Loop 2.4.3 - staying in the loop

2011-07-27T01:04:00.000-07:00

Dafnis Prieto with Loop 2.4.3 at the Tank in New York City

Loop in London

2011-06-25T15:40:00.000-07:00

I got to travel to London in May with Clogs to perform on the Steve Reich Reverberations Festival hosted by the Barbican. What a fantastic time! We performed alongside the Kronos Quartet, eighth blackbird, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Nico Muhly, and many other uber-talented artists. A great opportunity and a great tribute to Mr. Reich.

One of the special things for me was making the London premier of Underground, a Loop 2.4.3 piece from Zodiac Dust, as a duo version with Bryce Dessner (Clogs, The National). A big thanks to Bryce for giving this a go in short order - not an easy piece!

There was a detailed review of the Clogs set by QRO magazine - find it online HERE.

Loop at the Lyric in NYC

2011-05-04T00:32:00.000-07:00

We've had some really fun shows the last couple of weeks and one of the highlights happened to be right here in New York City. The room we played in for the Lyric's salon series on Manhattan's Upper East Side was simply fantastic! A medium sized room with a high ceiling, and everything was dark wood. The acoustics were superb. Resonant, but controlled. We had to hold back a little bit on some of the powerful drumming bits in Chickchi, but otherwise were able to achieve great dynamics. The concert was recorded and may appear on NPR down the road...we'll pass on any news.

The other great thing about this show was the mix of people in the audience. There were a large number of Upper East Siders in their 60's, 70's, and 80's who were ecstatic about the show and stuck around to chat afterwards. There were some young artists from SOHO who just randomly heard of the show and came up, and then some hardcore Loop fans from the West Village, Brooklyn, and even Connecticut. There were a few small children, so the age range was huge. I find this type of communication across generations to be really exciting.

Wait a minute, there was one more really great thing about this show - Christian Hebel joined us on violin. This was our first collaboration with Christian and we're looking forward to more. He performed on Zodiac Dust and Epilogue. Epilogue involves a good deal of improvisation in a non-traditional fashion, and Christian played some really beautiful music. Thank you!

We would also like to thank Joan Kretschmer, and Julia Reinhart at the Lyric Chamber Music Society for all of their support. Joan took a big chance by programming us on a very classical/romantic series, and it was a huge success. Our humble gratitude for all you do.

coming up....Thom is headed to London to perform with Clogs for a Steve Reich 75th birthday celebration festival at the Barbican. We'll try to get some pictures...Lorne is working with Tom Burnett and James Godwin for our next NYC show on May 25. Hope to see you soon!

Snow Bowl flashback

2011-04-05T22:58:00.000-07:00

Lorne's Snow Bowl Review: Our Snow Bowl Tour was a great success for us. We thought that the weather would be terrible the whole time when we started out getting the Camry stuck in our own parking lot! That day NYC got 4 inches of snow, then 2 inches of rain and then 4 more inches of snow. That was the toughest day of driving!

We made it to Buffalo a little late (1am?) but Tom Kolor, Professor of Percussion at University at Buffalo, was there to greet us. The next day we met all of the percussion students for a master class in which we played through our road show, the long program, and discussed our processes from composition to business. As we left that day, it was snowing, but to be expected in Buffalo, all the way to Toledo. (I Chickened out on driving. The amount of trucks on the road was way too intense!)

Our gig at Toledo was really nice. Gabe at the Robinwood concert house puts on great events in his living room. This is definitely a repeat place for us to play. The audience was fabulous and the company was FUN! After this gig it felt as though we had already been on the road for a week, but we were just getting started.

The next three stops were very nostalgic. We rocked Holly middle school with our great friend John Hill (who broke his cats foot while we were there) at 8:00 am! Then quickly loaded up the car and headed to Michigan State University. This is where I saw some of my first concerts and always wanted to perform at the Music Building. Well, now we can check that off the list. Gwen was a great host and we hope to return. Then it was off to Thom's and my the Alma Mater, Central Michigan University. Andrew Spencer hosted us for master classes with his students. It was nice to play in the hall again, it has been almost 15 years since I played there.

Then, of course, it was snowing, wouldn’t be a SNOW BOWL TOUR with out it. The blizzard was on the way and we had to get to Wisconsin for a show the next day. Instead of driving south of Lake Michigan, we went north through the UP, stopped at the Tighe Family House, (Patty’s, my wife's, parents) and had some pasties and squeaky cheese. We continued on to Appleton and just beat the Blizzard by mere miles and minutes. The next day we had an excellent concert at Lawrence University. The sound was great and the students were very helpful during the frozen load-in.

That night it went down to about -20 as we arrived in Minneapolis at 3 a.m. There was some crazy “business” happening at the hotel, which ended up leaving the catch phrase in our heads, “Not cool, Not cool at all”. We got up to warmer temperatures, about 15 above zero, and loaded into the Southern Theater. What a great space! The sound system and engineers were great and we actually had a real sound check. We shared the show with Juliana Barwick, which was an excellent double bill as we are two TOTALLY different acts.

After this show we were felling the road sores and drove up to St. Cloud state where Terry Vermillion hosted us in a master class and an evening performance. Terry was great host and the students were amazing to work with. We hit the road right after to make it to Chicago for our last performance. We crashed at the Red Roof Inn in the Wisconsin Dells, which I have heard are beautiful, but with 4 feet of snow and darkness upon us, it looked like Christmas Eve.

Click HERE for a video from St. Cloud

We woke up late, got a late start, and scrambled down to Chicago to play with The Rowe-Clark Academy steel band directed by our great friend Doug Corella. Man, can his kids play! After the concert we had a great hang with all of our friends and family that are in Chicago. Good times had by all! Doug hooked us up with a great breakfast in the morning and we were off on a 14 hour journey back to New York. We really need to find a great spot to play a show in Pennsylvania along I- 80. Any suggestions?

Oh Yeah, of course we got the Camry stuck in the parking lot again, just to keep the the whole tour balanced! Thom had to put chains on the tires at 3am just to park in the ice rink of a lot in Bed-Stuy.

Good Times!! Great to see all of you on the road and stay in touch. Hope you enjoyed the tales. There are a bunch of videos online from the shows in Minnesota. If you search "Loop 2.4.3, St. Cloud" or "Loop 2.4.3, Southern Theater" in google or youtube, you should find some fun tour coverage.

All the Best - Lorne, Loop 2.4.3

photos by Jon Behm, http://www.reviler.org

Tank Loop

2010-12-17T01:04:00.000-08:00

We're not going to lie - this residency was a lot of work...it was nuts. Thom moved back to NYC full-time and we completely renovated Loop Headquarters in Bed-Stuy. This meant rehearsing late at night at Carroll Music - who were wonderful to us throughout, while Loopland was a construction zone. An-Lin was amazing in this entire process and helped design all of the changes to the studio. Lorne spent hours schlepping gear into studio 4 and trying to wire the PA system for rehearsals, T-Byrd Burnett tried to keep peace with the short fuses of the directors, and James had to spend extra money on beer at mid-town deli's...we all made sacrifices. It paid off as there were wonderful moments in each show, and when things hit their stride in show #3, everything made sense.

Please check out some of the photos, mostly from the dress rehearsal of concert 3 and taken by Kiyoshi Inoue. There will be video posted eventually, so check back at the youtube channel.

Thanks to all of the performers: John Amira, James Armstrong, Tom Burnett, Mat Fieldes, Erik Friedlander, James Godwin, Emily Hope Price, Dafnis Prieto, Steven Reker. We also thank Suzan, Brendan, Jenn, Chris, Trent, and all at the Tank.

CMJ Loop

2010-12-17T00:57:00.000-08:00

We were selected to perform at the CMJ (College Music Journal) Marathon this fall in NYC. This is a big industry happening of which we were glad to take part. Zodiac Dust reached #23 on the CMJ RPM charts (experimental music) in 2009, thanks to the DJ's and students! The sweaty, candid photo (courteousy of Kiyoshi), is after the midnight set.

Master Classes, Workshops, and Residencies

2010-12-16T12:15:00.000-08:00

Loop 2.4.3's educational outreach expanded significantly this year with multiple engagements in our own backyard through the Brooklyn Arts Council. We also traveled upstate to the Center School District, and did mini-residencies in Pennsylvania at Slippery Rock University and Susquehanna University. A big thank you to David and Kim Glover at Slippery Rock, and to Dr. Naomi Niskala and all of the faculty in the music department at Susquehanna for being such wonderful hosts. All of the students in PA were extremely positive and wonderful to work with..there must be something in the air...

Our Big Project this fall was our monthly residency at The Tank Space for Visual and Performing Arts. This deserves it's own section complete with photos and links....coming soon! Again, photos are courtesy of Kiyoshi Inoue.

Carnegie Hall

2010-12-16T12:10:00.000-08:00

We appeared 2 times this year in Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall with the New American Symphony. This is always a pleasure and we look forward to future collaborations. Special thanks to music director Eric Dale Knapp, and manager Brian Mahany.

Fall Tour

2010-12-16T11:54:00.000-08:00

Our fall tour of the Mid-Atlantic region included our debut appearances in Baltimore and Washington, DC. We made some great friends in DC at the Potter's House, where we did a benefit concert for the Arlington Planetarium. The series there, Sounds of Hope, is run by Mary Shapiro and benefits a variety of organizations. A warm thank you to Mary, Jeff, Ted and Mike of Lost Civilizations, and the Potter's House and Planetarium crews.

Also on this trip we played at a small music school in Long Valley, NJ, where we got some great video footage. Follow these links to see a few (there are more as well):

The Return of Chickchi

Clouds

and a new piece, Alchemy

a BIG THANKS to Dave White at Long Valley for the videos!!

Northeast Tour

2010-12-16T10:42:00.000-08:00

Highlights on our summer tour in the Northeast included stops in New Haven (thanks to Jonny Rodgers, Istvan, Dan, and Dana), Cambridge (thanks to Allison and Suzie for all the help!), and Portland, ME. We played at the Space Gallery in Portland, which was an awesome room and our biggest audience yet in vacationland. A big thanks to Parks and David for hosting us - David is also our yoga and surfing coach, and to Ian and all at Space. We plan to return to New England in June for sure..if not sooner. We hope to see you all then!

Make Music New York

2010-12-16T01:30:00.000-08:00

On June 21 we participated in Make Music New York. This year we organized an improvising gong ensemble. The Mass Appeal Gong Ensemble appeared at Merchants' Gate, Central Park, Manhattan. A clip of this got featured on Alex Ross’ youtube page. This was a lot of fun -thanks to all you gongers!!

Truck America

2010-12-16T01:13:00.000-08:00

Britain's reknowned Truck Festival (Indie rock/folk/experimental music - NOT big trucks!) came to America for the first time in 2010 and Loop 2.4.3 was invited to play. Please see THIS LINK for a bootleg from the show. It was an intense 2am show and we slept under the starts in upstate NY. Thanks to the Bennett brothers for pulling this off!

Spring in the Midwest

2010-12-16T00:59:00.000-08:00

In April we toured through the midwest. Venues included The Front Room in Cleveland - a funky, industrial loft art space downtown; Scene Metro in East Lansing (a Freeland H.S. Class of’91 re-union took place at this awesome East Lansing show. What a hang! We’re back in East Lansing on Jan 31); and Kerrytown Concert House in Ann Arbor - special thanks to Deanna. This was a fabulous venue in a beautiful part of Ann Arbor. Thom was born there (in Ann Arbor) and is nostalgic for the famous college town. It was great to see lots of family and friends at this show!

We also did a residency at Alma College, working with students and performing multiple concerts. Here's a VIDEO of Loop 2.4.3's Underground with David Zerbe on drums.

2010-12-16T00:36:00.000-08:00

Another highlight was the show with Clogs at The Bell House in Brooklyn. The only NYC performance of songs from ‘The Creatures…’ in 2010! Special thanks to Shara Worden and Sufjan Stevens for coming to sing! View PHOTOS and COMMENTS about the show.

Loop 2.4.3 with Clogs

2010-12-16T00:14:00.000-08:00

Early in 2010 we played several shows with Clogs. Here's a highlight:

Friday, February, 19, 8pm
Loop 2.4.3 with Clogs
Southern Theater
1420 Washington Ave. South, Minneapolis, MN 55454
The duo performed a short set and then performed with Clogs. As a founding member, Thom has been with Clogs for 11 years! Their new album, The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton, was named one of the top 5 genre-defying albums of 2010. Thom participated in an interview with the Kaufman Center for Clogs’ upcoming performance at Merkin Hall. View the CLIP HERE, and the concert listing HERE.

The year-in-review newsletter starts here!

2010-12-16T00:01:00.000-08:00

Thanks for visiting. A HUGE thank you to all of our fans and sponsors who have made the last year of music possible. We're posting some fun anecdotes, news items, photos and links to videos and stories to recap 2010. Happy Holidays - Love the Loop

Bootleg of Loop 2.4.3 at Truck America last weekend

2010-05-06T21:31:00.000-07:00

Click HERE for the video.

This was the beginning of the late night set. The whole festival had a great vibe - thanks to Joe and Robin Bennett and the rest of the Truck team!

Upcoming Shows

2010-04-23T13:00:00.000-07:00

We're very excited to be a part of the Truck America Festival on May 1-2 in upstate NY. Loop 2.4.3 is performing at 2:30am (that's right - rock and roll all night!) or late night Saturday.

Also coming right up is a performance in Brooklyn at Williamsburg's Zebulon. This is going to be an amazing night of music with Emily Hope Price (including a Loop 2.4.3 collaboration), Build, and a special appearance by Tom Burnett.

Recent Shows

2010-04-23T12:52:00.000-07:00

February and March included shows in Minneapolis (Southern Theater), Brooklyn (Bell House), and Knoxville (Big Ears Festival) with Clogs. These dates helped to mark the release of the new Clogs record 'Creatures' . Shara Worden and Sufjan Stevens, who both appear on the record, joined the group live, making these very special shows.. In addition, we did a late night performance of In C with Terry Riley and the Bang on a Can All-Stars at the Big Ears Festival. It is Mr. Riley's 75th birthday year, and he appears in top form as a performer, composer, and thinker - something to shoot for!

WNYC and Chubby Checker

2010-03-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

Played with Clogs on WNYC's Soundcheck yesterday afternoon. John Schaefer is somewhat of an institution in NY with this long-standing program. He has been a fan and supporter of Clogs for a number of years which is fabulous. It was fun to see him again and be on the air in the new WNYC studios. There was a period when I listened to this program all of the time, so it was nice to revisit that whole vibe. An added bonus was that Chubby Checker (Ernest Evans) was on before us and did about a 30min interview with John. It was really interesting to hear him talk about his goals/approach to music over the years. He was one of the first teen rock and roll sensations. This was the funniest bit of the whole thing: Earnest said that he thought it was interesting that white people liked to imitate black people when they sing - he was the opposite, as his hero was Frank Sinatra. So Chubby's approach to singing, and what gives his voice its unique character, is that he tries to imitate white people imitating black people...wow, now there's a unique approach. It was also interesting that Ernest views Chubby as a character apart from himself. This is a persona that he puts on; an old-school entertainer. He even has conversations with Chubby and critiques Chubby's behavior and decisions....

- tk

Chamber Music America Conference - continued

2010-02-23T22:54:00.000-08:00

sorry for the delay! Things have been busy in Loopland. Below is a follow up to the Chamber Music America conference 2010 chronicles.

CMA Ensemble Showcases

This part of the conference provides an opportunity for groups, all CMA members, to showcase their talents and hopefully win over concert presenters and management types who are attending the conference. We were only able to attend about a third of the performances as many were happening at the same time. We prioritized attending some of the jazz and contemporary music showcases. The performances we saw included duoJalal, Weiss-Kaplan-Newman Trio, Madera Vox, Fireworks Ensemble, Ted Kooshian’s Standard Orbit Quartet, and Jeff Newell’s New-Trad Octet.

We can’t take the space here to review or comment on all of the performances, but wanted to give you the synopsis of what we saw, as it seems to be an important event for the industry. The W-K-N Trio gave an impassioned performance of works by Brahms, Smetena, and Sheng. They handled the Romantic to Contemporary works confidently. This wasn’t the most cohesive performance, you got the impression that this collaboration was not their main project, but they were all wonderful musicians and gave a convincing performance.

Madera Vox and Fireworks Ensemble were back to back on Saturday and represented the “contemporary” (quotes explained below) category of ensembles. This combined hour of showcasing was the most confusing and disappointing part of the entire conference. One might expect the contemporary ensembles to be edgy, take risks, and above all to perform works by living composers…not so. The overall esthethic of both of these ensembles seemed to gravitate toward cabaret more that anything else. It appeared to be geared toward entertainment value, which is possibly the marketing angle they felt necessary to find work in today’s economy.

The Fireworks Ensemble delivered a very tight ensemble performance, with much of the music performed from memory, but in the context of this situation, the most striking thing about it was that THEY PLAYED ABSOLUTELY NO MUSIC BY LIVING COMPOSERS!! Um…whom are we fooling here? This is one of the groups selected as a “contemporary ensemble.” Worse yet is that the ensemble members didn’t seem to know that the composers were dead! Bassist and bandleader Brian Coughlin even gave an elaborate introduction about the group’s dedication to contemporary music as a lead-in to the group’s arrangement of G-Spot Tornado by Frank Zappa. Now, we love our Zappa, but we also know this piece was released on “Jazz From Hell” in 1986, over 20 years ago (and that Zappa died, God bless his soul, over 16 years ago). That makes it a 20th century work, modern for sure, a classic in rock/pop terms, but certainly not contemporary. All of this might have been forgiven and forgotten if a really rousing performance followed this nonsense, but it all felt tepid, as if Broadway session musicians had been hired to read some cool charts. The group was tight and well rehearsed, but inventive, passionate or convincing, not to mention contemporary(!), it was not. This reached the point of offensiveness, because either Mr. Coughlin considered the audience to be ignorant, or was himself, and either way there was no integrity in the presentation as regards CMA.

The best thing to say about Madera Vox was that they were honest and knowledgeable about what they were doing. The ensemble playing was less refined than Fireworks'– they played Children’s Song No.6 by Chick Corea and seemed to be fishing for whether or not to play a latin or swing groove, but there was some inventiveness to their arrangements and presentation. Again, instead of giving gutsy performances, they gravitated toward this cabaret esthetic, which seemed out of place at such a conference. These combined sessions left us wondering if CMA stood for Cabaret Mentality Amusement… more to come!

-J.M.

2010-01-26T22:11:00.000-08:00

The session with Chick Corea was tremendously insightful as he, Fred Sherry, Ida Kavafian, Billy Childs, and Phillip Ying reminisced about past collaborations. This was heavily focused on Corea's album, Leprechaun, on which he first wrote for strings. The cross-pollination of jazz and classical music/performance was a big part of the discussion. This was meant as a 'moderated discussion', in that there was someone there to ask questions and direct the conversation. It somehow seemed more natural though, and more interesting, to let the musicians wax nostalgic on their prolific careers. Chick even talked about playing with Miles and Miles' approach to dealing with his collaborators' input. It seems that in performance Miles always let his players do their thing, even when he didn't like what they were doing. He let people find themselves and define themselves - he was responsible for himself and led by demonstration...I would imagine that you didn't get called for the next tour though if you weren't smokin'!

2010-01-25T10:45:00.000-08:00

Chamber Music America’s (CMA) annual conference was last weekend at the Westin Hotel in NYC. This is the first time we have attended the full conference (though we have participated in APAP and other conferences), and overall found it to be very worthwhile. There were some stimulating talks with guest speakers, including Steve Reich, Leon Botstein, and Chick Corea. The weekend also included showcase performances from member ensembles. We got to see a wide variety of these performances, some of which were exciting, some disappointing, and some simply confusing as to their relevance at such an event. There were also sessions on fund-raising and other organization-building topics.

Steve Reich talked about being an inventor – something we all need to do as makers of art music in order to have any hope of survival! He basically related the idea of chamber musicians being entrepreneurs, except that most of us are not going into this so that we can drive a Porsche and have 3 houses. Reich also discussed the genesis of his phasing works and his approach to writing for new ensembles/instruments as his palette expanded over the years from all like-instruments to more diverse ensembles.

Leon Botstein was the ‘shake-up’ factor of the conference. Mr. Botstein was likable just as much for his broad perspective on music history, as for his sense of humor, and fearlessness. He declared, “The age of recording is dead.” He was also very clear that he did not aim this comment at electronic music, but that he specifically meant the recording of “standard repertoire,” and the idea that there can be a “definitive recording” of any piece of music. He was essentially advocating the unique experience of a live performance. He also addressed this issue of “standard repertoire,” posing the question: why are we still performing the same 10 pieces by the same 5 composers when there is so much good music to be heard? Now step back a second here…he is saying this to a room full of classical musicians, and concert presenters, the latter of whom are mostly rooted in the idea that Schumann, Beethoven, and Brahms is all the public wants to, or should be allowed to hear, or that they will dare to take a chance on presenting. One needs only to view the programming of an American Symphony Orchestra concert to see how Mr. Botstein approaches this problem. His question is a relevant one and one that contemporary composers struggle with constantly. This problem is the exact reason why a young Frank Zappa turned to rock and roll instead of chamber and orchestral music. This goes deeper as CMA itself seems unable to even grasp the definition of contemporary music (more on this in the next installment).

Welcome to 2010

2010-01-08T12:26:00.000-08:00

Reflecting on musical happenings in 2009, there were some great moments that we hope to share more info and footage on as tapes are collected, images are digitized and so on. Highlights included the production and release of Loop 2.4.3's 2nd album, Zodiac Dust, a residency at Alma College in MI with David Zerbe's fabulous percussion program, tours through the northeast and midwest, returning to SOUNDunderGROUND in New Haven, surfing in Maine with David Y. (that's me above trying on the full-body wet-suit) and a final blowout concert in November at the Tank in NYC with Tom Burnett, Steve Gilewski, Teresa Smith, and the enhanced visual atmosphere provided by luckydave. We do have some video footage of that event which will be showing up soon on youtube.

Frank Jiminez took his own video of the event and has made one post on his dataimagen site of our work-in-progress, As a Child. You can view that video HERE.

More to come....Happy New Year from Loop 2.4.3

- t.k.

Autumn Action

2009-12-02T23:50:00.000-08:00

It has been a busy fall in loopland – we apologize for the lack of blog time. We’ve been posting some mobile updates on the Twitter page; you can link to that through our homepage at www.loop243.com. We of course reserve the more juicy, detailed scoop for this blog.

We traveled up to Ithaca, NY early this fall for a concert at Ithaca College, where we were hosted by the one-and-only Gordon Stout. Gordon is a legendary marimbist and a wonderful and generous human being. We stayed at his home, surrounded by trees, fields, crickets and stars and were inspired by nature. One can start to feel a bit removed in the concrete jungle.

We had a fabulous concert in Ithaca’s massive orchestra hall. The audience was mostly Ithaca students and we invited people up on stage afterwards. The downside of the trip is that the Loop-wagon was pulled over and we were issued a speeding ticket on the way to the show. I am still dealing with that beauracratic mess! I really don’t think we were traveling 81 in a 55….

We made friends in Albany the next day at our show at Emack and Bolio’s and then headed back into the city.

We were soon off to Pittsburgh and Garfield Artworks, a grungy gallery near downtown. Pittsburg seems like a tough town for music..maybe we need to dedicate something to the Steelers...props to Mannie for all his support!

From Pittsburgh we hit the PSALM Salon in Phillie. This was a really nice set-up. A stage built into a fabulous old house, great audio gear, etc., and a very warm crowd.

We were back in Brooklyn for a couple of weeks and did a pair of shows near Park Slope before heading to New England – more on that to come!

Good Stuff - Make Music New York

2009-07-26T15:56:00.000-07:00

Loop 2.4.3 was recently featured as part of the Make Music New York festival. Pictured above is Lorne playing a Waterphone in Straus Park on the Upper West side of Manhattan. Special thanks to our friend Doug Corella (the Verve Pipe) who was in town from Chicago, and his friend James who helped us pack up when the rain came!
Below are some links to coverage of the event:

Hog Farm Bootleg

2009-07-26T14:32:00.000-07:00

We had a fantastic time in Maine back in June. We played at the interim location of Hog Farm, a Maine gem run by Gil and Coco Corral. The 'interim location' turned out to be their art/design/clothing boutique which made for an extraordinarily intimate event. There is a lot of cool stuff at this place to check out - very original work, so if you are traveling through Maine you should stop in. We had no idea someone was operating a flip cam and recording the show, otherwise we would not have gabbed so much in between pieces! Anyway the audience was great, the hosts were magnificent and you can check out some bootleg footage HERE.

Zodiac Dust - Summer Tour

2009-07-26T14:11:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy summer for Loop 2.4.3! This starts a series of posts documenting and commenting on some of the performances from our tour. If you have photos or video from any of the events - please send them along!

The Zodiac Dust tour has so far included shows in Alma (MI), Chicago (IL), Montpelier (VT), Biddeford (ME), Salem (MA), Lowell (MA), Katonah (NY), New Haven (CT), and multiple performances in NYC. More shows are coming up in Brooklyn (NY), Philadelphia, Pittsburgh (PA), and others....

Times Square Event

2009-06-06T19:53:00.000-07:00

Here is an image of Loop 2.4.3 performing for the unveiling of Robert Indiana's Hope sculpture at Times Square on June 4. The group had a great time collaborating with Teresa Smith, the Vinca Quartet, and Ha-Yang Kim. Indiana's sculpture was a hit, as was the performance.

Loop 2.4.3 meets the Godfathers of Pop Art

2009-06-03T21:49:00.000-07:00

Robert Indiana's Hope sculpture, which he donated to Obama's election campaign, is being installed temporarily, June 4-10, in the new Times Square park. (Broadway between 47 and 42 is now a pedestrian thorough-fare w/ no cars). Michael McKenzie and Teresa Smith have collaborated with Loop 2.4.3 to present a multi-media dance/music performance to coincide with the installation of the Hope sculpture. The first performance will take place directly in front of the sculpture on Broadway, just north of 44th St. at 12pm (noon) on Thursday, June 4. The live music performed by Loop 2.4.3 will feature works from their forthcoming CD, Zodiac Dust.

Thursday, June 4, 12 noon
Robert Indiana's Hope sculpture at Times Square
live performance featuring Teresa Smith and Loop 2.4.3
Broadway between 44th and 45th (just north of ABC studios and the US Army recruiting station)

stay tuned for follow up and other performances!

Underground

2009-05-17T19:21:00.000-07:00

We just had rehearsal with Allan Baker, a fabulous pianist we know in NYC. Allan will be playing Underground with us for the CD release show this Weds. I played piano on the recording to add some dimension to the sound - Allan is taking the part to another level which is great. We also did a version of Underground in Alma, MI with David Zerbe playing drumset. That version was recorded and the video should be up on our Youtube channel later this summer. - Thom K.

Zodiac Dust

2009-05-13T21:57:00.000-07:00

Some of the first feedback for Zodiac Dust has started to come in. There are links to Loop 2.4.3 interviews and album reviews at www.musicstartsfromsilence.com. We'd like to send a very special shout out and gracious thanks to our supporters and believers. This record is for you! We hope to make new friends this summer and fall while we're on tour with Zodiac Dust. Stay up to date by joining our email list ('contact' button at home page) or checking events at www.loop243.com.

DUMBO

2009-03-10T21:45:00.000-07:00

We finished our mastering about a week ago with Joe Lambert Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. What a strange day it was when the mastering began. It was a beautiful sunny day, and I was completely wrecked. Lorne and I had just played with Clogs the night before at the BAM Opera House, I moved a ton of gear, was going on several weeks of only 4-5 hours of sleep a night, and really did NOT want to get out of bed - but we've got to get this done! I packed up the hard drive with all of our files, put it in my backpack, brewed some coffee, and then mounted the Raleigh ten-speed to ride down to DUMBO (it's about a mile from our studio in Bed-Stuy).

I turned the corner onto Jay Street, I can just see the water now (East River), and there is a truck down near the river spewing huge clouds of smoke that envelope the entire block. What the hell is going on?? I have to drive my bike through this Armageddon to get to my destination and manage to chain the bike next to a pile of trash on the river's edge.

I find my way upstairs, through the long hallways of the industrial-building-turned-artist/business offices and finally come to the door of Joe Lambert Mastering. "Come on in, Tom." I immediately feel like I've known this guy for at least the past ten years, even though we've only spoken on the phone twice. I tell him about the environmental disaster I just witnessed outside and we head to the nearest window....the smoke has cleared...what are you going to do...We go back and sit down at Joe's work station. "Friday's a great day to make a record," says Joe. So it is, so it is....

L243 studio updates

2009-02-17T08:05:00.000-08:00

All of the tracks are down and we are now in the mixing phase. We did some mixing this past weekend and probably have one more day of work before we are ready for the final phase of mastering. We used ALOT of instruments on this record. Not only did we bring in a slew of extra percussion sounds, but we had strings and piano as well. An-Lin Bardin played cello on the title track (we're not giving that away yet) and Michelle Lee played violin on two pieces. I got to make my studio debut on piano which we added on Underground. Though the record won't be released for a few months yet, we will be performing a lot of the music next Saturday, Feb. 28, at a showcase recital at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music.

L243 in the studio

2009-01-29T21:55:00.000-08:00

We just finished the first day of recording for the new record. Very exciting - and totally exhausting! We laid down tracks for two new pieces that feature the marimba and steel drum and we're very excited about the sounds and vibe of the recording so far. We'll be back in on Saturday and Sunday for more recording... more studio updates to come - we hope to get some photos and video footage of the process.

let it snow

2009-01-18T20:36:00.000-08:00

We're currently working on the new album and just had a fantastic weekend of rehearsals. Lorne and I are very excited about the new record. We won't actually start recording until the end of the month, but we're continuing to develop the new material which includes several pieces that have not yet been performed live. We will probably do a bit of improvisation in the studio as well, since that played a major part of our first record. Those in NYC will be able to get an exclusive view/listen of many of these pieces at our concert in Brooklyn on February 28. Meanwhile, Lorne will be riding his bike through the snow to get to rehearsals in Bed-Stuy. more updates soon... - Thom

Happy 2009!

2009-01-02T07:53:00.000-08:00

We're kicking off the new year by inaugurating this blog site. We attempted to keep a blog on the myspace page for awhile, but it just wasn't happening. We hope to stay in touch with everyone and have more frequent posts through this site...

I know a lot of people are glad to see 2008 behind us....what a year. Still, through all of the difficulties, paths were forged for positive change. Unfortunately, sometimes things need to get very bad before a majority of people will stand up and say, "Hey, we need to do something about this." Living in NYC, I'm often reminded of that scene from the Sidney Lumet film, Network: "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" Sometimes when I find myself losing my patience, I make a conscious effort to step back and not let things effect me; other times, I think 'you know, I wish more people would get pissed off and stand up and say something. I'm not going to keep this all inside just so that I don't offend anyone or cause a ruckus.'

Looking back on 2008, what really sticks with me as a person is the same thing that propels me forward - the music that we made as Loop 2.4.3. There was a lot of wonderful feedback from our first record and we developed an album's worth of new material that we'll be recording in early February. I'm looking forward to getting what's in my head onto the tangible form of the compact disc.

As a fun aside - I spent New Year's Eve at a friend's apt. in Brooklyn near the Grand Army Plaza at Prospect Park. At one point we turned on the television to check out the scene at Times Square. What did we see? Hordes of people of course, and lots 'live music'. All of the big name entertainers were on the big stages miming their way through the music the way they always do for network TV. It was FREEZING, so it's understandable that they wouldn't actually play. (Ludacris needs to at least find some people who look like they might be able to play a musical instrument though.) After our quick fix of the Dick Clark classic, we headed out into the cold to check out the scene at Prospect Park. There was a decent crowd at the north end of the park, and I don't know who the band was, but they were actually PLAYING! The drummer didn't stop for a second (maybe because his hands would have fallen off), and the band had people dancing while the fireworks went off overhead. Thanks to the musicians at Prospect Park for keeping it real. Go Brooklyn!