Tank Man Figures - Official First Release
I am extremely pleased to finally report that the Tank Man release I've mentioned a few times recently is publicly available now. You can grab it at our Bandcamp.
Ted and I have spent almost a year now continuously improvising together, trying to figure out a way to re- and de- compose fragments of folk songs into long form flows. I'm using a modular synthesizer and a looper to live process and respond to Ted's guitar and voice.
Initially, this whole set-up was extremely hard for me because and modular is not always the best suited thing to real-time collaboration. Especially when you pair it with a looper, it tends toward an inertia that one guy with a guitar and his voice is totally free from. That challenge has been so, so rewarding to me. Not only have we made a bunch of music I'm proud of, but it's just generally made me so much better at playing my instrument in a way I never have before.
This is a largely un-edited live recording from a performance back in July in Muncie, Indiana. We both walked out of the venue that night muttering to each other about how good we felt about the set. Two months of Thursday night mixing sessions left us feeling the same way, so now it's out and there's no take backs.
Just last night we set up a livestreaming rig. We plan to stream performances regularly. Something about the fact that a handful of randos might be watching really makes you want to lock in. I'll post more details on that soon.