Different Skies 2006

I recorded the Different Skies 2006 concert last Saturday night. Live from Arcosanti, Different Skies is the brainchild of EMUSIC-L’s former co-moderator, Mike Metlay. [Update: a much better moderate-quality recording is available at the 2006 concert page.]

An outgrowth of Metlay’s Team Metlay efforts, Different Skies gets together an international group of musicians each year; in the space of one week, they go from an empty stage to a complete concert. Having been part of one good (Ballistic) and one not-so-good (Beta Test/Saturnalia) Team session, I’m well aware of how easy it is to not succeed in such a venture.

Previous concerts have been good, solid efforts; the 2006 concert was jaw-droppingly amazing. For a concert which was, in considerable part, improvised, I didn’t find any moments in the entire concert in which the players seemed to be looking for something to say; the improvisation was fluid and well-directed all the way through. Jim Combs’ “card trick” part way through, in which he had the audience draw cards to determine what notes the musicians could play, was quite a lot of fun, and came across well even on just a recording. I’m sure it was a blast live.

I’ve listened to the whole thing several times and continue to enjoy it. I hope that Metlay decides to release it all. Interestingly enough, three of the core members of the Team were present this year: Mike, Nick Rothwell, and John Rossi III (John 3); they played one of the tunes from the first Team Metlay CD, which was a really nice touch.

As an aside, Mike held a “raffle”, giving away copies of music by the artists – this was in the stream, but not the recording that’s on the website. I haven’t yet heard if this increased the interest at the merchandise table, but I wouldn’t be surprised. It seemed like a great idea.

Want to see what the stage looked like, and what everyone was playing? Check out the gear video. I like Mike’s tiny little mixer; I could use one of those to isolate the Vortex from the rest of my rig when using it in feedback mode.

Even better: there’s a nice film (QuickTime format) of the working process for one of the pieces. [Update: now links to the differentskies.org version of this video.]

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