rEDwIREaRCHaNGEL (2010-2011) is a conducted freepolyfunk big band project conceived and directed by Toronto musician Nilan Perera. It’s musical subject is the early electro jazz recordings of Miles Davis – ‘Bitches Brew’, ‘On the Corner’ etc.
Simeon Abbott- Keyboards/tapes
Bryant Didier – Electric bass
Jeremy Strachan – Sax
Dan Gooch – Trumpet
Rebecca Hennessy – Trumpet
Jesse Levine – Keyboards
Germaine Liu – Drums/Percussion
Nian Perera – Guitar/Conductor
Jeremy Strachan – Woodwinds
Richard Windeyer – live sampling/dub effects
Mark Zurawinski – Drums/Percussion
Ronley Teper – voice
I joined this band a little while ago, not as a drummer, but as a live dub and sample artist. My function is to loop, sample and process (filters, echoes, modulators) the band LIVE (!), in ways that mirror the great producer Teo Macero’s studio manipulation techniques, which he used to (literally) construct these classic (and pioneering) albums. The basic idea is that my activities should complement Nilan’s activity onstage as a ‘conductor’ – steering the individual musician’s output in ways that emulate the ‘tape edit’ aesthetic of the original recordings (It’s similar in spirit, I suppose, to the ‘jump cut’ techniques John Zorn employed in pieces like ‘Spillane’). I was attracted to this project initially because, at the time, Miles was listening not only to Jimi Hendrix, but also the electroacoustics of avant-garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. At the same time, the pioneering dub producers (King Tubby, Lee Perry…) were also digging into the very same territory. In the context of my own work (ambient/dub/psychedelic/live electronic performance), all of this represents (for me) a critical and vital intersection of influences and sonic territories.
Richard C. Windeyer 