Las Vegas with Nettle and a West Coast tour with Filastine… heading up the coast over the next two weeks!  Details here.

So I’ve spent the last week holed up in studio with my cohort Adam Haggar of Stars Don’t Sleep, recording the (almost) final bits of my new album. Expect a few new tracks to trickle out before the end of the year…

I’ve also got a final show of 2011 planned, it’s on December 28th at the Living Room in Manhattan.  Hope you can attend.  Details here.

Yes it’s true, I’m the cellist featured in numerous segments of Louis C.K.’s brutally hilarious show Louie, in both seasons so far. I composed the cello pieces in the studio based on discussions with Louis about what was needed for a given scene, then used a Boss-RC50 hardware looper to layer cello parts into little vignettes. Unfortunately due to some bureaucratic complications I’m not credited… annoying but what can you do?
Louis is really a pleasure to work with, and puts a lot of care into the music for the show. And the other musicians are also incredible, a great team. Hopefully I’ll be back for next season, and believe me I’ll make sure my name’s on it.
But hey, at least I got this great new quote for my press kit:
‎”The cello player, wish i fucking knew his name, is tremendous.” – Louis C.K.
And if you’d like to hear more of my work, you can find my records here.

Back in NYC, spiralling inexorably towards Winter.

The new Nettle record has been released–  El Resplandor: The Shining in Dubai is now available, and it’s pretty fantastic. Check it out.

Now back to finishing up all the work from my residency. It’s about results.

Working with Filastine in his Barcelona studio was great, his new album’s going to be expansive in every way. If you’re on the East Coast of the U.S. you have a chance to see him live on tour this week, highly recommended!
Now I’m back in the countryside, writing music and planning a project with my fantastic fellow artist-in-residence Christophe Dentin.
I’m really excited about the work I’m doing out here in the middle of nowhere… as entropy accelerates everywhere around. Now back to fiddling while the world temperature rises…

Summer was Rome, NYC, Maine, and Tangier. Was happy to record music for Louis C.K.’s TV show, do some very interesting projects with Nettle, a bunch of work with the brilliant Daniel Perlin, and co-produce those Kalup Linzy / James Franco tracks with DJ/Rupture.  And now I’m hiding out in rural France for the Fall… finishing the score for Jamie Hook’s Vacationland, recording my new album, writing a book of music, and practicing a lot of cello.

it’s only june but summer is here with a vengeance in NYC.  and summer brings summer things:  heat, yes, humidity, yes, and that peculiar summer sense of timelessness… watch out, 4am comes up so quickly and easily in the bathwater-warm air…

And Summer Projects:  there’s a lot. working on the score for indie film Vacationland with director Jamie Hook, the Linzy/Franco record with @djrupture, helping @djnron with sound for a Mexican horror film, a couple remixes, a collaboration with @filastine, and oh yeah my next long-neglected record.  Then Fall=France, for a composer residency in la Côte d’Or, and some European touring.

ok now back into the soup.

Had a great show last week with Nettle and a group of fantastic Korean musicians (more on them below).  In addition to great music and an interesting setting among the art at Vaudeville Park, we made it into a ceremony, with tea and dates and homemade cookies served as formally as we could manage.  It elevated things.

These days, I’m really interested in making performances into something special, not a run-of-the-mill “band night” but something memorable and unique.  God knows we aren’t doing these shows for the money, so if we aren’t challenging ourselves and taking chances, then we’re really wasting our time… no?

Coming up is a show I’m really excited about, I’ll be playing solo and with Lindsay Cuff on violin and voice (she’s magic) and with Baby Copperhead (far out) and we will be honored with performances by Seungmin Cha, Eunsun Jun, and Woonjung Sim, who play the Korean shamanic music called Sinawi, as well as brilliant improvisations grounded in the bone-chilling intensity of that ancient form.  More info on the shows page.