Harmoniopolis
Liner Notes
- Andre St. James
- Cumulus and Burnoff
- Isolation Converation
- A Painful Decision
- Life on Mars
Personnel
- Dan Duval - Guitar
- Andrew Oliver - Harmonium, Flugel Horn
- Skip Von Kuske - Cello
- Bill Athens - Bass
Tracks 1 - 4 written by Dan Duval. Track 5 by David Bowie. Engineered and mixed by Randy Rollofson at Undercut Studios. Mastered by Andrew Oliver.
In winter of 2008, we had the first Harmoniopolis rehearsal. Andre St. James, Skip Von Kuske, and I convened at Andrew Oliver's former dwelling on NE Garfield Ave. We read some charts I'd created, which were in a state of serious disarray. It took us about half an hour to get through each short piece. A few months later, we had our second rehearsal. This time, in a partially successful attempt to reduce general confusion, I brought full scores for everybody instead of parts. Athough things did improve, we were still negotiating unruly artifacts such as the ten-page score to my tune, POTSICONM ("Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Nude Mice").
While I was genuinely saddened by insurmountable scheduling misalignments with Andre (curse my day job!), I was grateful that Bill Athens could contribute such great playing and awareness to this project. Andrew Oliver's self-described "low quality but endearing" harmonium had actually provided the impetus to assemble the group, and Skip Von Kuske is an integral part of the ensemble. My wonderful girlfriend Jessica Watkins contributed artwork for the cover, and my friend and colleague Todd Bishop provided the cover layout and design. Randy Rollofson artfully and attentively recorded and mixed the EP, and Andrew Oliver mastered it. Physical copies are available for purchase at live shows; for now, you can enjoy it for free online. Thanks for listening!
