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Recommended Recordings of Metal Chaos Ensemble

by Unlimited Staff April 26, 2017

Metal Chaos Ensemble is all about transformation of sonority over time; we make complex textures that evolve and morph into other complex textures. Metal instruments provide percussive timbres that blend with the sounds of the strings and horns. Gongs, singing bowls, chains, Tibetan bells and chimes, an aquasonic and a variety of other instruments to realize this goal. I basically quadrupled the number of instruments I had with the intent that 3 or 4 people could play together continuously for an hour or more with the ability to make rapid changes through the population of instruments achieving a transformation through an array of Chaotic Metal Sonorities.

The band name, Metal Chaos Ensemble, is descriptive of the intent and organization of this music. Chaos is not random. Chaotic systems, like the weather, behave dynamically according to the rule based interaction of a very large number of small components. Although the individual elements follow rules the structure of the whole and its evolution are difficult to predict. Striking a drum or a xylophone with a length of chain, or a rattle made from a bunch of small bells creates a complex sound originating from simple actions - I call this style of playing Chaotic Percussion (John Cage named this kind of attack "aggregate" and created the prepared piano to achieve it), the instruments are metal, so therefore: Metal Chaos Ensemble. The structure of the music arises from the interaction of the small components. I also use my horns, but the main rule is that roughly a third of each piece should be limited to the sonorities of Metal Percussion alone...

War Tuba

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"Multi-instrumentalist Dave Peck aka PEK hails from the Boston, MA area and hosts an extensive discography, spanning the 90s to present on his Evil Clown Records label. His Leap of Faith band is a long-running collaboration with alternating personnel. A former student of legendary saxophonist George Garzone, PEK is a man who stretches his imagination to the max via several disparate ensembles and ongoing relationships with numerous artists such as notable improvisers, saxophonist Bhob Rainey and percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani. Each album, while largely rooted in avant-garde expressionism, poses numerous propositions for the listener amid the art of anarchic sound-sculpting processes with unimagined detours and trajectories, or when his band-mates intersperse a horde of faintly melodic and fleeting mini-motifs. At times, notions of the classic British free-improvisation movement on an adrenaline-fueled discourse come to mind."(allaboutjazz)

Chrononauts

Hyperbolic Spirals

"From what I can tell, Hyperbolic Spirals is the most complete manifestation of saxophonist and orchestrator PEK's musical vision to date. Rarely does something so musically big and audacious come together in such a complete package!"(freejazzblog)

Zero-Point Energy

"Wow this album is from another planet... Chaotic Rhythms on metallic percussion with guest Jane Wang playing the amazing sound plates.... You have to hear it to believe it!!"(cdbaby)

Intermetallic Compounds

"A one-time student of the free improvisational saxophonist, George Garzone, the prolific David Peck (aka PEK) is a multi-instrumentalist/composer and the founder of Evil Clown Records. The ambitious scope of PEK's larger mission is worth noting. The Evil Clown consortium operates, in part, as a large avant-garde cooperative of artists who may show up as part of the label's various groups -String Theory, Turbulence, New Language Collaborative, Leap of Faith and here, on Intermetallic Compounds from the Metal Chaos Ensemble. What all these groups have in common is an affinity for the unique vision PEK. "(allaboutjazz)