Title Track ‘Dark’ is available on the Aleph-Zero Records Compilation ‘Dark Room Beats’ ALEPHZ16 2010. Listen.

Andy Alexander - Moog synthesizer, acoustic guitar
Karen Y Chan - voice, acoustic guitar, field recordings
Brian Siskind - beats, synth, lap steel, pedal steel, drums, field recordings

with guest appearances by: Jeff Coffin - saxophones, flutes on “JC”; James Digirolamo - synth on “JC”, “Redesigning Austin”; Austin Alexander – electric guitar on “Redesigning Austin”

All songs copyright 2009. Produced by Fognode and Good Rester. Recorded in Queens, NYC, and Nashville, TN. Artwork: Andy Alexander

[[The self-titled début Good Rester EP mixes dusty echoes of Bristol-style trip-hop, the phantasmal innocence of Arovane's Lilies, and the decaying clatter of rust-stained machinery. The result is sonic architecture that melds the reverential awe of cathedral space with the persistent cacophony of urban density. Good Rester suggests we can still find a place for introspection and bliss, even amidst all this twenty-first century noise. -Mark Teppo]]

Just before you sleep, you are good resting. Body-listening and blurred sense of time is the sensory modality. This self-titled début EP documents the tension and tranquility of Queens. The name Good Rester was taken from an elementary school poster of Siskind’s, in which classmates deemed him a Good Rester.

Burgeoning in the echoes of post-industrial Queens and Long Island City, the music of Good Rester is a nexus of old ideas and new ones, a synthesis of harsh elements and serenity. Siskind’s environmental recordings ground the work in time and space -from the ruined halls of an amphitheater in Pompeii to Bhutanese monks dancing on the Brooklyn waterfront.

Good Rester woke in the NYC January of 2008 when producer/artist Fognode aka Brian Siskind met Karen Y Chan, joined former band mate Andy Alexander of Let’s Say Baltimore and introduced their voice, lyrical projections and textures to his own storied ruminations. Play in the temporal and the ether is the reason for voice, dub, and analog synthesizer.

Access and influence in the spirit world – a pretty handy gift to have if you are a creator of art! Since capital-’A’ Art is arguably for the “purpose” of communicating, and the spirit world arguably takes up the same space and time that we currently exist in, I easily make the jump from Artist to Shaman.

The employment of art and technology to induce states that permit access to more time and space than is usually clear is certainly a worthwhile endeavor; many artists draw upon a deep reserve of mysticism and spirituality to communicate and convey concepts that are not easily described in the terms of the everyday semiconsciousness (in which we spend most of our time unless we are monks).

Technoshamanism. April 12-17, 2010, Curated by Karl Cronin, New Voices in Live Performance, Center for Performance Research Brooklyn, NY

Artist Statement by Brian Siskind

Brian Siskind a.k.a. Fognode presents a sonic program made of ambient drones, field recordings, and shamanic beat-driven compositions to form an amalgam of sound that amounts to a singular experience toward transcendence. From documented ritual of Bhutan monks in Brooklyn, to the birds in the ruins of Pompeii, and an alternating portrait of rural and urban life from across the US and Europe, the resulting images are a portrait of not only Siskind’s perspective, but the collective auditory experience. Rooted in the dub music ethos, and smeared into the abstract akin to Rothko’s color fields, ambient drones and forward movement bring the lis- tener into the peak experience of ecstatic music and rhythm, based in composition, but more so simply experienced by the composer and listener alike. Beat Hollow is a melange of sound that brings about a cerebrally induced experience, but amidst a canvas made of all things familiar, even minutiae, yet unheard.

Biographies

Karl Cronin (curator) is creating a singular magnum opus, the Somatic Natural History Archive, a multimedia performance project highlighting the embodied experience of 10,000 plants and animals. Working at the intersections of cognitive science, natural history, and performance, Karl has developed a battery of field research methods that challenge our assumptions of the limits of experience-based conceptual development. This work is a direct result of creative research support provided by the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art Nature and Dance (iLAND- NYC), Movement Research (NYC), and the Santa Fe Art Institute (NM).

Brian Siskind (participating artist) has produced music stretching the bounds since 1995. His work has been critically acclaimed, groundbreaking, and widely featured in film, television, national commercials including American Express/Tiger Woods, and promotions for Adidas. His beatscapes have been a mainstay on NPR, and often sampled and remixed by pioneering artists. Fognode has appeared on labels from big Warner Brothers, to acoustic Rounder, the Brooklyn dub of Wordsound, to the illicit Illegal Art. Beat Hollow began in earnest in 2003 in Nashville, TN where Siskind spent 9 years living and working. Siskind has been working on projects with a base in beautiful Sunnyside, Queens since January 2008. Projects of late have included working with Bela Fleck’s African Project, Casey Driessen, Michael Shrieve, and other luminaries who are seeking innovative and more abstract approaches to existing and new material.

“Fognode – Ambient Vol. 1″ is a ten year ambient retrospect (1999-2009) packaged in a segued, 36 minute piece. The collection of previously released material coupled with new and unreleased pieces, highlights Siskind’s prolific work in the realm of ambient music. The soundscapes are environments, bathed in pedal steel and field recordings, and is entirely engulfing, relaxing… transcendent.

Available for download now, and just pay what you can. Enjoy the space.

http://www.fognode.com/beathollow/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=32&Itemid=57

This keyboard I found is the same one used by the likes of Sun-Ra, YES’s Tony Kaye, Geddy Lee (I looked for something cheesy but this is actually a great photo)! and many, many others.

I read that only a few of these were made (in electronics that means in the thousands) right here in New York!

You can also identify when it was made; between the years of 1972 and 1981; you can tell by this little badge. I love the idiosyncratic American engineering of this whole time period.

Update to this page: There is a way you can turn your Moog “up to 11″ and I thought to make it easier for others to find out, too.

On the back panel where the main output jack is located, you can create a controllable feedback (oxymoron?) loop with the external input feature:

So, once you get the output patched into the input, you activate and adjust the trim for the input channel (see the next image) until you see the light begin to blink rhythmically -don’t overdo it! I don’t know what will happen. I do know that you will hear your tone take on an edge and crackle that adds quite a bit of dimension to your overall sound.

Happy Synthesis!

“Universe Premiers”

the imminent ADHDJ

One of the main objectives of this radio show is to play unique and beautiful music; music that is important to me and which I feel will resonate with that deliberation which even I am mirroring. I believe it to be of great importance to free up this medium by “air”-ing things for the first time.
Such has been the case with the Forrest Bride box set, Good Rester, Alch3mi$t, Daniel Lofthagen, and, likely, others.
I am hoping that through this effort, a higher associative context will be allowed to manifest – perhaps the one for which I gesture.
Universe Premiers….“

[[The self-titled debut Good Rester EP mixes dusty echoes of Bristol-style trip-hop, the phantasmal innocence of Arovane's Lilies, and the decaying clatter of rust-stained machinery. The result is sonic architecture that melds the reverential awe of cathedral space with the persistent cacophony of urban density. Good Rester suggests we can still find a place for introspection and bliss, even amidst all this twenty-first century noise. -Mark Teppo]]

Just before you sleep, you are good resting. Body-listening and blurred sense of time are the sensory modalities. This self-titled debut EP is a document of the tension and tranqulity of Queens. The name Good Rester is taken from an elementary school poster of Siskind’s, in which classmates deemed him a Good Rester.

Burgeoning in the echoes of post-industrial Queens and Long Island City, the music of Good Rester is a nexus of old ideas and new ones, a synthesis of harsh elements and serenity. Siskind’s environmental recordings ground the work in time and space -from the ruined halls of an amphitheater in Pompeii to Bhutanese monks dancing on the Brooklyn waterfront.

Good Rester woke in the NYC January of 2008 when producer/artist Fognode aka Brian Siskind met Karen Y Chan, joined former band mate Andy Alexander of Let’s Say Baltimore and introduced their voice, lyrical projections and textures to his own storied ruminations. Play in the temporal and the ether is the reason for voice, dub, and analog synthesizer.

Beat Hollow
May 2009 NYC

www.fognode.com/beathollow
www.myspace.com/goodrester
www.virb.com/goodrester