mindSpiral
mind12Spiral - into mountain skies
In 2012, I learned of my friend Greg Waltzer’s intention to start a new electronic music festival in the lovely city of Asheville, North Carolina. He had named it Mountain Skies, and he asked me to join the roster for the inaugural festival. I was very happy to accept. For that show, I wanted a group that was a bit out of the ordinary, and I got it.
My traveling companion for the flight to Asheville was my daughter AJ, aged 11 and with a quietly growing interest in ambient music. She’d obtained the Aura Flux app for her iPod and had gotten very good with it, performing live on StillStream under the artist name Mystery Bubble, and had garnered a fair number of fans.
At the show, we met up with Atlanta-based guitarist and experimental musician Kevin Haller, known for acts like Killer Haven and Burning Artist(s) Sale. Kevin was a Different Skies alumnus and a great human being; he and I had often discussed playing together out of the context of a large group setting, and two prior performances at the Kansas City Electro-Music festival hadn’t afforded us the opportunity to do so. Here was our chance!
Our set was well received, considering that it was completely improvised and we’d had no time to rehearse… and I was completely loopy from sleep deprivation and trying to keep one eye on AJ, who was performing for her first audience as a musician (she already had some stage experience as an actor and singer).
At the show, we met up with Atlanta-based guitarist and experimental musician Kevin Haller, known for acts like Killer Haven and Burning Artist(s) Sale. Kevin was a Different Skies alumnus and a great human being; he and I had often discussed playing together out of the context of a large group setting, and two prior performances at the Kansas City Electro-Music festival hadn’t afforded us the opportunity to do so. Here was our chance!
Our set was well received, considering that it was completely improvised and we’d had no time to rehearse… and I was completely loopy from sleep deprivation and trying to keep one eye on AJ, who was performing for her first audience as a musician (she already had some stage experience as an actor and singer).
There’s never been an official audio release, but a pretty decent video of the performance can be found on YouTube, at this link. It’s about 45 minutes long, and I hope you enjoy it.
Kevin left us suddenly and far too soon in 2013, and I treasure the memory of this particular Spiral.
