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8
Album Review

Leap of Faith Orchestra: The Photon Epoch

Read "The Photon Epoch" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


Composer, multi-instrumentalist, bandleader and label founder, PEK is an audacious experimenter. Beyond that, there are no appropriate labels for the music associated with his numerous groups on his Evil Clown label. Listen to the Leap of Faith Orchestra on The Photon Epoch and you will find yourself at thirty-thousand feet, in a place with few identifiable landmarks, and then just trust that PEK will land the plane. Twice each year, the Evil Clown family of groups convenes as ...

12
Album Review

Leap of Faith Orchestra: Cosmological Horizons

Read "Cosmological Horizons" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


David M. Peck's (PEK) Leap of Faith collective is brought together in its largest formation of twenty-four musicians for a marathon performance of the leader's Cosmological Horizons composition. This second of two annual performances of an orchestra culled from the Evil Clown label's various groups (String Theory, Mekaniks, Metal Chaos Ensemble, etc.) was held in Killian Hall on the Boston campus of MIT. As he often does, PEK composes a single, extended piece for the duration of the ...

12
Album Review

Leap of Faith Orchestra: SuperClusters

Read "SuperClusters" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


On two occasions each year, composer and multi-instrumentalist PEK (David M. Peck), gathers together his Evil Clown collective for live recordings. Culled from Leap of Faith, String Theory, Mekaniks, Metal Chaos Ensemble and their respective off-shoots of each, the players form his massive, eighteen-member Leap of Faith Orchestra. For the SuperClusters session, the group assembled at Longy School of Music at Bard College with a specially written score that takes advantage of the individual sub-groups' previous experiences.As LOFO ...

21
Album Review

Leap of Faith: Domains

Read "Domains" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


In 2009, David Peck's (PEK) Leap of Faith group reconvened after a lengthy hiatus to become a prolific producer of music that is always far outside the box. His Evil Clown label has flourished with a company of like-minded artists working in a collective environment. Leap of Faith has performed and recorded in formations ranging from trio through full orchestra, all challenging conventional beliefs and preconceived ideas about composing and performing. In their various manifestations, Leap of Faith have released ...

17
Album Review

PEK: Leap of Faith Orchestra - Possible Universes

Read "Leap of Faith Orchestra - Possible Universes" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


Possible Universes is the latest release from the multi-faceted Leap of Faith collective. In the orchestra formation, the group has released some half-dozen recordings but the “full" orchestra is a biannual occurrence where the normally fifteen-piece ensemble grows. On this album, the collaborative expands to twenty-four musicians and, as always, the long-time anchors are composer and reed player PEK (David Peck) and cellist Glynis Lomon. As is often the circumstance in Leap of Faith Orchestra recordings, the album ...

22
Album Review

Leap of Faith Orchestra: Supernovae

Read "Supernovae" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


Composer and multi-instrumentalist, PEK, set his sights on something bigger with the Leap of Faith Orchestra's Supernovae. The previous incarnation of the LOFO expands from the fifteen musicians on The Expanding Universe (Evil Clown, 2016) to twenty-one players on this new outing. Another noteworthy element of this project is PEK's use of Frame Notation where the score is seen in written descriptions and straight-forward symbols within Duration Bars. The system provides the musicians with immediate understanding of their own parts ...

16
Album Review

Leap of Faith Orchestra: The Expanding Universe

Read "The Expanding Universe" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


The creative music cooperative known as Leap of Faith had a long initial run from 1993 to 2001 and then re-booted in 2015. At their core, from the beginning, have been multi-instrumentalists David Peck (aka PEK) and Glynis Lomon. PEK, however, assumes a more than democratic leadership role across the many manifestations of the collective that live on his Evil Clown label. On The Expanding Universe the Leap of Faith Orchestra--true the album title--escalates with full (but non-conventional) ensemble of ...

11
Album Review

Turbulence: Vortex Generation Mechanisms

Read "Vortex Generation Mechanisms" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


In several of his Evil Clown groups such as String Theory, New Language Collaborative, Metal Chaos Ensemble and Leap of Faith, David Peck (aka PEK) employs enough instrumentation to supply a marching band (though they would be an odd lot for sure). On his Turbulence project, Vortex Generation Mechanisms, he leaves much of that unconventional battery in the boot. Which is not to say that there is any shortage of musical tools in the mix.Turbulence--like many of the ...

12
Album Review

Metal Chaos Ensemble: Intermetallic Compounds

Read "Intermetallic Compounds" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


A one-time student of the free improvisational saxophonist, George Garzone, the prolific David Peck (aka PEK) is a multi-instrumentalist/composer and the founder of Evil Clown Records. The ambitious scope of PEK's larger mission is worth noting. The Evil Clown consortium operates, in part, as a large avant-garde cooperative of artists who may show up as part of the label's various groups -String Theory, Turbulence, New Language Collaborative, Leap of Faith and here, on Intermetallic Compounds from the Metal Chaos Ensemble. ...

11
Album Review

Leap of Faith/Thomas Heberer: Solution Concepts

Read "Solution Concepts" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


The twenty year history of Leap of Faith includes an eleven year hiatus that is noteworthy more for the cooperative's ability to seamlessly pick up the pieces than for an uber-extended break. Cellist Glynis Lomon--a one-time student of Bill Dixon--was working the Boston circuit with multi-reedist PEK in the 1990s. The two honed their far reaching technical skills taking them into the Leaping Water Trio, a precursor to Leap of Faith whose 1995 debut included trombonist Mark McGrain and occasional ...


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