Jeb Bishop – tone science

Red October

Red October

available October 15, 2017 from Out and Gone Music
Red October is the new live album from Polyorchard, featuring the quartet of

Jeb Bishop – trombone

Laurent Estoppey – saxophones

Shawn Galvin – percussion

David Menestres – double bass

Recorded live in concert in the basement at Neptune’s Parlour (barely more than a week after the studio sessions that resulted in the previous album Color Theory in Black and White), the quartet spins ideas with the tensile strength and malicious beauty of a spider working alone in the dark. Polyorchard is a flexible fighting unit, expanding and contracting as needed to face the battle of the day. The Red October quartet features players who have been the foundations for several strains of Polyorchard since its inception in December of 2012.

Red October is available from Out and Gone Music as a limited edition cassette or download. polyorchard.bandcamp.com/album/red-october

Liner Notes by Emily Leon desertsuprematism.com

Within seconds of listening to Red October, I felt as though I was the steel ball in a pinball game – the subject being manipulated inside of a glass box. I’m not suggesting cheap entertainment, but rather implying that, like the steel ball, this album propels you into the playfield: targets, holes and saucers, spinners and rollovers, gates. The gate motif often represents an entrance and an exit, a passage to a new beginning, and there are clear moments of a sounding procession throughout this album. Red October produces infinite possibilities of sound, and can be heard and experienced in infinite ways. There is an energy that consumes your consciousness, traps you in your own mind, and releases you as a means to undergo a transformative experience.

Perhaps Gaston Bachelard’s question featured in The Poetics of Space applies here, “In this drama of intimate geometry, where should one live?”

Color Theory in Black and White

In the two and a half years of Polyorchard’s existence the band has blazed a trail across the territories of modern music performing their own compositions (spontaneous or otherwise), collaborating with Merzbow, paying tribute to Sun Ra on his 100th arrival day, and performing Terry Riley’s In C on the 50th anniversary of its premier. Polyorchard is a flexible fighting unit morphing to fit the battle of the day in formations ranging from small scale trios to the sprawling madness of a double dectet. Polyorchard has shared bills with artists as diverse as Duane Pitre, thingNY, Ken Vandermark/Nate Wooley duo, Michael Pisaro & Greg Stuart, Jon Mueller, and Half Japanese. Plans for 2015 include collaborating with Olivia Block, exploring the late work of John Coltrane, and further work with balloons.

Over one beautiful weekend in late September 2014 Polyorchard laid down it’s first studio recordings. Color Theory in Black and White represents two aspects of the trio personality. The first trio on the album is a string trio of Chris Eubank on cello, Dan Ruccia on viola, and David Menestres on bass. The back half of the album is occupied by the trio of Jeb Bishop on trombone, Laurent Estoppey on saxophones, and David Menestres on bass.

Color Theory in Black and White was recorded in glorious binaural sound by Dan Lilley and mastered by Andrew Weathers. Listen at maximum volume in front of your best speakers or get lost deep in the sound of your favorite headphones.

Black
Chris Eubank (cello)
David Menestres (bass)
Dan Ruccia (viola)

White
Jeb Bishop (trombone)
Laurent Estoppey (sax)
David Menestres (bass)

Binaural recording by Dan Lilley at The Store, Raleigh, NC September 27-28, 2014

Mastering by Andrew Weathers, Oakland, CA October 2014

Design by Lincoln Hancock

Liner notes by Emily Leon

Downloads & limited edition 2xCDr boxsets available at polyorchard.bandcamp.com

April 13: Polyorchard opens for Michael Pisaro and Greg Stuart

On April 13th Polyorchard will be opening for the composer Michael Pisaro and percussionist Greg Stuart and the Nightlight as part of the Experimental Music Study Group.

From the EMSG:

Monday, April 13, Nightlight, 8pm – EMSG performance + Polyorchard + Michael Pisaro and Greg Stuart
Tuesday, April 14, The Carrack, 8pm – Michael Pisaro and Greg Stuart: numbers and the siren

Join the Experimental Music Study Group for a captivating two-night residency featuring California-based composer Michael Pisaro and South Carolina-based percussionist Greg Stuart. A member of the Wandelweiser collective, Michael Pisaro crafts intricate soundscapes that hover at the boundaries between sound and silence, drawing attention to the act of listening. Greg Stuart’s inventive percussion music explores alternative techniques including sustained friction, gravity-based sounds, and sympathetic vibration. For nearly a decade, Pisaro and Stuart have collaborated on heralded projects and released recordings on the Gravity Wave label, forging a close bond between composer and performer.

On April 13 at Nightlight, Pisaro and Stuart perform closed categories in cartesian worlds, ethereal music for crotales and sine tones; performers from the Experimental Music Study Group will perform Pisaro’s fields have ears (4); and local improv collective Polyorchard will perform a set. And at the Carrack on April 14, Pisaro and Stuart unleash the spellbinding numbers and the siren, a ninety-minute duo for percussion and electronics in which distant sounds seep into the main performance space from a separate location. Both nights will offer a typically EMSG mixture of the unfamiliar and the enchanting: we hope to see you there!

$7 cover

  (Set order: EMSG, Polyorchard, Pisaro/Stuart, Crowmeat Bob/Patrick Gallagher)

*Note: there will be an EMSG discussion meeting at 6:30pm prior to the performance; if you are interested in participating, please email williamlrobin@gmail.com

April 5: House Show with Jacob Wick

From Jeb:
The concert will feature trumpeter Jacob Wick, who’s playing a series of concerts in the Southeast around then. Jacob is an artist, writer, and improviser with musical connections to the communities in New York (including Jason Ajemian’s avant-party High Life), Chicago, and the Bay Area. He lives in Mexico City. Information about Jacob is at www.jacobwick.info .

You can hear some sounds from Jacob here: http://music.promnightrecords.com/album/objet-a
and see also http://jasonajemian.com/project/hilife

For this concert, Jacob will play a solo set, followed by a set with area musicians including Jeb Bishop, Dan Ruccia, David Menestres, Chris Eubank, and Carrie Shull.

The concert will start at 8 PM, and there will be a jar for voluntary donations. Feel free to bring your own beverage.

Dan Lilley’s home is a beautiful and unique setting for live music, and we are lucky and grateful to have the chance to present these concerts there.

March 10: Carrack FIT with Cyanotype

From Cyanotype leader Dan Ruccia:

A mess of free improv. Cyanotype this time is: Dan Ruccia (viola), David Morris (tuba), David Menestres (bass), Jason Bivins (guitar), Jeb Bishop (trombone), and more?

Hits at 8pm at The Carrack (111 West Parrish St. Durham, NC 27701 ).

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3/6 Triangle Improvisors Collective at The Shed

Organized by Michael Pelz-Sherman, the Triangle Improvisors Collective will be playing The Shed (807 E. Main St., Durham, NC 27701) on Friday March 6 at 8pm. The TIC will be Michael with Julia Price, Chris Lipscomb, Jeb Bishop, Erik Okamoto, and David Menestres.

February 26: EMSG + Polyorchard

The next meeting of the Experimental Music Study Group will be February 26 at The Shed in Durham (807 E. Main St.). The meeting starts at 7:30pm and will be followed by Polyorchard performing the graphic scores of Anthony Braxton at 9pm. Braxton himself will be talking at The Pinhook at 6pm. And if somehow you don’t know, Anthony Braxton and Diamond Curtain Wall Quintet will be performing the next night, Friday February 27 as part of Duke Performances. A rare chance to see one of the giants of modern American music.

Polyorchard will be Jeb Bishop, Jil Christansen, Bill McConaghy, David Menestres, David Morris, Christopher Robinson, Dan Ruccia, & Heidi Wait.

More info on the EMSG at their website, including a sign up for the email list, the best way to keep up with their activites, including up coming residencies with R. Andrew Lee & Erik Carlson in March and Michael Pisaro & Greg Stuart in April. And while we’re on the subject of signing up for email lists, on the right side of this page there is a sign up for the Polyorchard email list. Sign up!

January 13: Polyorchard opens for Ken Vandermark and Nate Wooley

Polyorchard will be opening for Ken Vandermark and Nate Wooley at Neptunes Parlour on Tuesday January 13. Polyorchard will be Jeb Bishop, Chris Eubank, Dan Ruccia, and me.

9pm show, suggested donation of $8-12. Read more here.

IndyWeek preview:

Nate Wooley and Ken Vandermark, both giants of current American free jazz and experimental scenes, convened as a duo in the summer of 2013. The pair issued the resulting live recordings last month as East by Northwest, a nine-track set that finds Vandermark’s saxophones and clarinet and Wooley’s trumpet to be wonderfully expressive partners. They both have the ability to be plaintive and brooding or spastic and restless, qualities that make their navigations of even very familiar pieces feel invigorated. A weekend dance club, Neptune’s is becoming one of the Triangle’s better weeknight listening rooms thanks to engagements just like this. —Grayson Haver Currin

January 12: EMSG & Polyorchard

Monday January 12 marks the beginning of a new group “for the exploration and performance of experimental music in Chapel Hill and Durham.” The Experimental Music Study Group meets at 7:30 at the Nightlight in Chapel Hill for a discussion followed by a performance of this month’s scores at 9pm after which Polyorchard will perform. This line up of Polyorchard will be Jeb Bishop, Jil Christiansen, Laurent Estoppey, and me.

12/9: Cyanotype at The Carrack

On Tuesday December 9 Cyanotype will be at The Carrack in Durham presenting graphics scores from Tibet and the UK. With Dan Ruccia, Laurent Estoppey, Heidi Wait, & me. Doors at 8, music at 8:30. FREE!

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