Holy Mother of Jesus its almost Christmas!

Here are a few new photos:

Laying down a groove with Jonas from Flower Kings.

Hans rocks out with Flower Kings.

I give Trey a beating on stage with TOOL.

And here is a little something that put a big smile on my face:

www.youtube.com/watch

New Tuner CD "POLE" is out ... and it is very good!

Also on new releases by Abra Moore's "On the way" and David Grissom's "Loud Music", both a little different for me. . 'brush work and Americana'.

Preparing for KTU gigs in Europe next week, KTU will continue to break in new material in preparation for recording this fall.

Last weekend I did a show with the CGT at the Quebec Summer Fest and that was a lot of fun. a few pictures here:

picasaweb.google.ca/pichugues/CGTQUEBEC070807

Congratulations to Markus and Renee , may they live happily ever after.

Wrapping up tracks for P.J. Olsson.

P.J. has an interesting record deal, he is one of the new artist signed by CBS. They will place these new artists songs on CBS TV shows and as digital downloads and if any thing takes off they might press CDs.

Did a couple TU shows with TOOL last week, you can see pics and read about it here:

blog.myspace.com/index.cfm

and here

blog.myspace.com/index.cfm

New TUNER CD 'POLE' coming June 4th.

In the meantime the third week of '11-11', with drums added by Ingo Vogelmann is now available at the 'Eleven Versions of 11-11' page at Krimson News!

TUNER will be playing live in Portugal at the Gouveia Art Rock festival, besides some duo tunes Tuner will appear with the California Guitar Trio, Metamorfosi Duo and Isildurs Bane.

www.gaudela.net/gar/schedule.html

A few nights ago I helped celebrate Malford Milligan's birthday party at the Saxon Pub by backing up Malford with Eric Johnson, David Grissom, Phil Brown, Tommy Shannon and many more.

KTU gigs in North America went well and we have been invited back (in 2008). Recording new KTU tracks has begun.

Jakko,

For a week i have been saying fuck fuck fuck.

thanks for helping me break my stammmmer. . . fuck fuck fuck bollocks.

Back from KTU warm up gigs in Finland. . .warm? . . WTF!?! it was 20 below. check the KTU myspace page for new photos. . .some taken outside by the sea bbbbrrrrrrr. We also did a few days song writing and added 5 new 'works in progress' to the shows in Finland. Some reviews are also posted at myspace, one of my favorites i had translated called us " the most psychodelic trio since L.S.D.. . .conjured up in a dream by a Siberian Witch on mushrooms ".

KTU, as a trio, will hit North America for a few shows in March. The first 3 shows will be part of a four Finlandish band Musex package that KTU will headline.

www.musex.fi/tour2007

Beware we have decided to go on first to ease the logistics and all bands will only do 30 min sets. . .so don't be late. . or if you want to see a longer show come to Chicago or Mexico . . . Europe. . or invite us back.

Mar 7 Knitting Factory Los Angeles, California

Mar 9 Canadian Music Week Toronto, Ontario

Mar 12 Knitting Factory New York, New York

Mar TBA SXSW Austin, Texas

Mar 20 Drum Pad Presents @ Durty Nellie’s Chicago (Palatine), Illinois

Mar 22 Festival de México en el Centro Histórico Mexico City

Mar 23 Teatro de la Ciudad Mexico City

KTU Live Photos by Photo by Kalle Björklid / Huumakuva.net"

But first- about to start recording for a band called Mecca that will also have Joe Vana, Tommy Denander, Shannon Forrest, Steve Lukather, Steve Porcoro, Bobby Kimball, David Hungate and Tony levin on tracks (was T Lev in Toto too?).

Back from Cock Robin gigs and TUNER mixing.

Some Cock Robin soundcheck photos:

cock-robin.awcreation.com/medias/photos/chalons.php

Later this week please check our TUNER myspace to read a little behind the scenes mixing blog.

This week cutting a track for one of Austin most outstanding and beloved guitarists, David Grissom.

Pamelia Kurstin was in town for SXSW and once again I snatched her from the Barbez bus for another all-nighter recording more for our Tunisia project. In another strange case of synchronicity "A Night In Tunisia" was playing at the club we were at so we recorded a version of that: SXSW Night in Tunisia. Drums by Art Blakey RIP.

For more info on the amazing Pamelia check her new myspace page here:

www.myspace.com/pameliakurstin

Leaving for KTU gigs:

March 23, 2006

Planet Music, Vienna, Austria

Mar 24 2006

DOM, Ljubljana, Slovenia

More upcoming gigs:

TUNER with special guest SiRenée

Apr 6 2006

Platforma Club, St. Petersburg, Russia

Apr 7 2006

Golden Mask Festival, Moscow, Russia

And then Zeegrass gigs:

April 9 2006

Club Ogi, Moscow Russia

April 10

Club Ikra, Moscow Russia

April 12, 2006

Masterclass at LearnMusic in Moscow

(www.learnmusic.ru)

April 14 & 15th 2006

Mamakabo Festival, Vologda, Russia

and filling in April 11 & 12th with Goeffrey Oryema in Moscow.

More work with "The Trail of the Dead" , another epic tune from Conrad and the gang. For this tune Producer Mike McCarthy, assisted by Munyon, had me on another strange bastard kit... Not unlike the kit I was just recording with at home for ZeeGrass... except ZeeGrass is gentle rockabilly brushing while Trail is slamming like Questlove meets Bonham.

It also seems like all roads lead to Russia these days. Trail is heading there in couple weeks, followed by Zee, followed by Tuner (with special guest SiRenée). I'll certainly be doing the Tuner dates and possibly some ZeeGrass dates but can only lend moral support for the Trailers.

Check out my new myspace page for tour dates and other nuggets.

Unrehearsed live radio show on KUT at noon on Weds Feb 22 with Zeerok, the wierd and wonderful Russian Altprogrockabillie singer songwriter.

In the studio today putting drums on a track for the mesmerizing Azam Ali .

And we now have a video clip at KTU myspace site . . .more to follow.

NEW Download:

As a preview, there is an edited excerpt of a new TUNER album track called "hole in the floor".

Will be posting some TUNER out-takes here:

www.myspace.com/tunertunes

More soon!

Been whizzing along pretty fast here in the new year.

Back tracking, after coming home from recording with (every drummers dream) Tony Levin I had the privilege of being joined in my home studio by the worlds most phenonmenal rollerskating brid-punching thereminist Pamelia Kurstin . Last year I met Pamelia in NYC while touring with the CGT and then months later I grabbed Pamilia off an Austin bandstand, when she came through town touring with Barbez, and we started my newest duo (tuo?), Tunisia. Yes I literally took her from the stage to my home after her gig and we recorded from about 3am till about 10 am when i returned her to the Barbez bus for there departure to the next gig, after that she moved to Europe and has recently come back to America for a few weeks. If you have not heard Barbez I can highly recommend them. Pamilia's 'sleep over session' was a good start but this past week we had 5 days together and got 6 more songs flushed out... We hope the Tunisia CD will be done by summer.

Here is a taste of our first collaboration, our untitled late night after show ditty.

A few days after Pamelia left Markus arrived for the second round of work for the next Tuner CD. Besides arriving with a suitcase (if you have been reading my site you might remember the Airlines have lost his luggage on every trip) Markus brought back incredible vocals he cut in Austria with Sirenee - its such a pleasure to edit, arrange and compose around her voice.

This Saturday Markus and I will join Laura Scarborough for a gentle gig at Café Mundi in Austin and then next weds Markus and I will do a master class at Austin Community College (don't tell the students but I’m a little nervous about doing music in an academic setting).

Also with help from Markus I launched a KTU myspace page where we hope to soon begin posting KTU videos. Check KTU here:

www.myspace.com/ktuband

Just a quick note to let you know that there's a free download of an audience recording of an improvised Reuter/Kuljuntausta/Mastelotto show (Helsinki, Finland, April 2004) available at www.projekction.net

This collaboration eventually led to the TUNER project that Markus and I launched in March 2005.

I spent last week-end at Saint-Claire Recorders, a stunning studio in Kentucky recording Ronan Chris Murphy record with Tony Levin and Mike Keneally.

Happy Newest Year!

Good news/bad news

Our new TUNER morsel  (that we have since titled 'White Cake Sky") had well over 500 downloads in 10 days.

Bad news: We have taken the download down.

Good news: We have launched a TUNER site at Myspace.com and reposted the mp3, and others (incl. a free download of the full 'flinch' track from our debut album TOTEM). Go to http://www.myspace.com/tunertunes. Login and become a friend. We'll make exclusive previews and out-takes of TUNER music available there regularly.

U.T., in Austin, won the big football game. Our humble town has gone nutty (not sure if thats good or bad news).

RCM IN KY

No, no, no the state not the gel. Later this week I go to what looks like the most amazing studio (http://www.saint-claire.com/)  to record a Ronan Chris Murphy solo record.  The tracking band will be RCM, me, Tony Levin and Mike Keneally and as if that's not enough the RCM band has one more member who will be absent from tracking but overdub his parts the following week... drum roll... double drum roll... Terry Bozzio! RCM has a rather unusual request in that I play drums and Terry plays cymbals.

Other hot new news

KTU has been invited to the Victoriaville festival near Montreal this coming May and are booking a few more select dates in North America to coincide with that brief window when all our schedules coincide.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

As a X-mas special I have put up a new TUNER tune (in progress) for download. Click here to go to the free downloads section.

This untitled piece was the first track Markus and I came up with in early December. Enjoy! The download will be available for about a week.

(THIS DOWNLOAD REMOVED ON JANUARY 4th 2006.)

Happy Holidays!

Been much too busy to type so a little catch up is in order.

For starters check this link: Story of KTU gig

I became aware of this blog a few days ago. It is an online diary (with pics) from BIG, one of the stage hands in Moscow telling his story of the KTU gig. The Russian to English translation is a hoot . One pal commented it sounds like I was making a porn movie as he read about my 'hot rod shooting fire'.

Going backwards:

Nov 29 Markus arrived (but his luggage did not) and we quickly began recording the following day. First we converted my newly acquired Baby Grand Piano (it is so wonderful to have a piano in the house, thank you Ed and Ilane) into a prepared Piano with small cyms and gongs, clips and papers, etc. and attacked it with mallets, brushes, sticks, kitchen cutlery and even some small old european irons. We recorded aprox 1 hr of this mayham and also some improvised duets (I play low end ostinatos that Markus adds chordal accompaniment to). Then we chopped these performances into a folder of raw footage to extract samples from. I'll get more info and pics about the recording of this new TUNER music soon as we announce the new TUNER page on MySpace.com (mmm should that be our space?).

The next day Dec 1st we did the first Black Tent gig at Pink. Despite the sound man (me) forgetting the mixing desk, the gig went fantastic. The audience grew larger every show and the musicians came and went... and played freely. I have a recording but have yet to have a moment to stop and review it. Some highlights (from comments I overheard): Surround sound with Markus in the back stereo and me in the front, Gumby with strapped on battery powered pignose amp walking through the audience playing electric guitar, melodica duos in the back of the room, Monkey saxing around in the dark, Roberto playing violin from the four corners, Laura's abstract vibraphone and Gamelan playing. Me dropping a pile of cyms at someone's feet and scare the poop out of them... My throwing a doggie squeeze toy across the room as the squeal exhaled, and . . .a Santa's drum circle that appeared.

The next day Markus and I resumed recording. The usual modus operandi (M.O.) was extracting prepared piano chunks, and building a bed - for instance on song#1: 3 bars of 7/4 and a bar of 6/4 that go together well and looping that 27 beat pattern 4 times as a 'verse' and then jumping to a loop of 3 x 4/4 and a 5/4 tag. Then jamming over this until we had a few motifs that more clearly defined the piece, blocking out chords with mellotrons or vintage rhodes sounds, then live drums, warr guitars - somewhere along the way the form would start to organicaly evolve and we would continue cutting until our arrangement felt satsifying.Our general hrs of operation were noon till 3 am but somedays we started even earlier - we both got rather exhausted but the music was too inticing to stop. By song 4 we were ready for a change in M.O. so we resorted to the several acoustic guitars I acquired for Markus to employ (again thank you to Ed Reynolds for the classical and 6 string, and Gina for the 12 string) while i played cajon or log drums. After a few days of that I woke Markus to the sound of drummer drumming, throwing down some beat ideas I have harboured for a few years and applying them to plug-ins like Reso and Bruno (sort of like vocoders that allow the drums to act a trigger source while the notes and chords are input to the Reso). Markus had no shortage of chord progressions as he continues to use a serial type algorithm to generate starting harmonic structures...

Markus was planning to leave Sunday the 11th, but rebooked for the 14th to give us more time - a few hrs after i dropped him at the airport a text arrived 'can you come pick me up?' - yep he was stranded at the Austin airport for 4 hrs because of bad weather in Chicago. Rebooked for Friday 16, yesterday, the flights once again ran later and later. He was eventualy able to finally leave yesterday but got stuck in DC for 5 hrs and then in Frankfurt for 9 hrs more, arriving home several hours later (once again without his luggage). The upside to his staying was we got to continue doing more TUNER tracking -we have 8 pieces about 80% done, and several more slabs in progress- and also that Markus could work with me on a few tracks for Laura Scarborough and then Heather Sullivan. Heather is a singer/songwriter that I had booked to arrive for collaboration on Tuesday after Markus was originally planning to depart. The end result was fantastic as it allowed Markus and I to wear our 'Kruder and Dorfmeister hats' and prepare funky Europe jazz chill room elevator music for Heather. We had been censoring any programmed or beat box use for the new TUNER recording but all those rules went out the window for Heather's tracks - we even faded one song! That's right! Have you ever noticed that basic rule of projects that involve 'Pat Productions'? NO FADES

My thinking is if you have to fade it means you couldn't think of an ending, but if you played live you would have to find an ending, so might as well find it sooner than later.

The TUNER interview courtesy of www.projekction.com is now online on my site. Check it out!

11/26/05 Update:

Organizing my first 'Black Tent' gig - Dec 1st at PINK in Austin,TX.

What is a 'Black Tent" gig ?= sonic improvisations in the dark.

11/28/05 Update:

more info on the Black Tent:

seat the audience, lock the door, turn off the lights (black)- music and sounds pop up . . .anything goes but i would prefer it sparse and low volume.

conceived in surround but we won't have a sound man (munyons doing Leno with smash mouth)- but we can utilize instruments that can walk. . .like sax, trumpet, tenor guit.

planned players include:

laura scarborough bringing vibes.

bruce salmon will slip in with a melodica.

gumby is bringing cello, bass & toys, and munky will have her bass clarinet and other reeds.

ephrim and a few other horn players might make it, tosca girls, t.o.d. boys, and zee have been invited.

my german pal markus will be there with warr guitar & laptop.

i will brings some drums (there are a few other drummer coming)- will put my electric's under a blanket to black the screens out.

Beer courtesy of PINK and Red Stripe.

8, 9 and 10 pm shows.

hoot honk squawk for 20 min and BAM the lights come back on.

Pink Hair Salon and Gallery, Austin

1204 So. Congress Avenue, SoCo , (512) 447-2888

=====

Reviews of the recent KTU Russian show are here:

www.zvuki.ru/A/P/52378

www.kommersant.ru/doc.html

www.vedomosti.ru/newspaper/article.shtml

www.stengazeta.net/article.html

musicjournal.ru

rock.samaratoday.ru/news/2005/11_november/00-41.asp

www.musicstudio.ru

In Gutersloh Germany preparing to work with Centrozoon.

10/17/05 update: Posted more pic's (many from Jukka).

Want to mention on tour I caught shows I highly recommend: Jarmo Sarri Soulu, Brotzmann/Pliakas/Wertmuller, Solveig Slettahjell and Slow Motion Quintet, Akram Kahn & Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui "Zero Degrees" and their magical band.

Some quotes from an Interview with Jay Terrien: (You can find the full interview here: bassplayers.co.za/interviewjay-t2.html)

"My favorite moment comes at about 2:25m where you can hear Pat whirling and whipping around some percussion device of death, which he obviously purchased in Amsterdam."

"WEDREN: This song gave Ronan and me nightmares. We would start working on this tune in the late afternoon and even with a large iced coffee in us, the change of tonality, texture, and mood of this piece just put us to sleep. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out why this piece drove us nuts, which of course, turned out to be all Pat's fault. He created some eerie Taos drum loops that operated on such a low-bass level drone that the tune just sapped our energies!"

"R.C.M rules!"

"But here's the thing, I am a HUGE X.T.C. fan, and remembering that Pat Mastelotto tore it up on "Oranges And Lemons" and also that he is one of Ronan's favorite go-to guys, I simply trusted Ronan's decision that Pat was THE GUY. Ronan said it best over dinner one night: "King Crimson and X.T.C. are a hard combination to beat!"

There is an exclusive TUNER interview plus free alternative mix download of "up, down, forward, and return" available at www.projekction.net.

I dunno for sure, but I guess you'll have to sign up to read the interview and download the file.

The TUNER totem disc is going to be officially out on November 14th (street date in Germany), but some places have it in stock already. Here are some direct links where you can buy the album:

UK www.burningshed.com/index.asp

USA www.nexternal.com/dgm/

Germany www.fenn-music.de/shop/00_detail.php

Please send your feedback, reviews & questions to us at info(at)unsung-records.com!

I don't think I have ever done so many overdubs on one tune. The Trail Of Dead tune was built around polynesian drumming... To simulate the ensemble feel I layered many tracks of logs. We started with the small one... Click on the pic to the right to go to the picture gallery.

Just back from 45 hour improv in Padova, Italy. See gallery. Ronan Chris Murphy has also posted some impressions on his site: www.venetowest.com/italypostcard/

Doing some drumming and programming this week for the punk art band "And They Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead".

KTU dates in a few weeks (click here for a poster download):

Nov 3: Moscow, Russia - B2

Nov 5: Tampere, Finland - Tampere Jazz Happening

Nov 7: Tallinn, Estonia - Rock Cafe

Then recording in Hanover, Germany, with CENTROZOON for 3 days.

Tuner mate Markus plays the Warsaw Electronic Festival in Poland:

Nov 5: Markus Reuter, Workshop & Solo Concert

Warsaw Electronic Festival

National Gallery Zachęta

BTW, the KTU record, "8 armed monkey", is officially out in North America :

Here are some early reviews:

All Music Guide - "Gunn and Mastelotto are practically an 8 armed monkey themselves, with Gunn's amazing technique on the Warr touch guitar and Mastelotto's combination of drums and triggered sound."

AAJ.Com - "8 Armed Monkey is an absorbing and unique collaboration of talents."

Jazzreviews.com - "It fuses volumes of complexity, and succinctly expressed concerns that are endemic to all humanity. it is music like this that is needed in the world."

Blogcritics.Org - "Music that manages to be both soothing and sinister."

Godsend Online - "Superb and visionary sounds for the adventurous. Bravo!"

LMNOP.Com - "Unpredictable and intriguing experimental tracks here."

All About Jazz - "Creating a truly unique sound-one that people of more exploratory tastes should definitely seek out."

Dream Magazine - "Shimmering textures, stuttering samples, psychotic cartoon music in at least four dimensions"

Projekction.net - "Superb. Simply put, this is the finest extra-crimsoid alumni CD yet."

Just celebrated a wonderful birthday, for those of you that sent cards and emails: Thank you. Here are some pixels from the party my friends brought to me. Check out my circuit bent Furbie gift!

Markus and I will be participating in 'B-side' a wild 45 improvisational session in Padua near Venice, Italy. Another World Record, One of a Kind, Only one in the World, 45 hour long non-stop musical improvisational jam and art event in Italy.

October 9th, 10th, & 11th 2005:

www.factory04.com/factory04/modules.php

Esession, the place to hire players for online sessions, launches at AES in NYC in a few weeks, but you can have a sneak preview here:

www.esession.com/site/

Some nice pre-reviews of the duo CD with Jay Terrien CD:

grasstain.com/jayterriennewrecord_index.htm

TUnER Totem CDs available to order at

Burning Shed (UK)

www.burningshed.com/index.asp

DGM (USA)

www.nexternal.com/dgm/

www.projekction.net is running a competition where you can win a copy of the album.

Other news:

A photo gallery and reviews from KTU in Sines, Portugal.

A video snippet from the TUNER album.

TUnER have re-engaged.

CDs available at shows and soon at DGM (USA) and Burning Shed (UK).

Live Pics.

also:

XCarnation pre orders available muse-wrapped.com

TUNER - TOTEM is almost there. We delivered the master CD and the artwork to the pressing plant.

Here are the track list and some details from the liner notes:

01 flinch 3:31

02 up, down, forward and return 5:53

03 mouth piece 4:19

04 totem 6:11

05 a test of faith 4:47

06 the morning tide washes away 7:15

07 hands 7:10

08 better take your head off 3:17

09 kiss the earth 8:42

10 dexter ward 6:43

pat mastelotto

drums & percussion, samples, programming

markus reuter

organ, touch guitar, synthesizer, voice, programming

vocals on (06) by sirenée

music written and arranged by reuter/mastelotto except

(06) by reuter/mastelotto/stieger

words by reuter, except (06) by filatova

mixed by bill munyon & pat mastelotto, except

(02) by modo bierkamp

Download an excerpt of the opening track 'flinch' in the downloads section. More samples of other tracks coming at the end of July.

See you on tour with TUNER and KTU in Europe!

I am currently on tour with CGT+2. We had an enjoyable time in Mexico last week. Click on the photo to the right for a picture gallery.

Please go here for CGT, KTU and TUNER tourdates. We just added a TUNER show in Cologne, Germany on July 26th.

Speaking of TUNER, Bill Munyon and I completed the mixes for the album (it's going to be called "TOTEM") recently. Mastering is set to be done in Germany in late June. The official release is on October 3rd 2005, but Markus and I will have pre-release copies with us on tour. Stay tuned for more details.

I just returned from recording in LA with composer Jay Terrien for his debut solo cd with Ronan Chris Murphy producing. This will be another 'duet' CD featuring only Jay's layered bass melodies and my acoustic and electronic drumming.. Click on the image to the right for a small picture gallery.

Here are even more live dates:

The California Guitar Trio with Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto

Thursday

June 9th. 20.00 hrs.

Place: Centro Cultural Ollin Yolistli

Periférico Sur No. 5141

Col. Isidro Fabela

México, D.F.

Information 044 55 1951-7133

5606-8191 y 5606-8308

Tickets available at ticketmaster

Check this link:

www.ticketmaster.com.mx/buscar.asp

Sunday

06/12/2005

Little Brother

1100 N. High St

Columbus, OH

614-4212032

Tuesday

06/14/2005

Beachland Ballroom

15711 Waterloo road

Cleveland, OH

800-594-8499

Wednesday

06/15/2005

Music Mill

3720 East 82nd St.

Indianapolis, IN

371-841-1850

Thursday

06/16/2005

Headliners Music Hall

1386 Lexington Rd.

Louisvil