Composer Guy Barash and poet Nick Flynn examine fatherhood and intergenerational trauma in Killdeer, a new album featuring Barash (electronics) and Flynn (spoken word) with a stellar lineup of collaborators: Kathleen Supové (piano), Frank London (trumpet), and Eyal Maoz (electric guitar).
The title refers to a species of bird that pretends to have a broken wing in order to lure predators away from vulnerable offspring in the nest. By turns harrowing and tender, this composed/improvised work shows these versatile musicians at their most incisive.
Recorded on May 10, 2022 by Nico Pagni at Dubway Studios, New York City
Mixed by Marc Urselli at EastSide Sound Mastered by Scott Hull at Masterdisk
Cover Art, Untitled, Ink on Paper, by Amnon Yuhas
Cover Design by Marc Wolf
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
“A risk-taker, willing to pull ideas from all disciplines as he jumps into the unknown” (icareifyoulisten.com), Guy Barash commonly applies electronic processing to acoustic instruments and employs microtonality to create psychologically disorienting atmospheres. His series of compositions for solo instruments and real-time digital signal processing, “Talkback,” was hailed as being “at once divine, serene and haunting” (The Queens Chronicle). Developing innovative, multidisciplinary projects, Barash collaborates with an array of poets, video-artists, musicians and choreographers. His collaboration with Nick Flynn has produced a number of provocative works, including Proteus, Blind Huber, and Alice Invents a Little Game and Alice Always Wins. Barash’s music has been heard in Belgium, London, Japan, and Israel, as well as at New York’s The Stone, La MaMa Theatre, and National Sawdust. guybarash.com
Nick Flynn has published twelve books, most recently This Is the Night Our House Will Catch Fire (W. W. Norton & Co., 2020), a hybrid memoir; and Stay: threads, collaborations, and conversations (ZE Books, 2020), which documents twenty-five years of his collaborations with artists, filmmakers, and composers. He is also the author of five collections of poetry, including I Will Destroy You (Graywolf Press, 2019). He has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Library of Congress, and is on the creative writing faculty at the University of Houston. His acclaimed memoir, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City (W. W. Norton & Co., 2004), was made into a film starring Robert De Niro, and has been translated into fifteen languages. nickflynn.org
Grammy-award winning trumpeter Frank London is “the mystical high priest of New Wave Avant-Klez jazz.” (All About Jazz). London’s projects include the folk-opera A Night in the Old Marketplace, Davenen for Pilobolus and the Klezmatics, Great Small Works’ The Memoirs of Gluckel of Hameln, and Min Tanaka’s Romance. He composed music for John Sayles’ The Brother from Another Planet and Men with Guns, Yvonne Rainer’s Murder and Murder, the Czech-American Marionette Theater’s Golem and Tamar Rogoff’s Ivye Project. He has worked with John Zorn, Karen O, Itzhak Perlman, Pink Floyd, LL Cool J, Mel Tormé, Lester Bowie, LaMonte Young, They Might Be Giants, David Byrne, Jane Siberry, and Ben Folds 5; is on over 500 CDs; and was featured on Sex and The City. franklondon.com
Eyal Maoz is a composer, guitarist, and bandleader. He leads a number of original music ensembles including Edom (Middle-Eastern meets pop and Downtown music) Wild Type (Slavic music meets jazz and experimental) and Dimyon (acoustic modern Jewish). Maoz’s music oscillates between extremely delicate and highly volatile. His work evokes the extravaganza of cutting edge experimentalism and chamber music grace, integrating rock, jazz and avant-garde, tinged with electronic and radical Jewish-Middle-Eastern sound. Maoz is described by John Zorn, the influential modern composer and MacArthur genius award recipient, as “a vital member of the New York downtown scene.” “Maoz redefines what ethnocentric world fusion can be from a mean-streets New York City perspective.” (All Music Guide) eyalmaozmusic.com
Kathleen Supové is one of America’s most acclaimed and versatile contemporary music pianists, known for continually redefining what a pianist/keyboardist/performance artist is in today’s world. A striking presence onstage, she has performed with computers, boxing gloves, robots, and laptop orchestra. Ms. Supové presents solo concerts under the moniker The Exploding Piano, presenting the most compelling new music along with electronics, video, theatrical elements, visuals, speaking, and even choreography. “What Ms. Supové is really exploding is the piano recital as we have known it, a mission more radical and arguably more needed” (Anthony Tommasini, New York Times). She has received the John Cage Award from ASCAP for “the artistry and passion with which she performs, commissions, records, and champions the music of our time.” supove.com