Jazz duo Tele-Phonic has released their first album, Conversations, on the Turn Basin record label. 'Conversations' is 12 tracks of structured improvisation and spontaneous composition that spans world music influences from Latin America, Africa, Asia and America.
”It's odd. Ninety-five percent of what we do is spontaneous composition, although it seldom sounds like it,” says drummer/percussionist Dave Scoven. ”If there are any overdubs at all, it's very minor stuff. Gary [Titi, the duo's guitarist] can do amazing things with live electronics—looping and that kind of thing. It's all very subtle, but it adds depth to the compositions. So we don't really need to overdub anything. For the 'Conversations' album, a lot of the electronics ideas were influenced by Indian music. The loops give a kind of tanpura effect. It's pretty hip.”
”The drums and percussion come from all sorts of influences,” says Scoven. ”There's lots of latin-influenced percussion. There's a composition—”Serengeti Song”—that's got a really cool African influenced thing going on. Gary sampled a kalimba part and then looped it. The whole piece was improvised around the kalimba part.”
”We're just now starting to put together dates to support the record. Hopefully we'll be announcing something soon.” said Scoven. ”The record is one of the best things I've ever done. We are super jazzed about it, and we can't wait to get out there and play some live dates. We do a lot of interaction with our audiences, because everything we do live is spontaneous—we need the energy from the audience to feed the music.”
”It's odd. Ninety-five percent of what we do is spontaneous composition, although it seldom sounds like it,” says drummer/percussionist Dave Scoven. ”If there are any overdubs at all, it's very minor stuff. Gary [Titi, the duo's guitarist] can do amazing things with live electronics—looping and that kind of thing. It's all very subtle, but it adds depth to the compositions. So we don't really need to overdub anything. For the 'Conversations' album, a lot of the electronics ideas were influenced by Indian music. The loops give a kind of tanpura effect. It's pretty hip.”
”The drums and percussion come from all sorts of influences,” says Scoven. ”There's lots of latin-influenced percussion. There's a composition—”Serengeti Song”—that's got a really cool African influenced thing going on. Gary sampled a kalimba part and then looped it. The whole piece was improvised around the kalimba part.”
”We're just now starting to put together dates to support the record. Hopefully we'll be announcing something soon.” said Scoven. ”The record is one of the best things I've ever done. We are super jazzed about it, and we can't wait to get out there and play some live dates. We do a lot of interaction with our audiences, because everything we do live is spontaneous—we need the energy from the audience to feed the music.”
