Open Circle Party

"...its 'Open Circle Party' because a party is a celebratory gathering as well as a social or political force... and its a circle - well, anything is really - but its an 'open circle' in the sense that both the music and the band are open-ended and participation, improvisation and chance are encouraged and invited... this present album is a studio project by the two of us, but we are organising performances for which the band will expand to six or seven members and hopefully some form of that expanded line-up will feature on the next album so, yeah, its really an ongoing 'open circle party'..." "...the album has two extended tracks that are like two sides on an old vinyl album... its not too long an album by current CD standards, but its about the same length as the 'Love Supreme' album by John Coltrane or Santana's 'Abraxas' or an old Nick Drake or Beatles album or whatever... and we like 'side-long' tracks that get into a mood or a groove and stay there for a good while, like Fela or Ali Akbar Khan or electric Miles Davis, music that changes constantly with subtle variations and which feels like it can go off in any direction at any given moment, like life, like sex..." "...each of the two pieces on the album is based on a live, solo performance which was then developed and manipulated in various ways... the basis for the first part is an electric guitar feedback improvisation in an altered tuning, and the second is based on a rhythm performed on Indian tabla drums... each initial performance, the guitar feedback and the tabla groove, went on for about 17 minutes and was recorded in one take, and the album grew organically from that simple foundation... by overdubbing we played along with the basic tracks with no preconception or plans, and when we agreed that something sounded interesting we worked with it... the process was completely free and improvisational and for that reason exciting and engaging for us as the composer/performers because we never knew how it would turn out..." - from an interview with Chris Basile in Melbourne.