Alright everyone?
Just a little blog entry here giving the low daaarn on the new Liatris Trio EP, a Jazz/Fusion group hailing from Colchester, going by the working title of "...A Making In The History" (by that I mean, the first thing I came up with while doing this actual blog you are now reading with your face)...
So, who's in the band now then?
On bass (mainly an electric upright) we have Phil Mill, on electronic percussion pads, cymbals and other metals and percussives is Annie Lipyeat, and myself on guitar (exclusively a Fender Stratocaster) and some keyboards here and there (controlled with a sustain pedal so I can leave notes hanging leaving my hands free to play guiatr) for atmospheric string drones and booming Moog Taurus bass pedal sounds.
So, what songs will be on it?
Well, there will be our version of the Billy Cobham fusion standard, "Red Baron" which we've added a few little twists to and slightly re-arranged.
The first song me & Phil wrote together which is a pleasant little ditty called "Gene Pool", our own greatly re-arranged version of 'Watermelon Man' by Herbie Hancock, which I then spliced in a snatch of "Moanin'" by Art Blakey, which we then developed, Phil added a walking bassline section to the middle and a free jazz ending, and eventually ended up calling the piece "Moanin' Melon".
Also on the EP will be a toe-tappin' number called "The Menage a Trois Waltz" which is stylistically quite similar to some of the heavier be-bop stuff, an evil sounding medley of ideas called "Brand E/Transition/Brandy" & our latest composition, a harmonic-based idea called "Mind Is Lost: Part II".
So, how and where will this EP be recorded?
We are recording it in Phil's garage on my Tascam digital 8-track recorder. We will be structuring the songs this time around to give the record a more honed feel, leaving the improvisational, sometimes wayward nature of the material for live performances, in which it works better. Of course, all the solos and things like that will still be improvised, we tried notating Phil's free jazz solo in "Moanin' Melon" with little success (*attempt at humour alert*).
There will be some use of effects (Boss, MXR, Korg etc.), but only to colour the sounds rather than pieces being based solely on the use of pedals. A bit of compression here, some chorus there, a dash of reverb, and then spending the rest of day mucking about with Annie's bag of percussives.
So, when can we expect to see and hear this release then?
At a school-educated guess, I think it'll probably take about a month to record all the tracks, mix and master. Annie's designing some cover art, I'm doing some photography for the inner sleeve and all three of us will be designing the layout, liner notes etc.
If all goes to plan, hopefully we will press the record on vinyl as well.
So there you have it, everything (and a lot more) you wanted to know about the upcoming Liatris Trio release...just don't mention drummers.
JoeEP.
Find Liatris Trio on Facebook, where there will be info on gig dates, events, videos, photography and the elusive live recordings.
