Home!
Kind of strange to be home for more than a week. The KTU gigs in Spain and Portugal were fantastic and I really enjoyed taking a few extra days to soak in both cultures, met some wonderful students and saw lots of great art and music, even met one of my favorite bands "The Bad Plus" and then spent an hour standing with David King and Tony Alan watching Trilok Gurtu.
Leaving for France next week to do more Cock Robin gigs (festivals) and then to Germany to meet Markus and Fabio Trentini and begin mixing the next Tuner record.
Last week I went to Portland and at the airport ran into The Tubes with ex Cock Robin drummer Lou Molino chasing his lost luggage (small world!).
While home I have been preparing Tuner vocal tracks and got even more vocal contributions from Peter Kingsbery when he dropped into Texas last week. Sadly i also found a hard drive has died. . .big drag since it contains lots of valuable data including the Crimson 04 rehearsals that BPMM had been tweaking (tomorrow I meet a friend who might be able to revive the drive).
Trey Gunn and I play on the new release from Azam Ali, check it out- she is fantastic.
In October i will spend a week in Sweden working with Markus Reuter and Isildurs Bane .
Aug 25 2006
Belgium Festival Hannut, Belgium
Aug 29 2006
Chalon en Champagne Paris, France
Oct 16-21 2006
IB expo -Kulturhuet Halmstad, Sweden
**Last spring after the KTU show in Denmark a genuinely excited David Fricke (legendary Rolling stone writer) came to met the band. I read now that he has posted:
David Fricke's column "Fricke's Picks" in the current issue of Rolling Stone:
KTU (pronounced "K2") are a quartet of devilishly intergrated halves: avant-accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen and digital manipulator Samuli Kosminen from Finland, and drummer Pat Mastelotto and guitarist Trey Gunn from King Crimson. Their debut, Eight Armed Monkey (Thirsty Ear), recorded live in 2004, is a robust tumult of Northern Lights sparkle, white-wolf guitar wail and rolling, knotted thunder. Pohjonen is a wonder unto himself: animating his wind song with pedals and processing; attacking the bellows with the ecstatic fury of Jimi Hendrix. When I saw KTU play in Europe recently, they were as powerful and transgressive as the current killer Crimson (without, of course, Robert Fripp). But I was stunned to discover, after the show, that KTU have yet to get an American gig because, Gunn said, "Promoters are afraid of the word 'accordion.' " People, look at it this way: Pohjonen plays the ultimate in air guitar. Now hit the phone.