“Malibu Fire Sessions” by Suburbanoid CD Release party/performance

Suburbanoid Releases Malibu Fire Sessions
The Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts is pleased to announce the release of Malibu Fire Sessions, a new album by Suburbanoid, and the first worldwide release for the Center’s Beato Records label.
When composer Suburbanoid , along with his family, were faced with a mandatory evacuation from where they were living and working in Malibu during the 2018 Woolsey Fire, Kevin Wallace, director of the Center, offered to house them at the Center, which led to an impromptu residency. The opportunity to utilize the piano at the Center – a German Steinway custom-made for famed classical pianist Lili Kraus – as well as Wallace’s
Korg Synthesizer, led to numerous new compositions.
“I went into the sessions with a few notes and melodies in my head,” Jim of Suburbanoid says of the sessions. “It was an experiment in spontaneous composing.The piano tracks on the album are all improvisational single takes, and all of the additional tracks were done improvisational to keep the entire composition as spontaneous as possible. It was after my time working… with Composer Hans-Joachim Roedelius at the art center that I was inspired to create new music with the piano and a Ebow guitar. His intimate and gentle approach to the piano was very inspiring. I was given that chance to experiment that idea when the art center gave us a residency. The outcome of this is the “Malibu Fire Sessions”.
These initial sessions led to a second series of sessions, with Brian Ziegler in charge of recording. On the opening track, Inner Light, Ziegler experimented with the microphone placement, with the microphone inside the grand piano. The resulting stereo effect gives the listener the sense of being in the piano.
The recordings were then augmented with other instruments – electric guitar utilizing an EBow, a device that vibrates the guitar strings to create sonic effects such as infinite sustain and bowing sounds, as well as synthesizers and nature samples recorded at the Center. There are two extra mixes on the CD that have a feel and mood of their own, as I had the honor of having Bill Williams add Trumpet to a few tracks, which was a further experiment in improvisation.
There will be a live performance and release party at the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts on Saturday, October 5 th at 7 pm…  Suburbanoid will be performing selections from the new CD and some impromptu improvisational music. Ticket are $15 and available at the door and presale are also available online at www.BeatriceWoodCenter.com.