NOISE PARTY

My pal Shane (a pretty amazing video artist) asked me to be a part of the always great Noise Party event he puts on every so often, here in Minneapolis; a night of varied drone/ noise performances. I’d done a previous one with my old friend Alan (#5?) so a solo set for #6 seemed appropriate.

While I was really happy he asked me to be a part of it again, I said yes with the caveat— my Dad is going through cancer treatment, so…anything could happen here by the time the show rolls around and….4 months later, unfortunately, it did.

So I played this set a couple days after he passed away. I thought maybe I wouldn’t be up to it, but then I thought maybe this is EXACTLY the thing to do. And it was.

But that might account for the sadness of this thing. It’s a good way to mourn. Try it.

The main loop was recorded on my iPhone a couple years earlier— my dad had brought everyone together in Montana, where my sister and her family live, for Thanksgiving. Some sort of exhaust pipes near the back of the hotel were kicking out these tones— like some beautiful, broken but living synth, and I couldn’t believe it. The next Thanksgiving he brought everyone together again, but almost didn’t make it himself, as the treatments were getting pretty brutal by that point.

So that’s what I used here. Today is Christmas, and it’s the first one I’ve known without him on the planet.

Thanks to Shane for sending me this file and letting me put it up.