Peter Scherer : "Very neon pet"

(Metro Blue, 1995)

Peter Scherer is a New York based composer and producer with a multifaceted career encompassing music for film and dance, producing, arranging and playing with other artists from across the spectrum of contemporary music.
Born in Zurich, Switzerland, he studied piano, composition, theory and orchestration, among others with György Ligeti and Terry Riley. Shortly after arriving in New York in the early 80's, he connected with key figures of the New York downtown scene such as Kip Hanrahan, Bill Frisell and John Zorn, collaborating on numerous recording projects and performances. With Arto Lindsay, he founded the Ambitious Lovers, mixing elements of brazilian, experimental, funk and other popular styles resulting in the release of three albums.
In the early nineties, Peter Scherer started to further develop his unique style of sonic arrangements, exploring the potentialities of digital innovation combined with diversified musical traditions and sensibilities.
At the same time, he began working as a producer with such artists as Caetano Veloso, World Saxophone Quartet, Corin Curschellas, Ute Lemper and Nana Vasconcelos. And, as a keyboard player, he has frequently appeared in concert and recordings with Laurie Anderson and has lent his personal sonic fabric to numerous recordings by such artists as Marc Ribot, David Byrne, Marisa Monte, Waldemar Bastos, Cyro Baptista, Seigen Ono, Jun Miyake, Vinicius Cantuaria, Etienne Daho and many others.

"VERY NEON PET is a fascinating excursion through a multicultural dream-state. Building up from pulsating beats, Scherer adds layers of intricate detail with trumpet, sampled voices, spare keyboard figures, guitars, violins and occasional bursts of noise".
(Down Beat)

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Billy Martin & Socket : "January 14 & 15 2005"

(Amulet)

"With raging distortion, polyphonic-cacophony and speaking in tongues, NYC’s downtown luminaries led by Billy Martin (Medeski, Martin & Wood), channel the “mad” spirits in front of a live audience at NYC’s legendary experimental nightclub, Tonic. Two nights distilled and concentrated into one seriously potent mix of heaven and hell. May these sonic witchdoctors heal the ailing, chase the dragons and cast spells on your world".

HERE

David Shea : "Prisoner"

(Sub Rosa, 1994)

Prisoner is Shea's homage to Patrick McGoohan's paranoid BBC TV spy series from the 1960s (as well as other spy/adventure shows from the same period), and liberally uses samples from the show. He continues working with additional musicians after the solo effort of I, but the musicians are used to better advantage than his debut work Shock Corridor. He has compared the work to sound cinema, and the description is particularly apt in the way that he transitions from one scene to another, and where the later pieces in the suite harken back to the earlier ones. Each piece has its own character, but the transitions between them occur in a cloud of brief, noisy segments, mixing Shea's turntable work and instrumental improvisation. The instrumentalists get opportunities to solo without dominating the work, especially guitarist Mark Ribot (who gets a long solo on #2 and some great feedback noise on #6) and Cyro Baptiste, whose Brazilian percussion dominates #5. The four pianists get a long workout on #4, which includes a beautiful stretch of neo-classical piano writing. The paranoia of the show is reflected in the alternation between circus music and ominous sampled voices and sombre string music. Prisoner shows Shea moving away from the cacophony of Shock Corridor and working with longer forms, towards his excellent later suites, Hsi-Yu Chi, Tower of Mirrors, and Satyricon.

Caleb Deupree (All Music)

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KotKot : "Alive at Tonic"

(AWDRLR2, 2008)

A blast of surf guitar, punctuated with crisp snare cracks, is soon engulfed by swirling sound effects, frenetic drumming and a distorted guitar attack, revealing sonic swashbucklers with a mission. Drummer Amir Ziv's KOTKOT includes percussionist Cyro Baptista, guitarist Marc Ribot and electric bassist Shahzad Ismaily, all players with intertwined histories. Alive at Tonic culls spontaneous compositions from two shows at the lamented New York club (and one track from Ziv's pad) that evince the excitement of experimentation in live performance.
The opening salvo is followed by the subdued guitar and throbbing bass of "Won't U Be My Porcupine," boasting Baptista's echoed vocalizations and a classic Ribot angular run, leading to a pounding percussion duet. The guitarist's clean jazz sound counters the uptempo rimshots and Jew's harp opening of "My Dentist in Hawaii." Later, he creates sustained tones washed in delay, an idea that he tests further on "Let There Be Light" and "Told You So," reminiscent of sounds from his Scelsi Morning CD (Tzadik, 2003).
Ziv and Baptista also flirt with patterns they played together in their group Beat the Donkey, under the guitar washes of "Dentist" and the rollicking opening of "Told," though with modulated tempos and accents. A "drum 'n' bass" veteran, Ismaily provides a pulsing presence with sound smears rather than articulated notes filling the bottom end. The re-contextualization of motifs shows their malleability and applicability in disparate situations.
After an amorphous introduction, a galloping drum/percussion groove develops on the sprawling "Mono Dream," as Ribot slowly teases a melodic phrase, settling into and using it as a platform for wilder extrapolations. At 76-plus minutes, Alive at Tonic is a healthy portion, and some forays meander. It's a small quibble, easily erased by the insistent rhythm, ardent guitar slashes and funk touches of "Bring Them to Their Knees," a sonic maelstrom as denouement.

Sean Patrick Fitzell (All About Jazz)

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