KESZLER, ELI - Cold Pin

Over two years in the making, Cold Pin is the new full-length record by Eli Keszler. Both a composition and stand-alone installation, 14 strings ranging in length from 25 to 3 feet are strung across a 15x40 curved wall, with motors attacking the strings, connected by microcontrollers, pick-ups and RCA cables. Recorded in Bostons historic Cyclorama, a massive dome built to house the Cyclorama of the Battle of Gettysburg painting in 1884. The B-side features, in addition, a dry" version of the installation with motor attacks on metal squares rather than strings, creating dense percussive clusters. Cold Pin works within the frame work of left-to-right time and vertical structure. The installation acts as the architecture of the music, surrounding and immersing the live instruments into incredible density and sharp, angular mass shapes, and functions alone as the performers stop. Rather than an individual sound, the sustained horns, strings, drums and metallic attacks function as a singular unit, and continue, too, when they stop alongside the installation. Cold Pin features Eli Keszler (drums, crotales installation and guitar), Geoff Mullen (guitar), Ashley Paul (clarinet, guitar, greenbox), Greg Kelley (trumpet), Reuben Son (bassoon) and Benjamin Nelson (cello). Eli Keszler is a composer, artist and multi-instrumentalist based in New York City. In performance, he often plays drums, bowed crotales and guitar in conjunction with his installations. In his ensemble compositions, he uses extended strings, motors, crotales, horns and mechanical devices to create his sound, balancing intense harmonic formations with acoustic sustain, fast, jarring rhythm, mechanical propulsion, dense textures and detailed visual presentations. He has most recently won the Mata composers competition for the 2012 season. Eli Keszler is a graduate of the New England Conservatory in Boston where he studied with Anthony Coleman and Ran Blake. Limited edition of 500 copies, pressed on 140 gram vinyl housed in a silk screened PVC sleeve. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering." -Pan