Frisell, Townsend, Martine, Chamberlain: Floratone
Floratone is a collaboration between Lee Townsend, Matt Chamberlain, Bill Frisell and Tucker Martine. The album, of the same name, contains eleven tracks and was released in August, 2007 (which somehow I missed). Floratone also features bassist Viktor Krauss, cornetist Ron Miles and violin/viola player Eyvind Kang. The genesis of the unique, two-year Floratone project came when Frisell hooked up to jam with Matt Chamberlain, best known for his background in pop music, including two longtime associations with pop singer-pianist Tori Amos and the jazz-funk band Critters Buggin. The pair, both based in Seattle, had talked over the years of getting together, to lay down free improvisations of their musical conversations. After they finally found time in their schedules to commit in 2005 to a session in Seattle, they turned the tapes over to Townsend and Martine, who took the raw material and sculpted songs.
Townsend likens the experience to a laboratory experiment. Martine, seconds that assessment. “We did some extreme editing, with a lot of cutting and pasting,” he says. “We found the strongest bits, edited them all together as compositions and made a CD of 18 tracks that we sent to Bill and Matt.” Frisell agrees. “It was a convergence experience,” he says. “Just Matt and me getting together for a weird jam session was one thing, but to have Lee and Tucker come in and make something of what we had done was like synchronicity. I couldn’t help but think of Miles and Teo, the playing over and over and then sorting things out.” From there, the project moved into new phases of development. Frisell invited Viktor Krauss to lay down the bass lines. Then the guitarist wrote horn and string parts to build the pieces with a harmonic heft.
Check out www.floratone.com for audio previews and a video explanation by the members of this project.
Radiohead: Limited Edition 7 Disc Box Set and USB Stick
On the 10th of December, EMI and Parlophone will be releasing a limited edition box set collection of all Radiohead’s albums from 1993 to 2003: “Pablo Honey”, “The Bends”, “OK Computer”, “Kid A”, “Amnesiac”, “Hail to the Thief”, plus the live album “I Might Be Wrong”. The box set can be ordered in the following formats: CD Box Set, Download Box Set and USB data stick. The CD box set will feature original artwork in exclusive digipack sleeves. The 4GB memory USB data stick (shaped in Radiohead’s iconic “bear” image and housed in a bespoke deluxe box) will include Radiohead’s entire back catalog at CD-quality WAV files and digital artwork. Also a digital bundle of all seven albums will be available on December 10, as DRM-free 320kbps mp3 files, containing digital artwork for each album.
These are all available for pre-order at www.radioheadstore.com
Led Zeppelin Reunion Concert: A Message from Jimmy Page
Led Zeppelin‘s awaited reunion concert, originally scheduled for November 26, 2007 in London, has been postponed until December 10th as the result of Page having fractured a finger. Jimmy Page released the following statement:
“As you all know by now I was regrettably put in a situation where I had to postpone my performance at the Ahmet Ertegun Benefit show, on November 26th, due to a fractured finger. We have now rescheduled this show to take place, at the same venue, on December 10th. In doing so I was very conscious of the fact that many people are travelling great distances to attend. I do want to let everyone know that this decision was unavoidable. My apologies to anyone who has been inconvenienced by this change.
I would also like to thank everyone else involved for their help with making this change. Harvey Goldsmith, the trustees of the Ahmet Ertegun Foundation and, of course, the other artists who so willingly agreed to join us on the show. I look forward to the 10th December!”
(Picture: Page with a limited-edition replica of his iconic double-neck guitar created through a partnership with Gibson and based on the specifications of his original ’71 Gibson EDS-1275 double-neck model.)