Two new albums that I'm extremely proud to be a part of have been released recently!

Kirsten Carey's Ulysses Project was released last week at a successful release show at Kerrytown Concert House.
It can be bought/streamed through a few different avenues, but the best is her Bandcamp page:

The same night as Kirsten's release show in Ann Arbor, there was a concert at the Stoughton Opera House in WI celebrating the release of Dietrich Gosser's Oh to Begin! You can pre-order VINYL copies of this new album, and stream/buy it here:

Zach Herchen, a fellow Bang-on-a-Can-er, wrote  this brief recap article for NewMusicBox!

In the video below, I can be seen in many snippets, including playing some brake drums for David Lang's cheating,lying,stealing, and in the impromptu sing-along at the end with our guerilla-style indie band, Compartment Building, and many in between.

I'm still in recovery mode from spending 3 of the best weeks of my life at the Bang on a Can Festival at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA.  It was pretty much the ideal life: spending all day playing weird, new music in a contemporary art museum.

Above, I'm preparing to play Amanda Schoofs' piece, Fragility of Permanence underneath the breathtaking phoenix sculptures by Xu Bing.

A really gracious and talented group of musicians agreed to play my piece, touch, in a gallery recital. Here we are playing amongst early Sol LeWitt.

From left to right, the ensemble is:

Stephanie Richards, trumpet
Lina Andonovska, flute
Adrianne Pope, violin
Ted Babcock, vibraphone
Jacob Abele, toy piano
Chuck Furlong, bass clarinet
Doug Machiz, cello
(me)
Zeca Lacerda, vibraphone
Ken Thomson, bass clarinet

I'm announcing a few performances in Madison/Milwaukee area in July, including two performances with Lovely Socialite, which Mine All Mine Records have written about here!

My schedule includes:

July 4th: Lovely Socialite @ The Frequency, Madison
July 5th: Lovely Socialite @ Yield Bar, Milwaukee
July 6th: Performing with Amanda Schoofs @ Sugar Maple, Milwaukee
July 7th: Watercourse Quartet @ Dobra Tea, Madison

And here it is!  The recording from last week of my performance with Zane Merritt of Meredith Gilna's Meaningless Noise:

The entire concert is also available. Check out the "Improv Skirmish," where I have at it with Zane and the stellar cellist T.J. Borden. It leads into Zane's epic and incredibly metal duo for electric guitar and cello, The Reputation.

This past weekend, I made a trip to Buffalo, NY to premiere Meaningless Noise by Meredith Gilna, a duo for bass and guitar.  The concert was with Zane Merritt, guitarist and composer extraordinaire.  It was a great to be able to work on the piece with Zane and Meredith, and also do some improvising!

Springtime in Buffalo was in full, fantastic bloom, which was incredibly enjoyable until it caught up with my allergies.  The steady stream of mucous from my face, however, did not interfere with my enjoyment of the experience.  It was my first visit to Buffalo, and the city seems to be a vibrant arts community.  I hope to go back soon!

I will hopefully soon have recordings of Meredith's piece, as well as many improvisations with Zane, to share with you.

The ambient/experimental compilation Colias 1 is now available to buy/stream on the web.  My piece, Agatha, is track 24!

The fantastic Madison-based label Mine All Mine Records, in collaboration with Grimmusik, is releasing a compilation this week of ambient and experimental music.  I've contributed a track, and it's an honor to be included.  The release features tracks from many stellar musicians, including Thollem McDonas,CJ Boyd, Brothers Grimm,Pat Reinholz, and many, many more. 

The album will be streamed live TOMORROW at MIDNIGHT on Gross Time.

There's an album release show on Friday night in Madison, that's going to be amazing.

In other news, Kirsten Carey has released the second of the four videos we shot from her Ulysses Project last month.  We spent three days in the studio this past weekend recording the entire album, and I'm excited to say that it's going to be totally kickass. 

If you haven't yet donated to her Kickstarter to ensure completion of the album and reserve your copy, DO IT!!!!

The stellar guitarist/composer Kirsten Carey has written a set of pieces based on James Joyce's monstrous novel, Ulysses.  I'm happy to be playing in the band for the project, which will be recording this coming weekend!

She will be releasing 4 videos that we recorded last month over the next 4 weeks.  Here is the first one:

The next 4 weeks is also the duration of her Kickstarter campaign to fund the making of the album.  I would encourage/implore anyone reading this to donate, because it sure is good to be a part of projects that actually have a chance of coming to fruition!  This is a really great set of free-jazz inflected tunes.

Check it out!

Devin Drobka, drums
Amanda Schoofs, voice
Ben Willis, bass

Finally had a chance to edit some video of this performance together:

I still have a couple Soft Alarm t-shirts. If anybody wants one, give me a holler!