“During the Disco Volante writing sessions in a place we called The Shotwell Bomb Factory, San Francisco, we were blessed with an isolated & independent place to record and rehearse,” explains Trevor Dunn. “Endless days and nights were spent in there experimenting, improvising and piecing together what would be our ‘sophomore attempt’ among other gems. Often there was an ADAT machine ready to go for any spontaneous outbursts (think ‘Nothing’ from the end of Disco Volante), but we tested out various setups at our disposal.”
Trey Spruance, who often engineered these chaotic recordings, recalls: “I remember wanting to enhance audio separation and isolation to an extreme, using a kind of ‘musique concrète live mix’ approach, hoping that would capture the unruly individual spirits of our improvisation more faithfully. It totally did in this case; facilitated better communication than usual.”
Dunn continues, “Patton and Heifetz were in the ‘sound room’ with a multitude of instruments within reach. Trey and I were in the ‘control room’ with keyboards and outboard gear, as well as total ‘knob control.’
What we offer here is one of several ‘movements’ from a spontaneous sound narrative that spans over an hour. Up until now, no one but the four of us have heard this recently unarchived weirdness.”
