By Ferruccio Martinotti
In the beginning was the legendary Leap of Faith Orchestra, a long-term
collaboration from 1993 to 2001, resumed in 2015, between David Peck (PEK
for the posterity), on clarinets, saxes, double reeds, voice and Glynis
Lomon (cello, voice) with various other regulars such as Mark McGrain
(trombone), Craig Schildhauer (bass), Yuri Zbitnov (drums), James Coleman
(theremin), Steve Norton (saxes, clarinets) plus many guests, as a “variable
geometry unit” blueprint. Hometurf: Boston, Mass; Team: Evil Ground Records.
To follow the transition orbit shifting Leap of Faith onto Turbulence and
the ever changing coordinates of the latter, it’s safe to read what PEK
himself has to say in the liner notes:
“I formed Turbulence in 2015 as I started to assemble players for the
Orchestra and Turbulence, its extended horn sections, along with guests on
other instruments, also records and performs as independent unit. As of this
writing in 2025, we have recorded over 50 albums on Evil Clown with greatly
varied ensembles. All the smaller Evil Clown bands are really more about a
general approach, rather than a specific set of musicians, A session gets
credited to Turbulence when it is mostly horn players and the only musician
on all of them is me. The sessions range from an early duet with Steve
Norton and me (Vortex Generation Mechanisms) to Turbulence Orchestra and
Sub-Units with as many as 25 performers and four albums by the side project
Turbulence Doom Choir which feature myself, multiple tubas. percussion,
electronics, signal processing and many other configurations”.
But who is PEK? Born in 1964, he approached clarinet and piano at a very
young age, before switching on alto and tenor sax in high school. After 10
years spent playing in rock bands and studying classical and jazz saxophone
with Kurt Heisig in San Josè, CA, PEK moved to Boston in 1989 to attend
Berklee where he studied tenor sax performance with George Garzone but it
was through the thriving improv scene of the city that he developed his
mature free language. Along with cellist Glynis Lomon, he played in the
Masashi Harada Sextet between 1990 and 1992, developing a deep musical
connection that continued following the MHS, first with Leaping Water Trio
for a few years and then with the first version of Leap of Faith in 1994.
PEK’s musical scope shows collaborations with many active improvisors of the
Boston scene including Raqib Hassan, Eric Zinman, Raphe Malik, Dennis
Warren, Glenn Spearman, B’Hob Rainey, Eric Rosenthal, Laurence Cook, Matt
Samolis, Martha Ritchey and, from 2015 on, he has accumulated a huge
“Arsenal of Equipment” with a grand purpose: “to address a primary aesthetic
problem of pure improvisation by using the large pool of instruments to make
long-form broad palate works. This very broad palate enables the long
improvisation to evolve with very different movements and pronounced
development over their length”.
The ammunition deployed in this record are as follows and we kindly invite
you not to skip it because such a list says (almost) all. PEK: clarinet,
basset horn, contralto and contrabass clarinets, alto and tenor sax, English
horn, bass flute, sheng, melodica, accordion, gravichord, daxophone, nagoya,
spiny norman, ifo violin. ifo percolator, soma pipe, moog subsequent,
novation peak, linnstrument controllers, syntrx, ms-20, nord stage 3,
17-string bass, (d)ronin, spring and chime rod boxes, noise tower, gongs,
plate gong, chimes, englephone, brontosaurus bell, cow bells, crotales,
glockenspiel, orchestral chimes and anvils, Tibetan chimes and bells,
electric chimes, array mbira, xylophone, balafon, log drums, wood and temple
blocks, danmo, ratchet, seed pod rattles, clown hammer, rubber chicken. John
Fugarino: trumpet, flugelhorn, French horn, trombone, melodica, penny
whistle, ocarina, prophet, orchestral castanets. Tom Swafford: violin. Scott
Samenfeld: upright electric bass, electric recorder. Should you be aware of
someone else playing brontosaurus bell, next round will be on us, promise.
Objection to Realismis the third Evil Clown session in a row to be
credited to Turbulence in around three weeks. The previous session (Golden
Ratio) sees the band as a sextet with four horns, bass and drums; the second
(Nested Phenomena) is the common Turbulence configuration, a three-horn
quintet, bass and a different drummer. According to PEK “it is interesting
to compare the improvisations of three Turbulence Units recorded in a three
week period. Of course, there are many common elements but the difference in
the ensembles, combined with the broad palette available at Evil Clown
Headquarters produced albums each with their own character”.
Here is PEK’s mission statement: “An advantage of improvisation over more
conventional music is that it does not rely on fixed instrumentation or
material which needs to be learned in advance. Accomplished improvisors,
like the group assembled here, can make interesting music regardless of any
last second changes to the lineup, so the last second change to a different
unit was in no way a destruction for this performance. The aesthetic problem
addressed to the ensemble is to make interesting music with the players and
the resources at hand, a change in ensemble changes the problem without in
any way preventing an interesting solution”. And this Livestream to YouTube
(two songs for more than one hour of music), recorded in January 2025, is
the crystal epitome of it: improv chamber music as an exhilarating ode to
freedom from schemes, paradigms and constraints, with a sort of piece of
mind mood that keeps in control the galloping of such a crazy array of
instruments, without pulling the reins of sheer, untamed, anarchic sounds.
Difficult to imagine a more effective antidote for these poisoned times,
let’s give PEK what he really deserves.