In May, 2002, I performed 3 shows with microtonal artist Jon Catler from New York City. As I'm a huge fan of new music (a convenient euphemism for words like "experimental", "avant-garde", or simply "weird"), it was a great opportunity to perform some radical music especially with someone as established and talented as Jon. A note about the music. All of the compositions that we performed were based upon a concept called "just intonation". A simple explanation is that these musical octaves are not based upon our normal 'tempered' scale of 12 notes. These octaves are more "pure" to the naturally occuring harmonic series, and so the notes (or microtones) that occur between say, a C and C# are used. It is fascinating stuff, and so is the music. He even designs his own guitars (take a look below).

Brian Eno once criticized experimental music for having no soul and that it could only be appreciated from the neck up. Well, I have a feeling Brian Eno would like Jon's compositions. Jon flew out for the shows with his rest of his band (sans a drummer of course): Meredith Borden (vocals), Neville Green (bass), and David Beardsley (microtonal electric guitar). Everyone was great at their craft, so the music came together real quick. It was cool to be in such great musical company.

There were actually two seperate bands that performed. The first was the NYC EVOLUTION ENSEMBLE, and we played a work by Jon entitled "EVOLUTION". It's an intense piece written in 4 movements and lasts about 45 minutes. In explaining this music to people, I found myself using adjectives like "intense", "listenable", "dynamic", and of course "musical". At times, the piece does intimate John Cage, Phillip Glass, and other experimental and minimalist composers, but what sets Jon's music apart from them is his depth of composition and, of course, his instrument: A microtonal electric guitar. And, WOW, can he play! Jon's a master of his instrument and plays with such a command, such effortlessness, that you easily forget that he's playing a strangely tuned, and strange looking guitar. From Robert Fripp-ish ambient sondscapes, to screaming Hendrix leads, Jon evoked all kinds of textures and sounds.

The second band that I performed with was called SWALLOW and was comprised of the same musicians (expecpt for David Beardsley). This band played loud, energetic rock tunes (kind of like if Jimmy Page started a band with Meredith Monk and was possessed by Diamanda Galas). The songs were built upon tribal rhythms replete with a few tempo changes and some metric modulations thrown in for good measure. We invaded a place in Hollywood called Highland Grounds which is typically a home for acoustic guitar based singer/songwriters, and not progressive art rock bands. We played well and were well received .