
We will be recording a new Convergence Ensemble CD in Feb 2010
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Alaniaris:Residency
Sundays in March and April at Somewhere There
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March 2010
Eastern Canada Solo tour
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Convergence Ensemble and Hat & Beard Residency in May and June at Somewhere There
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Study In

Ken's solo music, as documented on Vocabulary, makes stylistic reference to several traditions that are key components of his composite sound-world: Especially, classic electric blues, modern jazz, and Derek Bailey-inspired free improvisation. He filters these through two key characteristics that are at the core of his improvising language: Tightly dissonant middle-register chording and a provocative tension between 'speaking style' parlando rubato phrasing (of both single lines and chording) and groove (whether implicit or explicit).
Though working primarily with a relatively clean tone of his electric hollow-body instrument, Ken judiciously exploits the possibilities of distortion and, with various looping and processing devices, can create spidery, multidimensional lattices of sound, as on the Vocabulary track, "Pre-am-ble." All told, Ken's solo music is a clear distillation (or, perhaps, the generative seed) of his entire musical output, and his concerns as a composer and bandleader are drawn logically and fundamentally from his seminal work as an improvising guitarist.