The Problem With Livia

My second solo instrumental album, "The Problem With Livia", performed on 8-string Weissenborn, piano and modular effects is out Dec. 17th 2021 via the fine folks at 577 Records in Brooklyn.  They are enthusiastic and unique purveyors of experimental and freely improvised music.  I'm extremely proud of it and I think it tuned out quite beautifully.  You can find the record here: The Problem With Livia

Installation

I created 5 hours and 12 minutes of new instrumental music for a museum in London that was to be used to randomly generate visuals in a live installation for visitors.  Of course due to the pandemic that's on hold but they've graciously allowed me to share the music with you as well as a 5-part set of YouTube videos with audio generated visuals I made via the Critter and Guitari Eyesy device.  I hope you dig it.  Links for the video are in my Bandcamp listing for the project: Installation

Velour Works Well on Neptune

I've admired the work of percussionist extraordinaire Scott Amendola for years so it was quite a thrill to finally get to work with him and we're very proud of "Velour Works" and we hope you like it too.  We worked long distance this summer 2020 but tried to stick to live free improvisation principles.  Maybe something good came out of this pandemic after all: Velour Works Well on Neptune

Transparency

Live score to the silent film by my friend Max Louis-Raugel shot when he was in Nashville a few years ago.  All live in one take, no edits or overdubs (though it took seven takes this time you can grab the outtakes free with the album at Bandcamp).  Available here: Transparency  View the film with the final score here: Transparency Film

Collected Abstractions

My very talented friend Sean Bokenkamp made an animated film called "Collected Abstractions" and gave me the privilege of scoring it live in one take.  One hour and seven minutes of fully improvised and dynamic ambient solo guitar work.  It was exhausting but exhilarating and I'm so proud of it.  I suppose you could call it my second solo instrumental guitar album.  Grab it here at my Bandcamp: Collected Abstractions  View the film on YouTube: Collected Abstractions Film

My First Solo Guitar Record is Out!

Vigeland is my first foray into solo guitar/ambient instrumental music.  Inspired by a trip to the Emanuel Vigeland mausoleum in Oslo the title track was recorded there and custom impulse responses of the incredible space and ambiance (18 seconds of decay!) were made to finish the album at One Cat Studios in London.  No edits, no overdubs and completely improvised.  Get the CD and download here at my Bandcamp: Vigeland

The Interloper

My live improvisational duo with UK sax man Massimo Magee to benefit Iklectik Art Lab in London: The Interloper

Plumes of Ash in Moonlight

A dream come true...I get to play with my mentor and friend Eddie Prévost and my friends Ståle Liavik Solberg, N.O. Moore, Tony Hardie-Bick and Olie Brice.  Again, all live and completely improvised: Plumes of Ash in Moonlight

Best True Stories and The Cooper Moore Sessions

I am so pleased that Best True Stories is being recognized as one of the top records in Norway this year.   If you followed my journey to Norway in I Curse the River of Time: A Norwegian American Tale, you'll know I fell in with a group of wonderful musicians in Halden, NO.  Alexander Lindback and Espen Holtan join with me in The Mad King Edmund Band to lay down experimental improv tracks around some strange but true tales. From crazy fashion models to aging film stars, hookers, pimps and various crooks, criminals and misdeeds, these tales weave a seamless edge of the underbelly of society.  For the Safe and Sound Recordings listening booth click here

Cooper-Moore is a brilliant pianist and accompanist, a builder and creator of unique and singular home-made instruments, a well-known sonic explorer in the free improvisation world, and an activist for a better world.    After working with me in New York on a Giuseppe Logan session, CM agreed to travel to Nashville to record with Jerry Navarro, Dylan Simon, and myself.  The Cooper Moore Sessions, a 3 CD set in keepsake tin box with printed cotton wrap, features a Nashville acoustic and electric improv session, a New York session with double bassist Larry Roland where Cooper-Moore plays exclusively acoustic piano, and lastly the gospel recording The Reverend Eddie Bones, to which CM brings his own experience and insights to the interpretation of ten classic gospel tunes, with yours truly on vocals and acoustic guitar.  Hats off to Cooper-Moore for encouraging the next generation of free improvisors.

Available now at Squidco, Gearbox (UK), Bandcamp and of course my Store

All of my recordings are also available at my Bandcamp: https://edpettersen.bandcamp.com/

My year in London led me to a wonderful group of experimental musicians doing free improv in the style of AMM under the auspices of Eddie Prevost.  A group of us formed The London Experimental Ensemble with a common purpose – to play free improvisations.  The size of the LEE, at 13 to 14 musicians, is unusual in free improv but serves the goal of being smaller than an orchestra yet large enough to achieve tonal balance between instruments while creating wide aural landscapes.  In 2017 the London Experimental Ensemble performed all 193 pages of the Cornelius Cardew graphical score Treatise and recorded the performance live.  We next tried our hand at improvising around traditional ballads of the British isles and that record The Child Ballads is available both in CD and vinyl.  Late last year we played to a audience viewing of the film Orbit, a breathtaking visual experience developed by Seán Doran from time lapse photography data by NASA’s Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit on the International Space Station. You can find Orbit here on Bandcamp: Orbit