Last November was the month of collaborations!  We did our first Gaslight Sessions with Lydia Caesar as well as a session inside of Nelly’s Ex’Treme Institute, and participated in St. Louis Ensemble with 17 other local musicians for John Weise’s Collaboration presented by New Music Circle.

Lydia Caesar is an ASCAP award winning artist who’s had her voice featured in commercials for international brands such as Vicks, Reese’s Pieces and BET Music Matters.  After releasing her “Queen of Hearts” record in May of 2018, she do a live recording of her songs with a stripped down feel to showcase her vocal talents.  Below is video of the Gaslight Sessions with us on guitar.

John Wiese is an artist and composer living in Los Angeles, California. He is a native of St. Louis, where as a young teenager he began experiments with home-recording on a cassette 4-track. He has since solidified his name as a tremendously prolific performer and recording artist, with expertise in composition, texture, and sonic experimentation. Wiese says he doesn’t really think of himself as a musician in the traditional sense, and instead of writing purely notated music he works with manipulating, cutting and arranging sounds electronically. The end product is more like a meticulous collage, built upon dense, nuanced sounds ranging from the minimal to the frenetic.

With a lengthy résumé of solo releases, Wiese’s projects as a collaborator have increased over the last decade to produce works with the likes of veteran jazz-improviser, Evan Parker, rock bands like No Age and Wolf Eyes, and metal groups such as Sunn O))). Recently, he has lead collaborative projects for large groups, developing a method of “text-based scores”. For his St. Louis performance he will debut a site-specific composition that includes over 20 local musicians, utilizing both traditional and non-traditional instrumentation.

Below is a video recorded and produced by Foveal Media, where you can see us contribute our vocals to the ensemble.

St. Louis Enemble
Darin Gray – upright bass
Danielle Taylor Williams – harp
Julio Prato – electronics
Coby Pear – modular synthesizer
Drew Gowran – percussion
Michael Williams – tapes / electronics
Chris Trull – Guitar
Fred Tompkins – flute
Sarah Vie – violin
Alex Cunningham – violin
JJ Hamon – pedal steel guitar / trombone
Necia Baxter – turntables
Dave Stone – Saxophone
Syrhea Conaway – vocals / electronics
Josh Kahl – Modular synthesizer
Alberto Patino – drums
Louis Wall – cymbals