“It’s absolutely irrational to not be filled with the fire of consuming hope.”
“You need a balance of gloom and optimism. Let one get out of control and take over and you are in trouble.”
I hope you guys don't mind that I don't have much to say in preface to the fullest, most abundant newsletter I've ever put out there. My hands are sore from typing this week - the natural consequence of preparing pics of my latest live painting; a collection of my best concert banter from the last four years; not one but FOUR musical releases (mostly old material for super-fans only – to clear the brush from the trail of my mind, as it were, in preparation for a few truly excellent releases in 2014); previews of the collected sketchbooks I plan to publish in the next year; news on my recent partnership with audio-to-artwork startup SonArte; an article on the coolest new music technology I've seen in years; and the long-overdue page I created for Live Painting on Facebook.
I'm as open to your correspondence as ever. Stay in touch, and have a beautiful last few days of 2013!
Rants: Concert Banter on Aliens, Love,
and Other Great Mysteries, 2010 - 2013
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Culled from four years of live concert recordings, "Rants: 2010 - 2013" highlights the visionary diatribes, cornball goofery, and contagious enthusiasm that make my shows so distinct and personal. Every set is an opportunity to blow minds - and not just with music.
Enjoy this journey into the mind of a modern performance philosopher coming of age on tangents both profound and profane. Thirty-six minutes of sheer...sheerness, somewhere between bardic wit, standup comedy, and raving lunacy.
"Amazingly well-spoken."
- Charles Eisenstein, author of Sacred Economics
"[Michael has] a wonderful ability to articulate the difficult and complex divinity of this world."
- Nicole Taylor, Beautiful Music Violins
Purging The Music Vaults – Happy Holidays!
B Universe: Experiments & Outtakes
Here is a little journey through my developing sound over the past four years, as improvised guitar loopscapes became a bigger and bigger part of my singer-songwriter sets...and eventually took over, as I gathered new gear, new techniques, and new confidence in flying by the seat of my pants.
I think each of these performances has something to love, but the recordings are too raw to justify putting them out on a "big" release. So here they are, the black sheep and weirdos – which, maybe, say more about me than anything else.
(If you only download one of the four releases I threw at you this week, this is the one.)
A Global Odyssey of the Arts
Just over one year ago, Dixon's Violin, Texas State University experimental music professor Richard Hall, and myself got together for a show withARTheism and acclaimed hooper Brecken Rivara.
"A Global Odyssey of the Arts" was a night to remember. Here is a free recording of the instrumental magic that transpired...a superb soundtrack to peaceful winter ambiance. Enjoy!
Listening to these is kind of painful now, but also proud – to hear how far I've come. Recommended for anyone interested to know my roots, here are two windows into the very early days of my experimental guitar work. Scapegoat was the first of my annual winter holiday releases, back in the dinosaur-infested yonder-year of 2008; Live From Zero Point is mostly made of good songs performed by someone who hasn't grown into his pants, but features "Zipline," my first ever attempt at a danceable cyberacoustic groovescape.
Both of them are beyond free...if you're dedicated enough to listen to these greenhorn releases, let me know who you are so I can declare you a super-fan and lavish you with appreciation.
~ New Live Painting ~
Feathered Tongues of Flame
20"x30" - paint markers on canvas
Painted during the music of:
The Parish Austin, 2013-11-22 ... Holding Space, The Motet
Speakeasy, 2013-11-29 ... Immortal Guardian, Consider the Source
Alien Queen & Black Pearl
I don't doodle as much as I used to. But I did just scan hundreds of pages of my sketchbooks in preparation for a formal release sometime in 2014. Stay posted, and enjoy these two more recent white-paint-marker-on-black-construction-paper pieces in the meantime!
Making Sound Into Art w/ SonArte
"Behind every sound is a story told through a waveform. With each beat, note and tone comes a beautiful pattern which is the physical representation of sound. Now you can have that waveform created as a work of art. SonArte takes the unique waveform of any sound be it a song, a phrase, or a heartbeat and creates luxuriously handmade custom paintings and digital art. SonArte paintings and digital art are created by real artists, not computers. The parameters are specified by the customer so each piece of art sent out is unique and will never be duplicated. Using a waveform of sound of your choice, SonArte’s artists transfer your sound onto a canvas."
I'm one of six artists on the ground floor. If you want your favorite sounds transformed into visual poetry, go here.
~ New Article on SolPurpose ~
Introducing BassAware: A Revolution In Wearable Audio
I have been tracking audio technology developments since 2007, excited to imagine how our accelerating world might change the way we relate to our senses. But years of speculation takes its toll, resulting in a kind of “future fatigue” (“Where is my hoverboard?”) – and so it was with immense delight that, on a trip to New York this summer, I met inventor Michael White and experienced his new device bassAware, a wearable subwoofer that takes personal audio into an entirely new and sexy dimension.
This isn’t just a concept; it’s a reality, market-ready, and poised to change the way we relate to our favorite music forever. Michael was kind enough to indulge SolPurpose with an email interview on the history and social implications of bassAware...
Live Painting has a home on Facebook
FINALLY.
Blessings, everyone. Thanks for your support!
