumping Into... is a series of mini-chats with a variety of peeps that you might run into in some of our local music communities. (There's a bit of an intro and my thoughts behind the series here.)

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How are you? Where are you?

An intriguing question that no one asks, a harder question to answer. Trying to achieve homeostatis & a sense of equanimity. Grateful to have a roof over my head & food in the fridge and a basement to make music in. Concern for the welfare of all of those who do not. I send you all blessings of health, strength & peace.

What have you been up to since March or so?

My father died in May of non-covid related health issues. So, basically processing grief during the pandemic has been a big challenge. The year a close relative passes away in Judaism is called a Shiva year, it’s a year of intense self-scrutiny and judgment which has been made so much more acute by the quarantine. It’s been a year of going more deeply inward, I’ve been reading more than I ever have about metaphysics, matters of the soul and the nature of reality as well as dealing with legal issues pertaining to my father’s estate.

Have you found any new ways to do old things? How are you feeling about the shifts in how music is being made/shared/listened to?

Discovering how vastly deep the archives go into the past. I’m working on a release of John Fahey’s cassette collages and mixtape music for Mississippi Records from a time in my lost youth where I visited him in Salem, Oregon. This will encompass my writing and journals from that time as well as a series of mixtapes that he made for myself and Sara Press. I’ve also been collating as much artwork, flyers, posters and art by the Harlem collective No Neck Blues Band for a possible publication. I’m pleased to say that I finished recording my contribution for the next Throat Funeral album which will include some unbelievable guest-appearances.

Any works of art that have been a light for you in these times? Anything that's just been a good diversion?

YES!!

• The Book of Human Insects by Osamu Tezuka
• Jim O’Rourke’s Steamroom Series
• Matthew ‘Doc’ Dunn’s Rain, Rain, Rain
• Mdou Moctar Mixtapes
• Jennifer Castle’s Monarch Season
• Black Blizzard by Yoshihiru Tatsumi
• Del Stephen’s Imagination Fever
• Any music by Ryan Driver
• Any music by William Tyler
• Gunn-Truscinski Duo - Soundkeeper
• All music by Mary Lattimore, Joan Shelley Suzanne Ciani and Susan Alcorn
• Remina by Junji Ito
• Sam Prekop’s Comma
• Nathan Salsburg’s Landwerk Series
• The Drifting Classroom by Kazuo Umezz
• Masahiko Sato’s Belladonna
• McLaren’s Hard Times
• Anything by Dun-Dun Man (Craig Dunsmuir)
• Everything by Leo Takami
• Minami Deutsch
• Karen Ng
• Motohiko Hamase
• Ode to Kirihito by Osamu Tezuka
• Hiroshi Yoshimura
• Kikagaku Moyo
• Anything by Nashville Minimalism Unit
• At The Mountains of Madness by Gou Tanabe

(To Name a few)

How are you feeling about 2021?

Cautiously optimistic (Feel like I’ll be listening to more GWAR).

Anything else we'd chat about if we bumped into each other?

I hope we can make the time to improvise & create more new music together & you let me pick your brain about what’s been inspiring and moving you! You have the most impeccable ear! Even two of them!