"Happiness and freedom may ultimately depend less on maintaining particular states of mind than on cultivating the appropriate attitude toward whatever states of mind arise out of the elegant chaos of life."
"There is no strength outside of balance."
In recent news: We just announced Sonic Bloom Festival's 2014 Live Art Lineup and it's amazing.
My $10 print sale is over on May 15th and I deeply appreciate all the support so far!
I published a great talk on SolPurpose with author James Jesso about psilocybin psychotherapy.
My art and music got shoutouts from Trendhunter, Mechanical Dummy, and Emergence Earth.
And I'm juuuust about to announce my summer festival lineup...the arrangements are taking a little longer than usual but it's shaping up to be a beautiful season. Meanwhile, I have more new art and music than I know what to do with, so here you go!
Thanks so much for spending some time with my love's labor. I hope it gets you there.
"You've Got A Song In Your Heart"
24"x32" – paint markers on masonite
Painted live at The Parish (Austin, Texas) for:
2014.02.08 - Desert Dwellers, Futexture, CactusBath
2014.02.22 - New Car Caviar, Loose Leaf, Henry + The Invisibles
2014.03.30 - Kalya Scintilla, Space Jesus, DRRTYWULVZ
2014.04.02 - Zach Deputy, Henry + The Invisibles
2014.04.10 - The Malah, Jamie Janover + Resunator
My first live painting of 2014 is of a bird very dear to me, the Western Meadowlark. They live all over the United States (the state bird of Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, AND Wyoming) and have one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard.
When I was going to college at the University of Kansas my friends and would go camping at the lake west of town and these birds singing from fence posts were the soundtrack to sunset for more beautiful experiences than I can count. They are what peace sounds like, to me. My partner and I decided when we get married we're going to do it in one of those meadows by the lake, and I'm so looking forward to the meadowlarks that day...
Announcing Tunnels of Gates
A New Series of Live Recordings
A New Series of Live Recordings
After five years of exploring the frontiers of guitar looping electronica, I'm finally comfortable sharing the majority of my improvised sets – each with a different character, reflecting the spirit of a place and time, venue and audience. Like wine, each release in this new series is a unique vintage – everything about each show makes a difference in how these sets turn out, and every one of them explores a different musical territory.
Tunnels of Gates is inspired by the Japanese tradition of placing hundreds of decorative gates in a row on temple paths – a meditation on time and change that (for me) evokes the transcendental voyage described described from near-death experiences and rendered masterfully by the climax of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
My music is intended as a soundtrack to these transformational times, an attempt to communicate and celebrate the metamorphic intensity of life in the early 21st Century. Every constantly shifting guitar soundscape is a musical tunnel of gates – taken together, they are a hyperspace trip through the evolution of my ideas and experiences as an artist.
It's the Year of the Horse, y'all. Grab ahold and enjoy the ride! Here are the first two sets:
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2014.01.01 – Reunion Party (Austin, TX)
Download it Here
Download it Here
Heart opening, hopeful, dreamy and romantic sunrise set from New Year's Day...it was an awesome honor to set the tone for this year, and with the help of Jared Buchsbaum on various wind instruments we caught some real longing and expansion. Download "Dawn Run Through The Grasses" for free.
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2014.02.04 – Triple Crown (San Marcos, TX)
Download it Here
Download it Here
Flowing riverine grooves open my first show improvised alongside live visuals by Topher Sipes – an evening that got bluesy, then straight up shamanic (video here), culminating in an apocalyptically intense extraterrestrial meltdown with violinist Linda Lola. Download "Devotion" for free.
I'll post another live set every Tuesday until I run out of shows worth sharing – stay tuned by following Facebook and Twitter for a bunch of other news, art, and ideas that I can't possibly squeeze into these newsletters.
Feel free to reach out to me any time with your questions or feedback, and have a beautiful day!
