How I Spent the Last 6 Months: Curious Automata

The music industry is in bad shape. Record labels are losing money. Naturally, I started a record label.

CAName

The Catalog So Far:

Thesaurus of Diatonic Sets — The book that started it all. Lots of numbers, and they only make sense if you’re used to pandiatonic composition.

Still, Still, Still — The first audio release was a reissue of Aspen Street’s Christmas album last December. Still, Still, Still was a test run of sorts, to see if print-on-demand was a viable option.

Graphite Addiction — Another month, another re-release. Tim, Pete, and I recorded and sold a few copies of this in 2007. The originals were on cdr’s that I duplicated at home. This is way better.

Watching Water — February’s album was Tim Carmichael’s long-awaited solo project. Tim started sketching out the tunes on this at my project studio in 2011. Gusty Christensen recorded the final tracks in 2012 and the master was finished in January of 2013. 13 months later it became CA’s first non-reissue album. It’s my favorite of the releases so far.

Analogues of Infinity — This is one of mine. I occasionally record improvisations which are usually lost or discarded. Rather than let this session go to its grave peacefully, I decided to release it and allow others to reuse.

Disaster Squad — In 2003 New Orleans musicians Richard Ellis, Jimmy Planells, and Louis Carrillo recorded hours worth of jamming and free improvisation. They kindly allowed me to make this cut of some of my favorite moments. This is also the first obvious blunder by the art department (ahem, me), as Carrillo somehow lost an “r” on the cover. It does kinda look cool spelled that way….

The Pete & Vic Duo — After seven years of people at gigs asking for CDs, Pete Ehrmann and I finally got around to recording our swing stuff. I had to start a label to do the obvious.

What’s Next:

  • A really odd set of vocal improvisations from notable recluse joncol, hopefully in July.
  • Another obsessive reference book in August.
  • Louis Carrillo’s edit of the sessions Disaster Squad was taken from. It’s a a release worthy of the project’s original vision and should be out in October of this year.
  • Pete Ehrmann’s percussion extravaganza, out this year or next.
  • A set of my original compositions, whenever I get it done.