Electronic sounds and folk instruments in a soft but tongue-in-cheek mix; some(male)vocal harmony.

10 MP3 Songs
ELECTRONIC: Virtual Orchestra, FOLK: Modern Folk



Details:
Tim Mainland (b. 1950 with no plans for death) is a professor of Musical Composition, Music Theory and Classical Guitar at Concord University in West Virginia. An ethnic California Hippie, he grew up with Peter, Paul and Mary, Pete Seeger, Beethoven Piano Sonatas and the Beatles. Through his training in classical composition and electronic techniques he felt a constant battle with musical snobs who saw folk, pop music and jazz as vernacular and inferior to the European masters. Too bad, cause the European masters were all pretty good.

After decades of folk festivals, emcee-ing and banjo playing, and many serious concert performances of classical music Mainland did post grad work at NYU to discover that current technologies in sound production and recording made it possible to make the music he dreamed of at home on a PC with his vast collection of ethnic instruments and analog synths. Folksy singing, Margaret Jusiel's extraordinary woodwind playing, his considerable dexterity on fretted instruments and some hot equipment typify Capt. Lazerblast's rather original eclectic mix.

The name "Captain Lazerblast" comes from his beloved students at Concord College, who mostly just want to pass his classes.

On a Captain Lazerblast album you will find sweet soft sounds and swirling colors in a mostly contrapuntal texture. The lengths of the cuts and the forms are much like pop songs/ arts songs (which are in no way different from each other formally) with progressions ranging from static raga style to chromatic, progressive jazz. His songs lament lost love, unnecessary violence and careless centrism, and celebrate sound for the sake of sound.

Captain Lazerblast is an obsessed with making music and loving his friends. Hope you like it.
notes by Caspar Wicky - Dec. '04