Interesting website finds...volume 2

Well, historically and currently - my stuff is more well accepted in the eastern hemisphere than the U.S.  Makes sense since it is ethnically themed music, and the U.S. culture is more interested in dumbassed themed music - but that's just my opinion.  Your not going to find me including any ho's, drugs, or debauchery in my music... Spirits, aliens, nature, etc. = yes,,,, but again no ho's, drugs, etc.  So, I just don't have a market in the U.S.

Anyway, off that Lava soapbox...  I stumbled on a Hungarian site that really made a surprising point.  I, apparently, am more radical than Green Day now.  I mean, I did hit the gas peddle a bit on the "Jupiteroctopi," recording, but for my ethnoambient music to be considered more hardcore than a punk staple is down right a badge of honor!  I think I might do a punk album next complete with zits and face piercings.  My family might not like that, so I'll have to wait until I'm 60+ years old to make that statement.

I've had several Hungarian friends in my life and  I admire Hungary for their impossibly difficult language, extraordinarily beautiful women, and their "in your face" style of friendly intercommunication... Kudos to Hungary, and thanks for calling me "an abstract style that is California punkriot even surpassed" - I love it.

http://www.ferfipont.hu/zene-fenyoillat-melle/

In english

and, their much cooler, native tongue

Interesting website finds.... Volume 1

Once in a while, I type my name and a release into google just to see what global impact my music is having on the world.  So far, not much - but, I did stumble on a Torrent site that indicated how many downloads my recording Hypnoforce has had since being added to their site (illegally, I might add).  In case you've been living in a cave or just past the potty training stage in life, a Torrent site is a portal for anyone to rip off virtually anything that is digital --- software, music, video, photos, etc, etc. via downloads.  I was simultaneously horrified and flattered to learn that this one recording had been stolen 2,431 times since landing on this one Torrent site.  There are countless amounts of these sites... Hmmm... the flattery has cost me about $10,000 in net profit if it were bought through iTunes, eMusic, Amazon, etc. - and, again, this is just one site with just one of my 22 available recordings. Imagine, since I released the recording in September 2012, I coulda maybe had 10K extra in the past five months.  That buys a lot of food.  Here's the sick part - my actual sales are next to nothing...  The amount being stolen dwarfs my actual sales.....

Now that leads me down a different path - if people had to pay for the recording rather than steal it for free, would I have sold 2,431 downloads = I seriously doubt it, and, that is why music is nothing more than an easy to acquire commodity.  I love that I can find all types of music via all sorts of sites (being I'm a music junkie - have a huge collection, and all paid for with exception of artists that offer it for free via archive.org or netlabels), but in a weird way, I miss the days where vinyl was king, and you waited a month via adverts or rumors for that flimsy piece of plastic housed in a colorful informative piece of cardboard to hit the stores.  It was more dramatic and fun...

See below just 1 Torrent site out of god knows how many.....

Current projects and probable releases in 2013...

I severely injured my pointer finger on my fret hand almost a year ago.  As most guitarists know, without this finger available, it is virtually impossible to play guitar (worth a damn, anyway).  I'm finally at a point where I can play guitar and enjoy it again.  The finger will probably never return to its "stock form" from the factory, but nonetheless, slight variations of tunings and altered hand positioning will prevail.  So... more guitar in 2013!!!

A work due out this year is called Ian Naismith Quirk-tet "Quark" and I've enlisted some incredible players for this project...I can't wait... It will be free-form fusion improv in the spirit of wonderful 70's/80's recordings from players like Terje Rypdal, David Torn, Al DiMeola, Jeff Beck, Allan Holdsworth, Bill Connors, etc.  melded with major strangeness from the possible future.  You know how it is, when you hear music that sticks with you - it sticks, and this project is in honor of all of those influences...

Another recording that has begun (yet to be titled) is a journey back to India & Tibet.  It will be a follow up to Mankiala Stupa Aura from 2011.  I love all things Indian - the food, the music, the vibe, etc.  When I think of Tibet, I think of spiritual...  When I think of both, I think of exotic/erotic/otherworldly.  This recording has all sorts of indian instruments, field recordings, tibetan bells, gongs, and bowls.

A follow up to Jupiteroctopi in the ethnoambient vein has already been started.  Entitled Planeta Rojo, it focuses on more latin percussion and rhythms with electric guitars, etc.  Not like Sergio Mendes, but more like heavy Brazilian samba, Marc Anderson (Steve Tibbetts) mutated samples, mid-90's Sepultura vibe (without Max vocals)...you get the picture... Of course, weirdness will seep in as needed.

Dreamdrones - which was originally started in 2011, then shelved for a bit, should be finished.  It is very heavily layered glissando guitars with nods of appreciation to Steve Hillage, Daevid Allen, Sid Barrett and Robert Fripp.  It is a request from my wife to put out something very spacey without percussion.  What better than spacey glissando guitar?

Of course, all of this could change.................................................

And...after a long silence....To catch you up on 2012 --- whew, what a year of personal change (all with positive intent) and a year for different musical endeavors. I released four recordings in 2012 - first, with Amphibialien ...  As the title would suggest, this is not your average Lady Gaga or Maroon 5 type of commercial offering - this is just plain out out... an experimental journey of live sound manipulations.  This follows in the tradition of Otherworldly Natural, Under Canopy, and Curved Infinity.  Most sounds were gathered on the coastal areas of our previous home, Sarasota Florida.  The frogs is a tongue in cheek reference to the possibility that they are simply spies for alien beings - hey, Stephen King lived around the corner - maybe he could run with that concept.  The album cover is incredible - it is a photograph that my daughter, Alina, took with her trusty magical vision and a camera.  We had plenty of frogs as models in Florida.  The photo is cropped to either appear as a frog, or if you use your imagination, an alien...

The second and third releases, Last Light and Hypnoforce, are kindred spirits as I continue to explore mutations of sound via granulars, impulse modeling, spatials, fractals, etc.  The use of the iPhone app Thumbjam is prominent on many of the tunes - again, a beautiful piece of technology.  I've inserted hundreds of one-shots from ethnic loops and samples, along with performed one-shots into the app to create an arsenal of rhythmic possibilities and timbres.  I encourage my experimental musician friends to explore this pathway.  This recording is a cousin of Zxotica and parts of Blue Fusion.   Hypnoforce represents the first recording since moving to Texas, so it is kind of a "marker" personally.

And finally, just to make a point, Jupiteroctopi was released on December 21, 2012 or 12-21-12.  According to wikipedia (the end-all in precise information) before 12-21-12, Jupiteroctopi was the only release in the world scheduled for that date.  I figured since I could not put out the highest selling recording of all time, I might as well put out the last recording in this chapter of Earth.  Well, the poles didn't shift, but at least I get to tell you about this thrilling adventure... ;-P  Jupiteroctopi starts where Medicating The Shaman left off...percussion, more percussion, and more(r) percussion, electric guitars, string bass, and about 45 other instruments... It follows the tradition of X, Spirit Amalgam, Subterranean Flame, Voyage Exotique and Forgotten & Imminent.

Amphibialien  1/2012

Last Light   4/2012

Hypnoforce   9/2012

Jupiteroctopi   12/21/2012