Serving the San Francisco Bay Area New Music Community

CD
Artist Dan Plonsey
Title Concert Band 1 CD 33
Label Bandcamp - - https://bandcamp.com/
Released On 7/8/2024
Purchase Purchase Here

(Specifics about CD 33 in last paragraph.)

Concert Band 1 is a massive ongoing project I began in 2016. In the first stage, dozens of short pieces for solo and multiple wind instruments are written, and drum loops assembled from samples of our flabby basement drum set. In the second stage, overlapping with the first, I (Plonsey) record all the parts. Since I'm not a great player of most wind instruments, performances are as of middle school musicians who can at least count. In the third (overlapping) stage, CDs (45-60 minutes) are assembled from the short pieces (cells) and drum loops. Layers of improvisation are added. (I should note that while I call them CDS, I no longer intend to make actual physical CDs. But I will if there is demand!)

CD 33 makes do with relatively little composed material. It features thinner textures, and more repetition in the fashioning of a relatively barren and forbidding landscape. There's a sax quartet, though, a gallivanting bass clarinet, and thickets of mallet. It's like a walk through one of the nearby hill parks in early July, when the grass is already largely brown.

CD 33 was completed in 2024; I'll need to fix the album cover.

Dan Plonsey: flute, piccolo, oboe, clarinets (Eb, Bb, alto, bass), bassoon, saxophones (soprano, alto, tenor, baritone), horn, trumpet, baritone, trombone, F tuba, voice, and all percussion. Percussion is assembled from samples of our drum kit rather than played live (though often edited a bit), as the wind parts are. Also: composition, engineering, artwork, and production. I use the free program Audacity for the whole musical process. Copyright 2024.