Moe! Staiano’s Moe!Kestra! | Two Forms of Multitudes: Conducted Improvisations

All compositions, conductions and arrangements by Moe! Staiano. Note: The pieces are two large compositions as a whole. The indexes are provided for convenience only. Part of Conducted Improvisation Piece No. 4 was previously released on the KFJC compilation ‘Ghost Machine; Live from KFJC 89.7 FM’ (2002). The first ten minutes were edited out (hence the fade-in) to accomodate the duration of a single CD. © 2003 Moe! Staiano Continue reading

Moe! Staiano’s Moe!Kestra! | An Inescapable Siren Within Earshot Distance Therein And Other Whereabouts

Moe! Staiano’s Moelkestra!: Two Compositions for Large Orchestra. Produced and mastered by Dan Rathbun, November,2004 at Polymorph Studios, Oakland, California, USA Co-produced/policed by Gino Robair, Jonathan Segal, Moe! Staiano and Michael Zelner. Piece No.7 recorded live in performance by Michael Zelner, June 3,2003 at the Oakland Theater Box, Oakland,California. Piece No.5 recorded by Cuco Daglio and Guy Brenner, November 7,1998,attheYerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California for the OPUS415 Marathon *4. Note:The pieces are two large (and yet,separate) compositions as a whole.The indexes are provided for convenience only. All compositions, conductions and arrangements by Moe! Staiano. Design by Dan Kletter. Photos by Peter Conheim (Piece No.5 image) and Dave Grossman (everything else) © & © 2006 Moe! Staiano, © 2006 Rastascan Records, © 2006 Amanita Records. Continue reading

Moe! Staiano’s Moe!Kestra! | Two Rooms Of Uranium Inside 83 Markers: Conducted Improvisations Vol. II

Moe! Staiano founded the Moe!kestra! project back in the beginning of 1997. The idea came from a show he did in 1996 in Berkeley at a place called Beanbenders where he gathered some dozen or so musicians to do a simple instruction, playing a one sustained note from soft, quite, crescendoing into a loud frenzy before playing free and all totally out while Moe! destroys several television sets and lighting off Whistling Pete’s fireworks (a frantic and future Moe!kestra! player Bill Horvitz had to momentarily stop Moe! to save his guitar amp that was in harms way). At the end of the show o all the excitement and cheering, Brian Hall (from Ubzub) was shouting “Moechestra! Moechestra!” This gave Moe! the idea of working in a large orchestra format and started writing text instructional scores (Moe! has no music theory, so he needed to describe how the musicians play his scores though there are some notated parts, both traditional and graphically) and wrote Piece No.1: Death of A Piano, which was loosely based on the 1996 performance and literally requires the actual destruction of a piano, which has been performed in about six times total. Continue reading

Jim Ryan’s Forward Energy | Configurations 2002 | Edgetone Records

In what appears to be taking shape as the dark ages of the early 21st century simply endorsing the music that comprises Configurations 2002 – buying it, listening to it, and above all making it — can be seen as an act of rebellion. With political and cultural hegemony increasingly becoming the new world order of the day, radical free-thinking creativity runs directly counter to the seemingly inexorable tendencies of globalization and AOLTime Warner assembly line entertainment. It takes refuge in such virtually undisclosed locations as 21 Grand, The Luggage Store Gallery, 1502 Performance Space, and Kimo’s, venues unknown to the general public while faithfully sustained by the San Francisco Bay Area’s creative music community. On one day in May, 2001, and three days in January, 2002, Jim Ryan gathered the various configurations of his aptly named Forward Energy ensemble in those subterranean haunts and recorded five hours of spontaneous music-making, which have been distilled into this potent double CD. — Derk Richardson Continue reading