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songwriting workshop… inspiration!

I just came back from a week long songwriting workshop in Big Sur.  It really was life changing.  I won’t go into many details here, but suffice it to say it has really jumpstarted my creativity in a MAJOR way.  I don’t know exactly what it means for what my next project will be, but there are definitely things coming.  I also met someone at the workshop who might be a great collaborator.

So… yes, life changing.  Re-entry is proving to be difficult so far.  Emotionally difficult.  Life is good!

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Update… watersaw.

I JUST finished mastering the watersaw cd “Underwater” and uploaded it to the duplicator.  So all of you good people who put in and advance order for the CD should start receiving them in a couple of weeks.  It sounds really GREAT!  We are all very proud of this.  It was a great pleasure working with Lizz Roman and her dancers, it really was a good artistic exploration for us and it worked out very well.  I’ll let you know where we will have CDs available for purchase as soon as they are ready.  Thanks for stopping by.

Next up for me?  I’ve been mulling over a covers project… I have a bunch of songs I’ve always wanted to cover, so we’ll see how that goes.  I’m about 6 songs into a new more mainstream rock CD too, not sure if I’ll keep working on that or whether I’ll dive into covers.

There are also other dance groups we’ve heard from who are very interested in working with watersaw… so we may have our next project before we know it.  As always… check back for more info.

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Dance… another adventure

We have another dance performance that will happen across three weekends (Fri/Sat/Sun from 6/15/12-7/1).  This time it’s with Lizz Roman and Dancers.  As with last year with Ahdanco, we composed all the music together as a group and created some great pieces I’m very excited about.

You can find out more and buy tickets here.

The dancing… it’s not like anything I’ve seen before.  The venue is a normal venue with tiered seating, but Lizz removes all the chairs from risers and instead moves some of them to the main floor… and the dancer’s pretty much take over the entire space.  Lizz will pull the audience into different areas of the venue to experience different elements.  It’s a very active event, you’re definitely not sitting still.

A few things have changed with the band.  First, the name change.  We were entamoeba.  Now we are called watersaw.  We have also added a drummer/percussionist.  I’m very glad to be playing again with Michael Tonatore.  Michael was in earlier version of entamoeba, and he also has performed with liquid state.

Here’s our latest promo photo:

Let me know if you want more info on this performance… I’m REALLY looking forward to it, the music and dance together will be quite good!

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the summer lull…

It seems every summer I get busy with life and don’t do as much music… and this summer is no exception.  I just got back from a trip touring the pacific northwest… seattle, vancouver, victoria, and the washington state coast.  It was a great time, quite a beautiful set of places and I had some excellent experiences.  I want to spend more time on the washington coast, as it was quite beautiful.

Not much going on with music, though I know entamoeba has some possible dance work coming up which I’m VERY MUCH looking forward to.

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Shows over…

Ahdanco is over… just a quick note to thank you for coming out.  It was a very rewarding musical performance.  I’m not sure what I expected, but it was fabulous working with three great dancers and a great choreographer.  What’s next for entamoeba?  Hopefully more composition for dance companies!

Also, earlier today, I made the final edits to the RPM 2011 project with Scott Caplener.  I still need to do the final mixes as there are just a few minor tweaks that need to be done, but watch this space for that release, probably in the next couple of weeks.

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Last chance tonight for ahdanco performance

We had a great show last night with ahdanco… I think we were really on. We seemed to really be in sync with the dancers, the pieces just seemed to flow well and we seemed to hit all the marks. It’s really cool how things have come together with the piece (called “kairos”).

If you did not make it out Friday or last night, this is your last chance…. The show closes tonight. See my previous posts for information on the show and where to get tickets, etc.

It has been super cool to work with a dance company and collaborate on a piece, as well as perform it live. I hope entamoeba has many more opportunities to do this… It is working even better than I expected.

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ahdanco dance performance with entamoeba

Hello everyone… want to let you know about some shows I’m playing this coming weekend.

Who: entamoeba’s original music performed live, to accompany dance performance from ahdanco

When: this weekend, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights (May 6-8 2011)

Where: The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby, Berkeley, CA
Over the past several months my band entamoeba has been working with a dance company called ahdanco on the music for an upcoming modern dance performance.  We created about 24 minutes of music, much of it beginning as improvisation in rehearsals in collaboration with the dancers and choreographer abigail hosein.  The result is a piece we are calling Kairos.
The event will also feature spoken word performances to accompany modern dance choreographed by abigail hosein.  More information below.

entamoeba is:
mark fassett: upright electric bass, guitar, and loop pedal
nicole katler:  vocals, guitar, loop pedal
chris evans:  cello, loop pedal
More info:
Tickets:
Thanks for reading…

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RPM 2011

RPM challenge begins… Today! Looking forward to creating some new stuff this month, in collaboration with friend Scott Caplener. I have absolutely no clue what it will end up sounding like..

I will post update here on progress and maybe link to some works in progress.