RIO Drop-In Centre

Twins!

(Sank-ohso Discs/Creativeman Disc., CMDD-00030) (CD)

1. Wacked/ Herb Robertson (parent) (3:58)
2. Exercises for Currency/ Yoshihide Otomo (twin) (6:51)
3. 3 Bear Rooms (Dust)/ Chris Cutler (parent) (4:42)
4. The Power of Success/ Bob Ostertag (twin) (5:44)
5. Fruits from Viet Nam/ Michiyo Yagi (parent) (3:55)
6. 4 Rooms of Hong Kong Stuntman/ Yoshihide Otomo (twin) (6:35)
7. YouÕre Going Nowhere/ Bob Ostertag (twin) (5:28)
8. Tabbing Will Get You There Faster/ Bob Ostertag (twin) (5:08)
9. Otok/ Yoshihide Otomo (twin) (6:23)

Track 1
Herb Roberson: a Holton trumpet and Le Roy S. Green mouthpieces exclusively
This trumpet solo was performed plunger muted.
Recorded February 28, 1996 at the Corner Store Syndicate Studio, Brooklyn, New York
Engineered by Jon Rosenberg

Tracks 2, 6, 9
Yoshihide Otomo: sampler and hard-disk recorder
Sampled guests: Sachiko Matsubara (voice-2; sampling materials-6), Yumiko Tanaka (shamisen and vocal-6), Shuichi Chino (piano-6)
Recorded July 2-5, 1996 at Lost Space in Tokyo
Recorded and mixed by Yoshihide Otomo

Track 3
Chris Cutler: gongs, tubular bell, kit drums, Tibetan finger cymbals, clay drum, woodblock, tambourine and radio
Composed by Chris Cutler
Produced at Studio Midi-Pyrenees in Caudeval, France, 1996
Engineered by Bob Drake

Tracks 4, 7, 8
Bob Ostertag: sampler
Recorded June-July, 1996 in San Francisco
Recorded and mixed by Bob Ostertag

Track 5
Michiyo Yagi: 17-string and standard kotos
Composed and arranged by Michiyo Yagi
Recorded January 31, 1996 at Sound Pot in Tokyo
Engineered by Masaki Sasaki
Recording adviser: Akikazu Nakamura

Bob Ostertag used an Ensoniq ASR-10 sampler, EmagicÕs Logic Audio and Deck II.

Produced by Shigenori Noda
Mastered July 14, 1996 at Infinite Audio in San Francisco
Engineered by Bob Ostertag
Cover concept: Bob Ostertag and Yoshihide Otomo
Photography: Phyllis Christopher
Design and artwork: wokshy-oishi

*Notes of making ÒtwinsÓ
Step 1: Ostertag, Otomo and Noda each choose a Òparent.Ó
Step 2: Each ÒparentÓ makes a piece of their choosing.
Step 3: Ostertag and Otomo each make a ÒtwinÓ using pieces of the Òparent.Ó

*Twins! is also a variation of Yoshihide OtomoÕs Sampling Virus Project.

Released 1996

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For those who are unfamiliar with the works of Mr Ostertag. Here is a little information from Wikipeida

Early career

Raised in Colorado, Ostertag studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. In 1976, he formed the improvisation ensemble Fall Mountain with Ned Rothenberg on reeds and Jim Katzin on violin, himself on electronic keyboard. The ensemble released Early Fall in 1979.

Later that same year, Ostertag relocated to New York City, where he befriended John Zorn, Fred Frith, Zeena Parkins, and several other musicians interested in collaborative improvisation. In 1980, Ostertag released Getting A Head with guitarist Fred Frith and drummer Charles Noyes. Ostertag's use of sampling, tape manipulation, and electronic self-made instruments created a unique sound and approach to improvised music. Following the release of Getting A Head, Ostertag became the first of his generation of musicians to have his work presented at The Kitchen, at the time New York City's premiere venue for new music.

[edit] Musical inactivity

With his sudden success came a greater involvement in politics, specifically in the turbulent revolutions and counter-revolutions of South America in the 1980's. In response to the political climate, Ostertag released Voice of America. As Ostertag became increasingly involved in such political issues, and increasingly dissatisfied with the music industry, he moved to El Salvador in 1982 and, for the nearly seven years, abandoned music altogether. His experiences in El Salvador were later synthesized into his piece Sooner or Later.

Ostertag became an expert on the political crisis in Central America and published widely for a diverse range of publications, including Piensamiento Propio (Nicaragua) Piensamiento Critico (Puerto Rico), The Guardian (London), the Weekly Mail (South Africa), Mother Jones and the NACLA Report on the Americas (US), AMPO (Japan), and even the clandestine theoretical journal of the New People's Army in the Philippines. He alternates his time in Central America with organizing and public speaking in the US, giving lectures at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Rutgers, and many other schools and institutions.

[edit] Return to music

Ostertag returned to music in 1989 and toured with Fred Frith's Keep the Dog. Ostertag released Attention Span in 1990, featuring Frith on guitars and John Zorn on saxophone. Ostertag follows Attention Span with the release of Sooner or Later, his musical response to his years in El Salvador and the first part of a trilogy to treat the themes of grief, anger, and joy. In 1992, The Kronos Quartet commissions a new work from Ostertag. This commission produces the landmark work All the Rage. Ostertag composed the piece using a recording of a riot for gay rights in San Francisco. Ostertag originally conceived All the Rage as a collaboration with writer/painter/photographer/film maker David Wojnarowicz, but David was ill with AIDS. When David dies before the collaboration can take place, Ostertag makes a second, solo piece from the riot recordings, Burns Like Fire, and dedicates it to Wojnarowicz. In 1993, Ostertag forms Say No More, a virtual quartet, with drummer Joey Baron, bassist Mark Dresser, percussionist Gerry Hemingway. The group's music was actually composed by a computer and sampler from separate individual performances and then released as Say No More in 1993, the live - In Person in 1994, Verbatim in 1996 and Verbatim Flesh & Blood in 2000.

In 1999, after 10 years working with the same sampler, Ostertag switches to a laptop computer and begins writing his own audio performance software through Max/MSP. This allows him use various controllers, including joysticks, game pads, and drawing tablets in his performances. This same year, Ostertag releases Like A Melody, No Bitterness his first CD of solo improvisation. This CD is a tribute to his sampler that he spent the last decade mastering as an instrument. Ostertag has also scored multimedia pieces such as Spiral in 1996. In 2000, Ostertag begins work with Pierre Hébert and Baltazar López on a full-scale multi-media and theater work, Between Science and Garbage, commissioned by Meet the Composer and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.