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"Oh, Pierre!" - New Music From Space Genetics

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Space Genetics
Continuing in their tradition of exploring the crossroads of jazz, electronic music, and free improvisation, Space Genetics—the experimental music duo of Paul Scea and Eric Haltmeier—have released Oh, Pierre!—their fifth album to date.

Consistently pushing back against the confines of any one particular stylistic framework, the eight original compositions that make up 'Oh, Pierre!' are interwoven with ambient synthesizer soundscapes, off-kilter electronic percussion grooves, and digitally-altered woodwind improvisations. Continually evolving since their first release in 2009, Eric Haltmeier and Paul Scea have blurred their individual voices on woodwinds and laptops into a collective whole, often making it difficult to determine which player might be responsible for specific musical iterations. As such, the compositions on 'Oh, Pierre!' allow listeners to engage in the experience of exploring a wide variety of sonic interactions without connecting those sounds to a particular player. Compositions like 'Dead Inside' position acoustic percussion and horn samples against insistent angular electronic sequences that challenge listeners to shift the focus of their attention. The lines between foreground/background and pulse/groove create a kaleidoscopic blur that encourages repeated listening.

Having recently performed music from this recording at the Studio 300 Digital Art and Music Festival in Lexington, KY and at the International Society for Music Education World Conference in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Space Genetics continues to explore the ways in which the deliberation of creating and sharing music in the virtual sphere can be translated into the spontaneous realm of live performance. At its heart, this is music with an emphasis on improvisation, honoring the inherent unpredictability of the interactions at play. It becomes difficult to determine which components are being played in 'real time' and which have been predetermined. As is often the case when listening to an extended free improvisation, it is the listeners who will make their own determinations of form, dialogue, and development. This recording sees Space Genetics allowing themselves and their listeners the opportunity to reconsider their roles in the musical experience: When is the ensemble hoping the listeners experience this music in a particular way? In what ways are listeners shaping their own experience? In what ways do the methods in which this music was created shape the ways in which the music is perceived? This is a music that asks questions and a music that honors the journey of making meaning.

The closing title track is a nod to the pedagogy of improvisation of the same name created by Scea, Haltmeier, and New Jersey-based musician/educator Ashley DiStefano-DeAntonio. All working in music education at different levels, Scea, Haltmeier, and DiStefano- DeAntonio established a method for performing and teaching skills in non-idiomatic ensemble improvisation that was influenced by the work of Walter Thompson and John Zorn. The closing track is a piece that showcases the improvisation of Space Genetics, the sampled sounds of their students' improvisations, and a soundscape that is at once suggestive of meditative repose as well as youthful enthusiasm.

Oh, Pierre! is available for purchase and download from iTunes, Amazon, and other online retailers. Previous Space Genetics recordings are available from Bandcamp.com.

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