Happy 8th of July!

Cut of the Month is BARRY LIEBERMAN's version of Vivaldi's 3rd sonata. The first movement is represented on this cut. You'll remember that this project was recorded remotely at Brechmin Auditorium at the University of Washington. It was recorded to an ADAT using a mic for double bass, stereo pair on the piano, and a hall mic. The whole project was loaded into TripleDAT and edited, then mixed from there to CD. I really learned, through this project, that classical music is the most heavily edited music produced today. The CD is now available, so if you like what you hear, go get it.

In the studio this month, after more than a year away, was Edwin Torres, who flew in from New York to mix his tapes from last year's work. Our marathon mix session yielded some very interesting results, including Edwin's poetry set to drums and other expressionistic instruments. Sort of Word Jazz beat poetry meets Sun City Girls' cloaven theatre. You'll see a Cut of the Month from this project soon.

The SONICS and the WAILERS stopped by! Well... actually, their tapes stopped by after a long soak in flood waters. What a mess! Julian and I replaced all the reels and boxes, cleaned the mold from the tapes, prepped them for transfer, and made digital transfers of these 1/4" tapes. I'm really impressed with the quality of these tapes (some dating back to the early 60's) after all the abuse they went through - they are true examples of the robust nature of the analog medium, given that they still play perfectly after decades. Oh, and BTW, if you're gonna wind moldy tapes through any machinery, make sure you wear a respirator! That mold, when inhaled, will put you down for a half a day in a cold sweat of fevers and nausea, not un-like food poisoning.

YAM put the finishing touches on their songs this month. Their brand of rock hovers somewhere in the Saturday Morning Cartoon Theme/Punk-Dub-Pop Rock Land. Confused? You'll just have to wait until they are Cut of the Month.

DAVE KNOTT stopped by to start recording a series of classical guitar pieces of his own composition. I look forward to hearing what he's got to offer these days.

KYLE HANSEN and I schlepped the RADAR 24 over to Ironwood studios to record some tango music for the local Seattle film production of "The Outpatient". This music will be used in the film during the tango dance lessons and rendezvous of the main character. (We needed a nice grand piano and Ironwood had it.)

CLIMAX GOLDEN TWINS worked feverishly to complete the "Session 9" soundtrack for CD release, which will be on Milan Records and features some of the music submitted for the film in an artistically pleasing form for your listening pleasure. The film and the soundtrack are both due for release this August.

RELEASES:

Climax Golden Twins - Rock Album [Fire Breathing Turtle]
Not actually called the Rock Album, but it's descriptive. The cover is amazing - red foil polka dots on bright white paper. The CD release party will be held at the Rendezvous on August 17th.

Degenerate Art Ensemble - Rinko [Unit Circle]
Formerly Young Composers Collective, this music for butoh dance was toted as my best recording ever by Barry Corliss at Masterworks.

Modern Recording Techniques - 5th edition [Focal Press]
OK, this is a book, but it's the most popular book on the subject of audio basics and is used in audio programs all over the world, thank you very much! The reason I mention this is that on page 55 is a picture of the Gravelwhore (me) in my studio. I'm on top of Shaquille O'Neal... as well is should be.

Related to the book, I'll be administering the book's web site - modrec.com - which promises to be more than just another boring audio web site. The site should be live in August.