Lantern Has Just Launced a Kickstarter Campaign

Hello all!

I hope the summer is finding you well. It's been hot here in Philly. Anyways as some of you may know my band Lantern is planning a five week tour this fall all across the United States and up to Canada. We have been working on it since the spring time and things are starting to come together. We feel really proud about Lantern and we really want to take the show on the road. We have been working our asses off this past year to get the gears oiled for a tour. We are taking the big step and jumping in with both feet.

But since we are such a young band and aren't able to be working with guarantees or contracts, what we make is what we make. So this is a little scary so we are asking your help in helping us get from place to place!

Your monies will go to...

GAS, a AAA membership, vehicle and music equipment maintenance, and any necessary lodging expenses. We recently purchased a stationwagon that needs a few minor repairs before leaving. Any contributions help and are sincerely and most fully appreciated!

Watch our video here to see what it is all about!

-Z

WYRD FEST AND RADIO SESSION

WYRD FEST TONIGHT! ALSO LANTERN IS DOING A RADIO SESSION ON CKUT FROM 3-5PM ET.THE CONCERT TONIGHT WILL ALSO BE STREAMED LIVE VIA CKUT.

Lantern Gig Tonight!

Tonight at the Hong Kong Garden (Cecil B. Moore & Phillips) Lantern is playing with Hot Guts and Purling Hiss. It is the release show for the new Purling Hiss EP Lounge Lizards appearing on the label Mexican Summer.

Avant-Lard Podcast #2 - That's Not Punk! - 6-12-2011

Welcome to the second installment of the Avant-Lard podcast. As promised last week, this week focus would be punk - loosely defined - more in spirit, which in my opinion is what matters. A lot of the music is made by my friends or has been stuff I have come across recently while booking this Lantern fall tour. Which if anybody out there can help or wants us to play somewhere - please get in touch! zacharyfairbrother (at) gmail (dot) com. Anyways I hope you dig this mix - it goes through a range of moods and is a pretty decent jammer. I think all of these bands are so good and I hope you feel the same.

-Z

LISTEN TO IT HERE:

1. Grand Trine - RFID - Grand Trine/Holy Cobras Split (Bruised Tongue)
2. Aluk Todolo - Obedience - Descension (Public Guilt)
3. Women In Prison - Reaction - Demo (Self Released)
4. Purling Hiss - Passenger Queen - Live on Brian Turner (WFMU)
5. The Friendly Dimension - Executive Koala - Cassette Single (Craft Singles)
6. Kill Squares - Last Time - ROOFTOP GARDEN BBQ PARTY VOL #1(Campaign for Infinity)
7. The People's Temple - Sons of Stone - Sons of Stone (Hozac)
8. Cosmonauts - Neon Kids - Cosmonauts (Burger)
9. The Ether - I Have Seen the Smile - The Ether/Lantern Split (Electric Voice)
10. The Offset: Spectacles - Elements - The Offset: Spectacles EP (Rose Mansion Analog)
11. Hot & Cold - Eat People - Sacred Vacation (Rose Mansion Analog)
12. Ancient Crux - In Teen Dreams - Interracial Coupling EP (Family Time)
13. Tonstartssbandht - Big Day Today - Now I Am Become (Arbutus)

Avant-Lard Podcast #1 - Drums for Sophie - 6-3-2011

So I finally had a moment and I got around to making the first of what will hopefully be a semi- regular podcast series. We'll see what life says.

The need for the podcast came from wanting to return to radio after my experiences in Canada having hosted radio shows in both Halifax and Montreal. I really enjoy talking and playing music for people as I am sure anybody who has met me will say I'll talk their ears off on the subject. So here is a platform that will let me vent some of the musical chatter that goes on in my head. Plus I am just so excited about the music and I want you all to hear it! The podcast is a great format because I can really say and play anything I want and I don't have to play ads or PSAs or read the weather. So it's all about the music. No fancy show id's yet but soon hopefully!

THE FIRST SHOW is largely from a mix I made for the drummer of my band Lantern. I made the mix for her to introduce her to some percussion music that she wasn't familiar with and to show her where I come from musically. It is a wide mix of music from noise, to jazz, to modern classical, rock, and ethnics musics. In some cases the music is exclusively percussion, other times it is in the context of a group. The music though is all music where the percussion has stuck out too me. Often the tracks are just of some of my favorite all time drummers and given the context, I will give you the opportunity of listening the tracks and focusing on the percussion parts - ya dig?

PLEASE CLICK THE LINK ON THE SIDE BAR TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST. THANK YOU!

-Z

Track List (artist, track, album)

1. Chris Corsano - The Wreck - Another Dull Dawn (Ultra Eczema)
2. Albert Ayler Trio - Ghosts (First Variation) - Spiritual Unity (ESP)
3. Iannis Xenakis/Hans-Kristian Kjos Sorensen - Rebonds; II. - Open (Bis)
4. The Stooges - L.A. Blues - Fun House (Elektra)
5. Drummers Of The Societe Absolument Guinin - Boumba - Voodoo Drums (Soul Jazz)
6. The Swans - Half Life - Cop (K.422)
7. Faust - It's a Rainy Day Sunshine Girl - So Far (Polydor)
8. Max Roach - Drums Unlimited - Drums Unlimited
9. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Kandy Korn - Strictly Personal (Blue Thumb)
10. John Coltrane - Jupiter - Interstellar Space (Impulse)
11. Jimi Hendrix Experience - Hey Joe (Live [Winterland, San Francisco, CA, October 12, 1968]) - Voodoo Child- The Jimi Hendrix Collection (MCA)
12. Harry Partch/Ensemble of Unique Instruments - Arrest, Trial And Judgment: Joy In The Marketplace!/Pray For Me Again: A Strange Fear! - Delusion of the Fury (Innova Recordings)

Xenakis, Iannis - Rebonds Pour Percussion Solo


Linear notes from Delusion of the Fury

The world has caught up with Harry Partch. For almost fifty years in the wilderness, Partch has been doing his own thing and suffering the slings and arrows of outraged musicians and musicologists. But the times they are a-changing, and critics who have called him "the Don Quixote of music" now see him as a "philosopher," a "prophet", a "visionary," an "inspired, stubborn radical."

He has been found. He is no longer the eccentric outsider. Europeans find him surpassingly American; Americans find him transcendental. At the age of 70, Partch marches on.

In his long-awaited masterwork, "Delusion of the Fury", he rises above all attempts at descriptive containment and becomes quite simple heroic. "Delusion of the Fury," proceeding from tragedy to comedy, is nothing less than the full, ritualistic expression, in vocal, instrumental and corporeal terms, of the reconciliation by the living both with death and with life. It is a total Partch statement, incorporating voices, mime, his celebrated instruments, dance, lighting and staging, all working to express this philosophical concept.

"Delusion of the Fury," as is to be expected, is not cast in the common dramatic/musical mold. There is no libretto. All action is danced or mimed. It is performed in four parts that proceed without interruption. (Partch scorns the breaking of a theatrical experience by the intermission.)

Partch's own words, prefacing his elaborate and complicated score, help to establish what he has called "all the information that I thought might be necessary to a performance":

"STATEMENT : Words cannot proxy for the experience of knowing -- of seeing and hearing. The concept of this work inheres in the presence of the instruments on stage, the movements of musicians and chorus, the sounds they produce, the actuality of actors, of singers, of mimes, of lights; in fine, the actuality of truly integrated theater. These introductory pages consist largely of technical data. They contain no argument, no exposition. I feel that the only investigation that has genuine integrity is the seen and heard performance.

SYNOPSIS: It is an olden time, but neither a precise time nor a precise place. The "Exordium" is an overture, and invocation, the beginning of a ritualistic web. Act I, on the recurrent theme of Noh plays, is a music-theater portrayal of release from the wheel of life and death. It opens with a pilgrim in search of a particular shrine, where he may do penance for murder. The murdered man appears as a ghost, sees first the assassin, then his young son looking for a vision of his father's face. Spurred to resentment by his son's presence, he lives again through the ordeal of death, but at the end -- with the supplication "Pray for me!" -- he finds reconciliation.

There is nowhere, from the beginning of the "Exordium" to the end of Act II, a complete cessation of music. The "Sanctus" ties Acts I and II together; it is the Epilogue to the one, the Prologue to the other. Act II involves a reconciliation with life. A young vagabond is cooking a meal over a fire in rocks when an old woman approaches, searching for a lost kid. She finds the kid, but -- due to a misunderstanding caused by the hobo's deafness -- a dispute ensues. Villagers gather and, during a violent dance, fore the quarreling couple to appear before the justice of the peace, who is both deaf and nearsighted.

Following the judge's sentence, the Chorus sings in unison, "Oh, how did we ever get by without justice?" and a voice offstage reverts to the supplication at the end of Act I.

SET: The instruments are the set, with only a cyclorama -- a good sound-reflecting surface -- behind. They must not be pushed back into tight corners. The movements required of the principals and chorus do not call for excessive stage space. In Act (, they are slow and intense; in Act II, vigorous and intense. The vigorous movers of Act II will simply learn to avoid instruments.

PRINCIPALS: The principals in each act must certainly be trained in music. It would be fine if they can be mimes, singers, dancers, simultaneously. However, the parts are essentially those of mimes and dancers, and it would be theatrically acceptable for a musician, or someone stationed among the instruments, to assume the rather slight singing roles of each principal, becoming a somewhat disembodied voice.

CHORUS: Singing -- or, to be more general, sound from the throat -- meaningless in English verbal communication but no meaningless in this music, is rather general. The 18 or 20 musicians (with conductor) are the Chorus in both acts. This was true in "The Bewitched" also, and to my mind the arrangement was effective. The choral voice-sounds were not coming from a body of people appearing just occasionally, but from among the instrument, from musician who were deeply involved throughout.

In the present work, I wish to progress beyond this concept. there are 25 instruments onstage (not counting small hand-instruments), but never do the 25 play simultaneously. In fairly long periods, only a small ensemble is employed. The tacit musicians may thus become actors and dancers, moving from instruments to acting areas as the impetus of the drama requires.

Where necessary, instrumentalist must memorize parts, of know them so well that faint stage light is enough. The effect of stand-lights on white music paper -- onstage -- tends to destroy almost any lighting concept. Actors and singer have always memorized parts, and it is irrational to exempt instrumentalists when they are cast in such a way as to be indispensable to the action.

COSTUMES: the musician must be in costume; they should convey a sense of magic, of an olden time, but never of a precise olden time.

The basic garment is a huge pair of pantaloons, wrapping around the waist in East Indian fashion. in Act I, they also wear a poncho-like garment -- a single, full piece of cloth with a neckhole. It is completely unadorned, without collages or beads or anything that twinkles in the light. The poncho is discarded at the end of the "Sanctus".

To compensate for this very simple costume, each musician will wear a fantastic headpiece. Each will be different, or frequently different. In contrast, the three principals will wear more imaginative costumes, and imaginative make-up. Wigs, perhaps, but not headpieces."

Part One, the "Exordium", takes the place of an overture. (The term itself is an exact, though unaccustomed, description of the composer's working intentions: to mark "the beginning of a statement." But in its Latin root, which means "to begin a web," lies the deeper significance of why Partch has chose this term and shows how thoroughly and painstakingly the composer has explored his idiom.) The "Exordium," totally instrumental, aims to snare its listeners in the web of Partch's devising and , after a slight pause, to deliver them into the ritual of Act One.

Here, Partch has chosen a celebrated Japanese Noh drama as his musical parable of the reconciliation of the living with the realm of the dead and, because it is a classic ghost story, the reconciliation of the dead with the realm of the living. A prince has made a pilgrimage to a shrine in order to do penance, to pray for the expiation of his sin. In battle, he has killed the prince of another warring royal house. Each time he makes this journey of repentance, he meets the ghost of the man he slew, and , together, they relive the dead man's death. The ghost of the dead man realized that he cannot re-enact the ritual of the moment of his death, that he must come to some reconciliation with the living, as must the living with the dead. The ghost drops his sword and says to his murder, "You are not my enemy." Then he entreats, "Pray for me, oh, pray for me again," and vanishes forever.

Partch's music for this Noh drama reflects its Oriental setting but is far different from any traditional Japanese Noh synthesis. His music holds to the basic Noh characteristic of being an accompaniment to the stage action, but it weaves a complete musical fabric that sustains and fulfills the main visual themes so strongly that the music stands on its own.

In the "Sanctus" that follows the "Exordium", Partch replaces the usual entr'acte with a postlude to Act One that is also a prelude to Act Two, designed to be so filled with compelling sounds that, in the composer's words, "...everybody would be frozen to his seat." Immediately following this fury of sound comes the rollicking West African folk tale that makes up the second act. Thus, Partch walks in the classic tradition of following tragic drama with farce, for the healthy purging of the spirit.

At the opening of Act Two, a deaf hobo -- the hobo is a recurrent character in Partch's work -- is seen trying to cook a meal for himself when an old goat woman comes up to him to ask if he has seen her lost kid. The hobo doesn't understand her and brusquely indicates that she should leave. She interprets the gesture as a direction in which she must go to find the missing kid. She goes, finds the lost kid, and returns to thank the hobo for helping her. He, of course, because he cannot hear, misunderstands her and thinks she has a kid in her arms that she has accused him of stealing.

At this juncture in the misunderstanding, the local villagers force the deaf hobo and the old goat woman to appear before their justice of the peace to settle the matter. However, the judge, unfortunately, is also quite dear and, in addition, very nearsighted, so that all the violent arguments -- done in mime -- finally exasperate him into saying, "Young man, take your beautiful young wife and your charming child and go home and never let me see you in this court again." The villagers fin this judgment utterly hilarious, and only the coming of a storm sobers them. Quickly, the tempest breaks about them, and, then, after the height of the storm has passed, on hears from offstage: "Pray for me, oh, pray from me," followed by the last themes of the "Exordium," and the mime-dance, or music drama, concludes.

As in his other creations, it is difficult to separate the unique sounds of Partch's music from the strange and beautiful instruments that give all his works their special qualities. The Partch instruments are not only performed upon; they, too, perform. Besides being co-conveyors of his music, along with singers and dancers, they are also striking sculptural works employed in the stage design, not only in "Delusion", but also in all of Partch's performed compositions. They are the vehicles of his creativity, around which Partch has designed his own notation system. His very precise and expandable multi-tone scale is painted on the keys of his Chromelodeon in a variety of colors and then numbered, as well, for identification in producing exactly desired musical combinations. All his other instruments are keyed, of fixed pitch only, to his 43-tone scale. his own musical language has frequently only the staff itself in common with other written music. Notation for the Diamond marimba, for instance, is arrange to resemble the shape of the instrument, with the exact position to be played shown at the exact time and place in the music. The luminous Cloud-Chamber Bowls have the numerical value of their precise resonance pained on them and are so indicate in the score. The giant marimba Eroica sends out deep, compelling tones that are felt as well as heard, and so noted.

Throughout, the timbre of all the instruments that Partch has built for his orchestra is mellifluous rather than harsh, consonant rather than unrelated. As a result, the intricate rhythms and harmonies the composer employs to evoke dramatic response, to be emotionally stirring an exciting and deeply moving, never become violent. This, Partch's concept of a "corporeal music", might truly be said to be in the mainstream of a music of love and of peace.

Cells 2.0

Finally got this up!

This is the major piece I wrote at my time spent at the residency this winter in Florida. It had been awhile since I wrote a score but it felt good to think of music in a visual sense again - this year has been all rock n roll!

This piece is for three instruments but has the potential to include more. I wrote this piece for the performers that were available at the residency; Nomi Epstein played the piano and Laura Cetillia played the Cello. I tip my hat to them for playing the music beautifully. The music itself is very dreamy and atmospheric. Cells 2.0 is a continuation of the cells series. Cells 1.0 was the first piece I wrote when I got accepted to the composition program at Dalhousie and it tries to focus on the dualities of improvisation and composition - trying to unite the two. The name Cells comes for the idea of using simple musical 'cells' as the basis for your improvisation.

I included the piano page of the score so you can get idea of what it looks like. I really enjoy making graphic scores and have more fun making them then writing the actual music sometimes!

Much thanks to David Berhman for helping me with the piece, and Holland Hopson and Matt Sargent for helping record and setup the show.

-Z

Cells 2.0 by zacharyfairbrother

Crazy Week Re-Cap - Lots of Videos

What a crazy week last week was. Lantern had three gigs including one that was a collaboritive set with Dirty Beaches in Brooklyn.

In addition to all that, we released a new tape on Night People - which can be purchased on their website, still waiting on artist copies - had an interview (a chopped and screwed interview, if you catch my drift) with Vice Magazine , and had a familiy from Louisiana tell me they were huge fans of mine and recorded themselves singing an Omon Ra II song.

Fortunately most of all this was recorded to video so let's start with the Lantern footage from the SOLD OUT first Unitarian show in Philadelphia. We played in the small side chapel, which was a beautiful space with a beautiful crowd - and the whole place seemed appropriate for a rock n' roll sermon. Dirty Beaches definitely excercised some demons.

This video is half our song "Get Out My Mind" and then all of "I Don't Know" both of which appear on our latest Night People release.



The footage was taken by Brent Wingen.

The following footage, also from the same show, is of Dirty Beaches and shows a new direction. Darker with even more of a hip hop influences. Combining the hysterical delivery of Screamin' Jay Hawkins with Alex's own dark, twisted, narritive. Track is called "Black Silk Stalkings"



This next video is of the Torres boys from Louisiana. Their father got in touch with me asking about lyrics to some Omon Ra II songs. He told me he sang Omon Ra II with his kids on the way to school. I couldn't really believe that some family actually listened to Omon Ra II on the way to school, but still I wrote them out the lyrics and explanations and the father replied.

“I really appreciate the lyrics and love the stories surrounding them. And yes my 4 kids (two boys two girls) are big music fans and love noisy rock and roll. I take requests from them on the way to school, this morning the girls wanted Alice Cooper, my youngest son requested Beck and my oldest one wanted to listen to “Those Egyptian Dudes, Omon Ra” (For a ten year-old he thinks he is a regular comedian). I’ll try to sneak a quick recording of them singing and send it to you.”

Well lo and behold the video surfaced. This was the most humbling, grateful things, to have experienced in my brief career - To have kids love your music. This generation is going to have some cool kids! This came at the right time because I was getting a little shell shocked from all the negative comments we recieved from our Vice article. Advice: Never read the comments. Here is the video!

The next stream of footage is from the Dirty Beaches/Lantern collab set in NYC on Friday the 13th! The show took place at Glasslands in Brooklyn. About a month ago Alex approached me about Lantern backing him up for this gig. We conversed a lot through email about the sound we wanted to go for but it was very much in the ether before we got together to see what it would sound like. Fortunately between the Philly and NYC shows we had a day off. We managed to get in a quick rehearsal Wednesday night and another in Friday afternoon in Bushwick. All the riffs we had we written in seconds and the show was a very vesceral experience. The way the songs went was not a typical verse chorus relationship - although that was definitely an archetype for the works. We used those ideas as platforms but let our physical reactions dictate the dynamics. We tried to keep things short - to avoid meandering 20 minute jams and we tried to give each other a lot of space even though we were playing rawkous free-proto punk. We played the four songs we wrote together and then the last, arguably best song, was completely improvised.

After the last song I broke all my strings. The crowd demanded more, so Alex gave me his guitar. While I was tuning the guitar, all of a sudden Emily and Sophie started rocking out. I was tuning up the B string and it had this spooky sound going up to the B It had this gothic western sound and I remember thinkings 'this is very Alex'. So I made that my riff and then Alex jumps into the audience. I thought the crowd might have been angry that Alex wasn't doing his regular gig but from my experience the sold out crowd seemed to love it. Unfortunately the last song from out set, the improvised 'encore', appears to not have surfaced, but there is a wonderful recording of the first songs. It makes a great bootleg. Who wants to put this out??

If that last song turns up, please let us know!

Alex is an extremely hard working musician and I am glad to see his hardwork is paying off. Before and after the show Alex conducted countless interviews, not to mention after we ran out of songs, the crowd still demanded more, so he went back out and performed a solo Dirty Beaches set, despite being extremely exhausted.

Alright I hope you enjoy the videos. Expect a Dirty Beaches/Lantern collab set again in the near future. And yah? Who wants to put out that bootleg???

-Z