Sander Roscoe Wolff

The amazingly talented electric guitarist Scott Heustis embraced a rather odd challenge I tossed his way: To play an entirely acoustic set. He confessed that he’d not even owned an acoustic guitar in 10 years but, shortly after my query, ran out and purchased one. Orlando was hesitant that his upright might not carry well without support, but he left his amplification in the car. I, for some reason, felt inspired to tackle the upright piano that had, according to reports, been recently tuned.

Despite the late hour, and the chill in the air, the room was fairly packed with friends new and old. We stepped off the edge of the cliff, with no rehearsal, discussion, or planning and just played.

I made a room recording which, unfortunately, didn’t capture Scott’s guitar as well as I’d hoped. Still, if you listen you can hear everything.

After a rather boisterous romp in Part 5, I was overcome by melancholy due to some dear friends experiencing a personal tragedy. This was expressed in Part 6.

Anyway, it was quite a ride, and we were all sweaty at the end.

I’ve been an avid photographer since I made my first pin hole camera at the age of 6. I’ve always been attracted to the structure of industrial areas, and especially love how time weathers machines and equipment.

There’s an old oil refinery not far from where I live and, whenever I drive past it, I’d been called to capture it photographically. I’d been wanting to stop and take pictures of it for years. In fact, I’d been telling a fellow photographer in Tennessee about it back in October of last year, and he’d been bugging me ever since to send him some shots.

Well, on Thursday June 30th I met a friend at 8 AM for a bagel and, on my way home, noticed that I had my big lens and camera in my car. On a whim, I decided to stop at the refinery and take some pictures.

Here are some of the images I took that morning:

As I was finishing up, a Long Beach Police officer pulled up, exited his car, and spoke with me. The encounter is well documented in two articles on LBPost.com. The first is titled “Another Resident Detained by Police for Taking Pictures,” and the second, “Police Chief Confirms Detaining Photographers Within Departmental Policy.”

On Monday, September 12th, 2011, I was

by Jay Thomas on his Sirius/XM satellite radio show, channel 104.

I have been curating music performances for art openings at Sipology Village Gallery in Downtown Long Beach for several months. The performances take place in the cafe next to the gallery. Sumako, the art curator, invited me to do this because I have some experience bringing interesting artists to Long Beach, and have worked with him both at the now sadly defunct Koos Art Center, and at the first Experimental Music show I produced at The Puka Bar, which led to the creation of Ain Soph Aur.

October’s art show was scheduled to be a visual retrospective of the past 6 years of SoundWalk, and the event was scheduled for the 2nd Saturday, the 9th of October. Normally, art openings at Sipology Village are on the 2nd Saturday of every month but, because of some logistical challenges, the event was moved to the 1st Saturday, the 2nd. Thus, I moved the planned music for the Gallery opening to the 2nd.

I planned a series of performances, one flowing into the next, with several combinations of artists interacting. I recorded all but one performance, missing that one because my PA wasn’t used for it. So, here’s the line-up, with links to MP3s of each.

The Second State

5:00 – 6:00:

6:00 – 7:00:
7:00 – 8:00:
8:00 – 9:00: Orlando Greenhill
9:00 – 10:00:

Instrumentation

Sander Roscoe Wolff – Voice, Guitar, Bells, Environmental Recordings, Recorder, Penny Whistle, Bone Samples, Effects
Jeremy Morelock – Midi Guitar, Ethnic Samples, Voice, Lute, Effects
Sumako – Custom Fretless Fernandez Electric Guitar, Kaossolators
Mike Weber – Lap Steel, Delay
Orlando Greenhill – Upright acoustic Bass, Electric Bass, Voice, Antics

I was traveling recently to the Pacific Northwest, and took a handful of photographs in and around an area I was visiting.

Here they are:

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Artists, cultural leaders, musicians, business owners, and others talk with me about arts and culture in Long Beach.

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I volunteered to do some sound design work for a fledgling theater group’s 2nd annual 6 play festival. One of the plays took place in Heaven, Earth, and Hell. I created a soundscape for Heaven using trombone and voice, and one for

using audio from a live performance by sound artists SMGSAP. The director decided not to use the tracks I produced, but I rather liked the piece I created, so I thought I’d share it here:

I’ve received quite a few mixed reactions from folks who have listened to it. Most find it pleasing, but decidedly unheavenly. That’s ok. It feels reverential, peaceful, and heavenly to me.

Please feel free to leave comments.

I was unhappy with the photos I took a while back of the completed Sandblaster guitar, so I gave it another go:

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Some time ago my dear friend Mike gave me a non-functional Kalamazoo Series 2 Amp. It is a small thing, just 8 watts, made by Gibson in 1965. It was a low-end, entry level, guitar amp that used a British style tube design, and was made with the cheapest materials available. The box was particle board, the covering was a paper thin tolex-like material, and the speaker was probably made by CMI.

I handed it off to Mark Cox of Anything Audio and he rebuilt it, making a number of modifications I requested along the way.

After I got it back, and began to realize just how much of a wee screamer it was, I decided that living in it’s cheap and disintegrating particle-board home was just too sad. I knew a fellow, Larry Bott, whose artistic wood creations I’d greatly admired. I asked him if he’d be willing to fabricate a cabinet from scratch, and he said yes!

It’s not quite done yet, but it’s very close. He used beautiful African Mahogany, and is finishing it with a classic French shellac. I took a few pictures just so I could show it off, and here they are:

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