Metal Chaos Ensemble - Inferno by PEK (CEO of Evil Clown)

Evil Clown 9283
Evil Clown Headquarters - Waltham MA
16 September 2021
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Inferno - 1:11:31
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.. PEK – clarinet & contralto clarinets, sopranino, alto & tenor saxophones, christmans flute, bass tromboon, melodica, imperium LFO synth, [d]ronin, spring boxes, chime rod boxes, electric chimes, electric kalimba, Tibetan bells, gongs, brontosaurus & tank bells, wind siren, slide whistle, orchestral castanets, electric upright bass, Narration
.. Bob Moores - space trumpet, flugelhorn, baritone electric guitar, efx, soft synthesizers on laptop, cracklebox, ampkit, mini-synth
.. Eric Woods – analog synthesis
.. Mike Gruen – purple sparkles electric bass, signal processing
.. Steve Niemitz – Chaos Kit, daiko, Englephone, brake drums, wood blocks, log drums, brontosaurus and tank bells, cow bells, gongs, plate gong, glockenspiel, almglocken, orchestral chimes
.. Joel Simches – recording engineer, real time signal processing
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Liner Notes by PEK
Metal Chaos Ensemble was formed in early 2015 by PEK and Yuri Zbitnov as a working project to explore chaotic rhythms on metallic instruments. I had started to amass the Evil Clown Arsenal of percussion, electronic and wind instruments and we needed a workshop to develop this universe of sounds for the Leap of Faith Orchestra. It was immediately obvious that Metal Chaos Ensemble had a sound to itself and over the last six years has been one of the most prolific Evil Clown ensembles. We have produced over 50 albums covering a wide range of sonority sets, but always with the presence of gongs, chimes, glockenspiel, Tibetan bowls and many other metallic sounds and the horns of PEK.
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Over time, a more-or-less fixed sextet has emerged with me on narration, horns and percussion, Mike Caglianone on saxes, Bob Moores on space trumpet, guitar and electronics, Mike Gruen on electric bass and Steve Niemitz on drums and percussion. Joel Simches rounds out the project with his live to 2-track mix and real-time signal processing. For this particular set, Mike C was not able to make it, so we did this as a quintet.
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This MCE configuration is the most rock-leaning Evil Clown ensemble with extended groove sections and prominent electronics. Steve, who has taken over the drum chair from Yuri, decided to premiere the Chaos Kit for this set. The Chaos Kit replaces the drum set with metal objects instead of skinned percussion. We did integrate my large Daiko drum into the set to serve the role of the bass drum and to give the set a bottom end.
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The source text for the narration comes from Dante’s Inferno. Wow! There is some really dark stuff in this ancient text… I’m super happy with this album and I bet you like it too…
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PEK – 9/18/2021