Staiano, Moe!/Moe!Kestra! / 2 Rooms Of Uranium In 83 Markers: Conducted Improvisations Vol. Ii

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2007-12-24 Pull Date: 2008-02-25 Charts: Classical/Experimental
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Recent Airplay
1. Aug 28, 2010: Music Casserole
Conducted Improvisation Piece No. 11: Two Orchestras In Separate Rooms (2004)
4. Jan 25, 2008: Memory Select
Conducted Improvisation Piece No. 11: Two Orchestras In Separate Rooms [excerpt]
2. Feb 06, 2008: Baptism of Solitude (favorite other, improv, noise, etc releases of 2007)
Conducted Improvisation Piece No. 11: Two Orchestras In Separate Rooms (2004)
5. Jan 23, 2008: Brownian Motion Manque
Conducted Improvisation Piece No. 6: Depleted Uranium (2003)
3. Feb 06, 2008: John Mukamel Eran Moynahan (shar lar shar shar DVD)
Conducted Improvisation Piece No. 11: Two Orchestras In Separate Rooms (2004)
6. Jan 16, 2008: Baptism of Solitude
Conducted Improvisation Piece No. 6: Depleted Uranium (2003)

Album Review
mike
Reviewed 2007-12-26
MOE!STAIANO'S MOE!KESTRA! - "2 Rooms of Uranium in 83 Markers: Conducted Improvisations Vol. II" CD (Edgetone)
Two different pieces of composed improvisation recorded live. What that means is that Moe! composes the pieces (one just a few hours before the performance) but while he conducts he gets players to do things outside of the composition. Generally the MOE!KESTRA! is a large ensemble but in this case there were 10 for the first piece and ~30 for the second piece. There are a number of familiar Bay Area names playing on both pieces including, MYLES BOISEN, DEVON HOFF, CARLA KIHLSTEDT, DAVID SLUSSER, JOHN SHUIRBA, MATT DAVIGNON and even KZSU's BUG (David Leikam).
**1. Starts of fast and squirrely building tension. CARLA KIHLSTEDT'S vocals really stand out as does the aggressive percussion. At one point she's screeching. More tension building in the middle including some sort of scraping sound. It could be a cymbal scraped across a drum but it's hard to tell. The guitar starts playing a riff with about 2.5 minutes left and the rest of the group joins in. This falls apart (in a good way) for the last minute.
2. This piece had players in two different rooms. Each room was recorded separately and shows up here as the left and right channel. Starts quiet with bells. The strings and horns slowly create tension. This goes on for the first 4 minutes before things get noisier and busier. 5 minutes in strings and horns really get going and start making a nice racket. There are some queasy horn/string moments and ebb and flow moments with the horns. The track goes almost silent around the 9 minute mark. They spend the last 4 minutes building to a big climax.
**3. Part of the 2nd composition. Starts with a couple different types of percussion and turns into almost a march. Everyone gets into the act in what sounds like some sort of circus machine march. They all make bird (??) noises at the end of this track?
4. Nice chaotic sound to start the track. Horns build in loudness.
5. Quiet intro with scraping and breathing sounds. Noodles around quietly.
**6. Jutting Horns and what sounds like guitar. Back and forth they seem to try and play as soon after the other one as they can. After 5.5 minutes all hell breaks lose as they speed up and everyone plays loudly.
7. Quiet intro into slow dark fade-in of instruments. Sounds like a soundtrack for a bit. The last couple minutes are a loud raucous ending.
Excellent stuff. -mph

Track Listing
1. Conducted Improvisation Piece No. 6: Depleted Uranium (2003)   2. Conducted Improvisation Piece No. 11: Two Orchestras In Separate Rooms (2004)