Earratic Art

Music Video - Fleets Cove

2011-09-27T07:16:00.000-07:00

I'm most pleased to announce that my visionary and talented friend Arrien Zinghini has created an amazing 8-minute movie inspired by and set to one of my pieces called Breakfast Boogie/Nightmare Ballad. You can watch this video here: http://vimeo.com/13182724
The piece features all layered electric guitars. As the music came to life, in my mind the character of it was certainly cinematic and mood-derived and Arrien's video certainly is on the same wavelength. Musically speaking, the content is sparse and depends on repeated figures. Playing wise the piece calls for not forcing the proceedings but letting the music breathe, as usual.
It consists of two parts;
- awakening on a regular but unique morning with sensations, thoughts and imagery evolving at their natural unfolding pace.
- once risen, the subconscious themes soon take over to reel and spiral one into the existential dream's core and opaque, endless, powerful abode.

Who are the denizens at the bottom of the pit, howling from below the well? Is it a fantastic animal? A swarm of electric bees? Probably not....

The video was shot entirely on a Long Island beach after sunset on a series of cold April nights. The track can be heard on the album "Night Guitar" due out on SoundatOne Records later this year.
Marvel at Arrien's work: http://vimeo.com/snarkelemental

Upcoming Gigs

2011-06-05T14:38:00.000-07:00

2011

(Unless noted all performances below take place in New York City)

Every Sunday from 12-2.30pm "The Intergenerational Songs of the Earth Guitar Duo" plays classics for brunch at Olga's on Smith, a kosher restaurant on 407 Smith Street in Brooklyn.
Ron Gluck & yours truly on acoustic guitars http://www.olgasonsmith.com/

Thursday December 1st 3-6pm Fulminate Trio, gets interviewed and performs live in the studio at wfmu! Free form radio at 91.1 on your FM-dial or http://wfmu.org/
Our CD - http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/fulminatetrio

Saturday December 3rd, Fulminate Trio plays in Philly! on a double bill with Sonic Liberation Front! at Highwire Gallery (in Fishtown)
2040 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19125
highwiregallery.com

Sunday December 11th: Fulminate Trio at SOUNDPARTY VI, Local 269,

269 E Houston Street. $10 cover, 3 bands, bar.
The dynamic trio conjures up the fire god anew! "All I can say is WOW!" -Bruce Gallanter, DMG

8PM = James Ilgenfritz, 9PM = Brad Farberman

10PM = Fulminate Trio: Anders Nilsson (guitar), Ken Filiano (bass), Michael Evans (drums)

Thursday December 15th: String Band - original music by

The Nilsson Brothers: Anders guitar + Peter drums + Sarah Bernstein violin + Stuart Popejoy bass

at Douglass Street Music Collective, 295 Douglass Street, Brooklyn.

3 bands only 10 bucks! Sean Noonan Group 8pm, Daniel Kelly/Satoshi Takeishi 9pm, String Band 10pm at a venue where you really can enjoy listening without distractions and byob! http://295douglass.org/about/

2012

Tuesday January 3rd 6-8pm The Nilsson Brothers meet Joe Fonda!
Anders Nilsson - guitar, Joe Fonda - bass, Peter Nilsson - drums
This trio is about to record an album, come join us at Shrine on Adam Clayton Powell Blvd between 133rd and 134th Streets in Harlem. suggested donation $10 http://shrinenyc.com/

Wednesday January 4th at 8pm The Nilsson Brothers meet Joe Fonda
Anders Nilsson - guitar, Joe Fonda - bass, Peter Nilsson - drums
at Barbes 376 9th Street Brooklyn $10 http://barbesbrooklyn.com/

Friday January 20th 8pm Anders Nilsson Group at Barbes - tunes of mine performed by a terribly exciting cast of musicians!

Anders Nilsson - guitar

Brahim Fribgane - oud and percussion

Daniel Kelly - piano and synth

David Ambrosio - bass

Satoshi Takeishi - drums and percussion

$10, Barbes 376 9th Street, Brooklyn http://barbesbrooklyn.com/

Sunday January 22nd Bill Buchen & friends at Downtown Music Gallery
13 Monroe Street Bill Buchen - tabla and percussion, Anders Nilsson - guitar and more tba, free admission

Saturday January 28th 8pm
Hot & Cold
Anders Nilsson & Aaron Dugan - electric guitar duo!
live at The Firehouse Space
246 Frost St
(between Humboldt St & Woodpoint Rd)

Tuesday February 28th
"The Intergenerational Songs of the Earth Guitar Trio"
ay Jalopy Theatre 315 Columbia Street, Brooklyn (Red Hook)
http://www.jalopy.biz/

Tuesday April 24th 10pm On the Way Out presents:
The Nilads
Stuart Popejoy - electric bass
Anders Nilsson - electric guitar
Vinnie Sperrazza - drums
original works penned by the members
live at Freddys 627 5th Avenue, Brooklyn
$10 donation suggested (includes opening act Peter Evans & Nate Wooley - trumpet duo!)
http://freddysbar.com/

Recent gigs

2011-04-02T07:33:00.000-07:00

An overview of some performances with different groups since 2010:

Stuart Popejoy-electric bass, Vinnie Sperrazza-drums, Anders Nilsson-guitar - premier at Douglass Street Music Collective
The RockOpera "Original Innocence" by Dave Nuss/Eric Sanders at Issue Project Room
Anders Nilsson Octet Concert at Roulette
Fay Victor Ensemble (Fay Victor voice, Anders Nilsson guitar, Ken Filiano bass, Michael T.A. Thompson drums) at University of the Streets, 55 Bar, Vision Festival, Bam Cafe, Philly and Baltimore.
Exposed Blues Duo at Local 269, Knitting Factory, 55 Bar, Velvet Lounge - Chicago
Elliott Sharp 60th Birthday Celebration, performing an all electric guitar version of his piece "SyndaKit" at Issue Project Room
Ras Moshe's Unit at Brecht Forum
The Hot Trio (20's & 30's jazz) at Two Boots
Francois Grillot's Contraband at various places.
Kalabalik - live recording session with Raoul Bjorkenheim & Anders Nilsson guitars, Gerald Cleaver drums at Downtown Music Gallery. Watch out for release on DMG's label!
Solo guitar at the Unplugged series organized by Marco Cappelli and Marc Ribot
Anders Nilsson's AORTA at Kong, Malmo Sweden
Sebastian Schunke Quintet at Yoshi's, Oakland CA & Jimmy Mak's, Portland, OR.

Unplugged Guitar Series Tuesdays

2010-12-24T13:20:00.000-08:00

I recently got invited to take part in the new "Unplugged Tuesday" Series arranged by guitarists Marc Ribot & Marco Cappelli, together with the owner of Watty & Meg in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. I went to one of the nights and it's taking place at a suitable location in a cozy backroom, with very little external bar or street noise competing/blending with the acoustic proceedings. The concept is to allow 2 solo performances per night where the players are free to share "what you really want to play" - wonderful. I'm very happy to have been invited and embrace this occassion. I will delve into the acoustic 6-steel string guitar, and the Bohlin 11-nylon string and play a few of my pieces usually performed solo on the electric, plus a few classics dismembered by the muse and I in a wacky and serious manner. I have rarely played a solo acoustic show, usually I've done them on the electric the last few years, with some effect pedals (although not loops) for orchestrational purposes in the spirit of the overdubbed pieces on my soon upcoming recording "Ax to Grind".

Showtime Tuesday 12/28 10pm, Watty & Meg 248 Court Street (and Kane), Brooklyn, F & G-train to Bergen Street. $15 cover includes one drink. Double bill: Anders Nilsson from sweden and Juecho Herrera from Venezuela.

2010 glances

2010-10-20T10:01:00.000-07:00

Looking back I'm thinking about some nice things that happened to me in 2010, soon enough to be a walk down memory lane, figure I'd share this, by no means conclusive, list...

The year kicked off with a concentrated run of the play John Cassavetes' Husbands in January at the Public Theatre part of the Under the Radar Festival, focusing on creative theatre. 11 consecutive shows at this fine establishment = a great time, and offered the only consistent gig I had all year, performance wise. Director Doris Mirescu is a fantastic leader with an artistic vision and possesses a most generous personality. This was the second run of Husbands, based on the 1970 movie by the same name. She gave me very free hands in creating the original music for it, all performed live on electric guitar by myself, and I thoroughly enjoyed performing it nightly. The range of music that we arrived at was driven by mood, a love theme, and a wide range of guitar-sonic delivery. I felt as if the cast was my band, thanks guys!

Compositionally another fruitful endevaour this year has been writing in tandem with fellow guitarist Aaron Dugan. We have performed as a duo in the past and share similar sensibilities as well as birthdays. We call our duo Hot & Cold. When time has permitted we have very quickly come up with rather joyous and creepy, spontaneous and unpredictable compositions bordering on suite-like proportions.
Soon.....we'll share it with you live.

I took a lesson for the first time in many moons, with Brahim Frigbane - a multi-instrumentalist from Morrocco I met recently. It was an inspiring meeting that left me with lots of fun work to do, basic rhythm-feel stuff that he really has a grip on, profoundly groovy! Later in the year I was happy to perform with him and horn player Ras Moshe in a spontaneous trio setting.

I read about five books by Charles Willeford.

The Hot Trio got to play old-time depression era music a few times, I'm happy with how the band sounds, letting Ellington's, Django's and other music from that time become serious fun. Lou Grassi on drums and Dan Shuman on bass, and myself on the Les Paul. Although we usually play in restaurants, there's a dreamy element to the music that I am going for, the familiar nostalgia of these great tunes that smell like they came from a different era gives us a free ride in that regard. I jokingly call it shoegaze jazz.

Exposed Blues Duo (Fay Victor and I) continued working on our blues music, performing a few times in town as well as in Chicago. We released "Bare" (Greene Aveune Music), our debut album in August and had a great cd-release gig at Barbes in September in front of an amazing audience. Our record recieved some praise in the press and ended up on best of 2010 lists in a few places. I really like the vibe on it - bare indeed.

In October I joined my great friend Sebastian Schunke to reunite with his quintet on a west coast tour for a week. I was excited to see my old friend and we spent a terrific week in Portland, Oregon as well as in the Bay Area. The fresh air of that coast, the spirit of the music, and the enjoyable hang all brought some good stuff out of us, and we played some good music at Jimmy Mak's in Portland and Yoshi's in Oakland, and the German Counculate in San Francisco with Peter Barshay bass, Paul van Wageningen drums, and Dan Freeman on sax. Some favorite moments include Sebastian's piano intros that truly pull you into his world close, as well as some rather explosive groove playing.

In November I played a concert at Roulette in New York City, debuting an octet-cast of local favorites. I assembled a group of characters that I thought would be a coherent and complementary bunch to take on this exploratory music. Dave Ambrosio on bass, George Schuller on drums, Daniel Kelly on keys, Jeremy Danneman and Avram Fefer on reeds, Michel Gentile on flutes and Charlie Burnham on violin. The writing process was a lot of fun work for me, and when it came time to rehearse the music came to life easily, and as expected became something way beyond that got incarnated and embodied by these players. Very fun gig!

At the end of the year I went back to Sweden for some familytime and relaxing, and a short but fun gig with AORTA in Malmo. Best of friends, all so familiar vibe, yet the group is slowly evolving every year.

West Coast tour with Sebastian Schunke Quintet October 2010

2010-10-17T11:16:00.000-07:00

It's been two years since my great friend Sebastian and I last got together. We've known one another since 2001 when we first met in New York. Since then our friendship has deepened and our music grown. Sebastian lives in Berlin and is an award-winning pianist immersed in classical, latin and jazz music who writes music that is both challening, intimate, expressive and honest. Following a few European tours over the years, during the summer of '08 we met in San Francisco to get together to play new music by him with a quintet. Those compositions were recorded and released on the album "Back in New York" featuring Paquito D'Rivera on clarinet. Previously I've also had the pleasure of touring with Sebastian in Germany and appearing on the "Mouvement" album which graciously included one of my tunes as well. And now on October 22nd in Portland,OR and October 26th in Oakland,CA we will get another chance! Go to http://www.sebastianschunke.com/ to find out more.

CONTACT ME

2010-08-17T10:14:00.000-07:00

If you wish to contact me about gig inquiries, projects, obtaining recordings or charts, private lessons and so forth, or just wanna say hi, please drop me a line at EarraticArt@gmail.com
all the best,
Anders

Playing small rooms part I

2010-08-02T13:59:00.000-07:00

It's been a hot July here in New York, hottest ever recorded I heard. It's also been a month of lots of musical activity in the city. I went out to hear several good performances, seems the climate inspires venting and disarms people somewhat, encouraging us to pay attention to somebodyelse's stories for a while. A friend of mine for about 9 years, Kyle Forester, hosts a monthly series every second Monday of the month, aptly named Kyle's Korner at Otto's Shrunken Head on 14th Street between Avenue A and B. Once you walk in you're in a rather divey bar, equipped with a pinball machine and probably fake leather couches. There's lovely bartenders there. A corridor leads to a backroom where the musical action takes place. This room is rather small and has a Hawaiian theme, it's a tiki lounge with an AC, a mini stage, a PA, drums and some amps. I've played in Kyle's Korner several times before, with Gunnar, solo, and sitting in with other artists. This time Kyle was out of town, gracefully handing over the evening to me. I decided to ask two friends to join me, whom had never played together before. Gladly, they both agreed. I recently took a private lesson (first one in 8 years!) from Brahim Fribgane, an astonishing musician from Morocco. He plays a myriad of different instruments; various percussions, oud, guitar, sintir, and sings. I asked him to bring whatever instrument he wanted, mutually understanding that less is more in this type of situation. He played a cajon that night, a wooden box played with the hands, nice choice. Ras Moshe and I have played quite a few times over the past 8 years or so at different venues. He's one of my favorite horn players and a genuinely good dude. He played tenor sax and flute, I played my Les Paul Gold Top. I had a good feeling about this trio combination and had selected a few of my tunes, new and old, that would be fun and easy to use as a base with no rehearsal. Both of them dove right into the music with me and tuned in listening was going on right away. It pleased me to hear Ras play the melodies and going for it, and Brahim's timefeel and spur of the moment sense of direction is deep. We played "Reminders" from the AORTA book, "Powers", and "One foggy Night", two so far unrecorded songs, and a free piece. A problem free performance. The audience was very attentive and seemed to enjoy our flights. I was glad to see some friends and unfamiliar faces in the room.

The Hot Trio

2010-03-31T22:18:00.000-07:00

For the first time ever I have started a cover band! However, do not expect Mustang Sally, Final Countdown or anything like that. The Hot Trio plays music from the 1920's & 30's. Jazz tunes from the books of Duke Ellington, Django Reinhardt, Fletcher Henderson, and seldom heard songs such as Moonlight on the Ganges, My Bucket's got a Hole in it, and That Da-Da Strain. Jazz drummer Lou Grassi has decades of experience playing dixieland, swing, hard bop and free music. He's also one of my oldest friends in America. Dan Shuman plays upright bass; another good friend with musical abilities of great flexibility. The focus since my early 20's has been original and freely improvised music and I'm still pursuing those paths with undiminished verve. A couple of years ago though, I got smitten by the vibe of old Ellington and Fletcher Henderson recordings, and so one thing has led to another. I wanted to indulge in this often quirky, bluesy, emotive, and strangely happy music, because it engages and speaks to me. In the spirit of aforementioned recordings made during the roaring 20's and the depression era's boozy culture, I wanted to see what we could do with this music in a boiled-down, turned-on guitar trio format. Now, of course a lot of this music was "big band" music, before the updated big band setting of today became the norm. So the imaginative instrumentation, palette of colors and sound effects of the orchestrations (muted brass, oboe, clarinet, banjo, various percussion etc.), is a big influence and guide, along with the often succinct and unique arrangement for each tune. To dress the guitar tone, I switch between pick-ups on my Les Paul between certain sections of pieces, employ fuzz, wah, tremolo, reverb, etc. when called for. Lou's kit is small but pronounced and includes splash cymbals, and other soundtools. We have been playing this repertoire of about 50 arrangements for over a year now at various places in the city at parties, clubs and restaurants. Please send me an email if you are interested in more information.

Husbands

2010-01-02T16:59:00.000-08:00

In May 2009 the theatre play "Husbands" had its world premier at Visual Arts theatre in NYC. I was contacted a few months prior by the director and creatively conceiving soul of Doris Mirescu. The play is a wild and intense version of the already wild 1970 film by John Cassavetes by the same name. While the play zooms in on and explores the reactions and lack of comprehension over a friend's death, I was given very free and inspiring directives from mrs. Mirescu. I soon understood that what I wanted to deal with was expressing these powerful emotions and facing death, and its sibling life, right in the face. I watched the movie and got insights from the director as to what's going on and is expressed/isn't.
The musical setting for our play is one of a solo guitar performance, I'm on stage the entire time playing on and off. The "psychological" role of the music the way I see it is to emphasize, capture, state, and/or surprise. I came up with a theme that can be manipulated in many ways, a theme and variations kind of thing, to have a red thread to weave with for some of the scenes. This choice was mine, and not required, but I found it helpful to come up with an emotional "character" for the play and to have a recurring, gradually unfolding story take place, hitting (perhaps) various human pockets of vibration.
With such great freedom and the nakedness of the one man band concept I greatly look forward to performing this piece again at the Public Theatre in New York as part of the Under The Radar festival, january 6-17 2010.