We'll be placing MP3's here.
December 2001:
On the Edge of an Eclipse (Tillman)
Don Tillman: 6- and 12-string guitars, bass, Mellotron, synths
Nicolai Gvatua: Drums and percussion
Produced by Don Tillman
Copyright 2001 Don Tillman
Recorded October 2001 at Studio 11, Mountain View, California.MP3: eclipse.mp3 (6.7 MBytes)
Our contribution to the upcoming BayProg compilation CD, a collection of music from twelve San Francisco Bay Area progressive rock bands to be included in each copy of the first 2002 issue of Exposé Magazine.
Don's notes:
This is based on a sad hymn I came up with a few years ago but was
never sure what to do with... and the BayProg compilation album
provided a perfect opportunity. The first part is the sad
theme, the second part is an old school synthesizer solo, and the
third part is redemption.
The band is currently just myself and Nick, so some overdubbing was involved. In the first part the 12-string is my trusty Rickenbacker 370, recorded in stereo, the mellow 6-string is my other Ricky 370 and the cello / arco bass is the Mellotron. In the second part the solo is an ARP Odyssey, the chords are a Rhodes Chroma, the rhythm guitar is the Ricky again, and the bass is a Rickenbacker 4001. For the third part the guitar solo is an Ovation Deacon cranked through a workbench amplifier experiment that used to be a Fender Twin.
1997:
Vantage Point Instrumental (Tillman)
Don Tillman: 12-string guitar, synthesizer swooshes
Karen Bentley: violin
Julius Smith: physical modeling synthesizer, acoustic guitar
Dave Berners: bass
Josh Schroeter: drums
Produced by Don Tillman
Copyright 1997, Tesseract
Recorded late 1997 at Studio 11, Mountain View, California
MP3: vantagepoint.mp3 (10 MBytes)
Don's notes:
This is the finale from the 1997 Tesseract album; it was a blast to
write and play. Like the rest of the 1997 Tesseract album,
this piece was arranged and recorded "as if live" -- nobody is
playing a combination of instruments they couldn't play in a live
situation. And most of the tracks were recorded in a very
small number of takes, so there's a lot of energy here.
Julius does some amazing stuff on the Yamaha VL1 on this piece. The VL1 was the first commercial physical modeling synthesizer, based on some work Julius did at Stanford's CCRMA, and as far as I know the Tesseract album was the first album to feature it. The flute, the distorto noise and the wicked trumpet solo at the end are all Julius playing the VL1. Check out that trumpet manuever where he starts with the one note, adds some vibrato, adds more vibrato, makes it a trill, and then swoops it down. You can almost feel the spit flying.