Mark Wastell - L'Innomable Caressed on the brow by unseen hands

[Frisco]

Anybody hear this one yet? "L'Innomable Caressed on the brow by unseen hands" by Mark Wastell. Wastell - cello; Tetuzi Akiyama - amplified acoustic guitar; Rhodri Davies - harp; Bebedict Drew - laptop; Michel Dutch - double bass; Graham Halliwell - amplified and feedback saxophone; Paul Hood - gp3 record player, mixer, objects; Annette Krebs - electroacoustic guitar; Mattin - laptop; Andrea Neumann - inside piano, mixing desk; Nishide Takehiro - guitar, electronics.

Nice to see that Mark is playing cello again on this one.

[Brian Olewnick]

Pat, I reviewed it for bags in May:

http://www.bagatellen.com/archives/reviews/001265.html

It was recorded in 2003, iirc, so don't get too exceited about Mark's having picked up cello again.

[Jon Abbey]

he has stopped using "amplified textures" for now, though, and I believe he plays cello on the collaboration with John Tilbury that Richard is about to release as the initial release on his new label, but he can give us more details.

[Sergio Zamora]

Pat, just to clarify, the cdr is called 'Caress on the brow by unseen hands'. The label is called L'innomable. According to the nice people at the usps, I should be getting it in a few days.

[Richard Pinnell]

he has stopped using "amplified textures" for now, though, and I believe he plays cello on the collaboration with John Tilbury that Richard is about to release as the initial release on his new label, but he can give us more details.

OK, the release is a project by Herve Boghossian, who comissioned Mark and John to create two pieces of music separately, without a score, but with instruction on a particular way it should sound and the length it should last etc... The pieces are then digitally treated in a very subtle manner by Herve and presented as two separate tracks, and then the third piece on the album is the two pieces layered across each other to create something else again.

Its an interesting project that will surprise a few people by how it sounds, and probably split opinion too, but I like it a lot. Mark does indeed pick up a cello, though its played in a manner I've never heard him do before.

As for what he is up to these days, he told me that 2006 is 'the year of the tam tam' and although he has been using this instrument for a while now, just recently the material he has produced has been really strong. There is an album coming out someplace soon of solo tam tam (there may even be two, I kind of lose track!) that apparently takes his approach to the instrument on a little further and sounds like its well worth hearing.

As for what comes next who knows? I somewhat doubt even he does yet... Alastair and I caught him live last week playing a single miked-up prayer bowl, but this was whilst playing a composed piece by Nash Mahood, so I doubt we would see this happen often.

The amplified textures were indeed 'retired' just after he played with Keith Rowe in Dublin back in March, but that festival also saw him perform a set with a single ride cymbal and pre-recorded CDs, so who knows where things will go next.

The Carressed on the brow... disc is indeed a recording from 2003, and not my favourite Wastell work to be honest, but it was the fore-runner to the nine-piece group gig in Trondheim, Norway earlier this year that was great, and a clip can be seen here;
http://web.mac.com/misha_david/iWeb/...dheim%209.html

[letchhausen]

I posted this in IHM but figured that I would put here for a little 4th of July levity. It was inspired by the massive amount of Wastell-related discs that I was listening to in early June.......



VH1 in association with Anheuser Busch brings you "Behind the Music"
Today we focus on Mark Wastell.

The world of EAI or Electo-Acoustic Improvisation, a rarefied offshoot of jazz where musicians compete to create original sounds. But much like the worlds of jazz and rock music, rife with drugs, conflict and the pain of self-discovery!



In rock music a musician can just slag through his hits night after night but in eai, the audiences expectations for new sounds creates a pressure cooker atmosphere for the performers.....as the pressure grew more intense to go out there night after night and create new and unheard sounds, I turned to drugs to get me through.......groupies, cocaine, flying from gig to gig in Keith Rowe's Lear Jet, it all seemed fun at first......



Pretty soon Mark found out that the pressure of fame and stardom cost a terrifying price! As he grew bigger and bigger drugs and alcohol become a source of tension for musicians and label owners who worked with him....



I was working with Mark to do a solo CD for Erstwhile, but when I rejected the first track he cut as too, "been there done that", he flew into a rage and started trashing Christoph Amann's studio. I tried to stop him as he snorted more coke off of the mixing board but he was too out of control. Then he grabbed a tambourine, a foot pedal and a kalimba and went into the recording booth and laid down one of the greatest pieces of improv I'd ever heard! It ends with him snoring as he passed out. I put it out as a two CD set with the second disc nothing but snoring.........



During an interview for Audition Radio he drank an entire bottle of whisky and broke it over Alastair's head while screaming "Prog is dead! Get over it!!!"



The drugs weren't so bad. It was after I got married to Scarlet Johansson at Elton John's house and won my first Grammy that I realized that I had lost my way. My old eai pals would cross to the other side of the street when they saw me coming. I was in a bar and someone whistled the tune I played on a Volkswagon commercial and I lost it and attacked him. The tabloids had a field day and I knew I had to get help.



Wastell founded Sound323 records but much like the Beatles before him with Apple records, the business fell prey to financial abuses, tax dodges and employee mishandling. A 500 CD set dedicated to recording the day to day life of one month with Taku Sugimoto lead to financial ruin. In the end he was millions of pounds in debt.



After Brian Marley ran off with my wife, I checked into an American Rehab clinic. I spent six months playing golf with Alice Cooper. After I cleared my head I went to New York. Jon Abbey gave me an opening slot at Erstquake 12 in Madison Square Garden to help me get back on my feet.



That set at Erstquake was like a new Mark. He seemed unsteady at first since he'd never played the didgeridoo before. But in the end you couldn't believe what you were hearing. It was like he'd channelled the timelessness of the Grand Canyon into the Garden.



I had pretty much written Mark off after that "Mark and Friends" CD where he played with Aerosmith, Bonnie Raitt, Tommy Lee, Eminem, Snoop Dogg and a bunch of other terrible Hollywood rock stars. But that set at Erstquake 12 washed all that away. When he dropped the didgeridoo and played that 15 minute washboard solo I nearly cried.



I took a chance because I believed in Mark. I figured a man that got so drunk that he whacked Elton John upside the head with a golf club must have that element of demon genius still inside him. After he cleaned up and said he wanted to get back on the eai circuit, I told him that I would give him the shot. The live CD from that return appearance sold great.



Mark started getting gigs again and is back on top of the eai world. Still clean and recording some of his best music ever. The sales figures aren't the same as his time in Hollywood but he's happy.



In the end it's about the music, about creating sounds and letting the rest take its course.




Next week on VH1: Wolf Eyes!

They had the number one metal record in the country, fame and fortune and squandered it all away!



Wolf Eyes were bigger than Allah! They'd been blessed by Anthony Braxton!

[Richard Pinnell]

The world of EAI or Electo-Acoustic Improvisation, a rarefied offshoot of jazz

Careful.....

[letchhausen]

Careful.....

Hey, it's supposed to be VH1. Whaddya expect?

[saltwatersnow]

a simple cello piano wastell tilbury improv duo album is too simply great an idea to have been done?

[Richard Pinnell]

a simple cello piano wastell tilbury improv duo album is too simply great an idea to have been done?

No, its just that option was never a possibility. The release I am issuing is a Herve Boghossian composition that he utilised Tilbury and Wastell to realise.
The two pieces used for the recording were recorded at different times in different countries.

[Sergio Zamora]

No, its just that option was never a possibility. The release I am issuing is a Herve Boghossian composition that he utilised Tilbury and Wastell to realise.
The two pieces used for the recording were recorded at different times in different countries.

I didn't know you had a label, Richard.

[walto]

Funny piece, Letch!

[Jon Abbey]

that will be his first release. I could tell you about what else he has planned, but I'll let him do that.

[Sergio Zamora]

that will be his first release. I could tell you about what else he has planned, but I'll let him do that.

oh, very cool. Do tell more, Richard.

[Richard Pinnell]

I didn't know you had a label, Richard.

The first release from Cathnor Recordings as detailed above should see the light of day around the start of August. the second release will be a solo disc from Will Guthrie. Beyond that, lots to sort out before I would even dream about announcing anything!

[Sergio Zamora]

The first release from Cathnor Recordings...

Is it named after disc 1 of DfD?

[Richard Pinnell]

Is it named after disc 1 of DfD?

It is indeed...

I was searching for a name that didn't promise anything, googles nicely, and hints gently at the lineage the label may sit within.... I also just liked the idea of naming my label after the best piece of music I have ever heard

[Surfer]

It is indeed...

I was searching for a name that didn't promise anything, googles nicely, and hints gently at the lineage the label may sit within.... I also just liked the idea of naming my label after the best piece of music I have ever heard

Congrats Richard on pursuing your dream. Good Luck too. I look forward to hearing what your label releases in the future. Is Erst going to be distributing them?

[Jon Abbey]

we will indeed.

[Jason Bivins]

Richard, sounds great!

[letchhausen]

Funny piece, Letch!

Thanks, in celebration of Brian Marley (Wastell's wage slave) joining us here at JC, I've edited the piece to give him a small role in the saga.....

[Brian Marley]

Cheers, Letch! But I should point out that I'm not MW's business partner, merely an employee, and only an occasional one at that since I moved out of London. Now I'm waiting happily for life to imitate art.

[letchhausen]

Cheers, Letch! But I should point out that I'm not MW's business partner, merely an employee, and only an occasional one at that since I moved out of London. Now I'm waiting happily for life to imitate art.

Whoops, my mistake, now it's fixed. Well, when he starts raking it in just make sure that your hand is close to the till.........