NEWS
March 30th 2025
Hello Friends,
It is hard to believe that we are through the first quarter of the year.
Yesterday was the third New Moon of the year. Hopefully, those of you in the Northeast and Europe were able to witness the partial solar eclipse that came with it.
On Friday, I released a split with ZWIAN. The first track, Alchemy Laboratory, was the session on the Crea8audio East Beast that felt worthy of sharing. The second track, With No Destination, started with remnant delay from an Acoustics recording session. The experience reminded me of Zhuangzhi’s “Free and Easy Wandering” or “The Radiance of Drift and Doubt” (Whether you prefer the Watson or Ziporyn translation).
April 5th will be the release show. Hope to see some of you there.
Click Here to Check Out the Split
The other thing that’s been on my mind is the article “Is our universe trapped inside a black hole?” from Space.com.
This article reveals observations of the James Webb Space Telescope that around two-thirds of the galaxies in our universe spin clockwise. One explanation for this is that our universe was born in a black hole.
As I continue working on Unformed/Without Form, this serves as an interesting metaphor for the human experience. It is interesting to think of ourselves as mini universes within a universe: Unformed. Still-Forming.
It is interesting to think that we also seem to be periodically collapsing in ourselves to be reorganized in new and sometimes unrecognizable ways.
Speaking of collapsing on ourselves, I am realizing there is no need to be as ambitious with releases I previously stated. To give everyone more time to enjoy things, and to give myself more time to promote what I am working on, I am slowing down the pacing for my upcoming releases.
Here is an updated estimate:
Summer 2025: Northern Lights (Self-Released)
Fall/Winter 2025: Acoustics (Live) (Self-Released)
March 1st 2025
Hello!
February 27th marked a new moon, an invisible supermoon. The sky will be very active this month with some planetary alignments and a Full Lunar Eclipse on March 13tth and 14th.
Strings has been out for a month now. I owe a great deal of gratitude to Vital Weekly and Soundohm for their reviews.
Frans of Vital Weekly wrote "I enjoyed this interaction between the guitar and the electronic part quite a bit… it stays away from the more apparent approaches that could have been taken… it's not always a conventional noise release, going off in a brutalist form of electro-acoustic music."
Rigo of Soundhom added, "The second, again buzzing and humming, varies this with extreme maltreatment of the woody, spiky, skeletal acoustic guitar, reminiscent of Eugene Chadbourne's Rake."
Admittedly, I had to give Chadbourne's Constellation Rake a listen, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Now for some news!
I've been working on a split with ZWIAN. Cassettes and CDr's will be available March 28th on Bandcamp.
The two tracks I contributed are no-input and modular synthesis—perhaps the most musical thing yet for those of you wondering why I squander my musical talents playing with feedback and straining your ears. We will support the split with a release show on April 5th at Project Project in Omaha, NE.
I've also been working on a release featuring field recordings from the Mother's Day Solar Storm of 2024. Excited to share more about this. Then, in the late summer, I will release Acoustics (Live), capping the acoustics series.
List of Things:
Friday, March 28th: Split w/ ZWIAN (Self-Released)
Saturday, March 29th2025: New Moon
Saturday, April 5th: ZWIAN / Cast Off Form Release Show (Project Project)
Friday, May 23rd: Northern Lights (Self-Released)
Friday, July 25th: Acoustics (Live) (Self-Released)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Cast Off Form Releases Strings on Eh?
[ Omaha, Neb. ] – Cast Off Form and Eh? are proud to announce the release of Strings.
On the latest installment in the Acoustics Series, hear a solid cedar acoustic guitar accompanied by no-input mixing and modular synthesis.
Cast Off Form spent the latter part of 2023 and the entirety of 2024 exploring unconventional uses of the acoustic guitar. This experimentation resulted in a collection of densely layered, meditative soundscapes that showcase Cast Off Form's approach to electro-acoustic improvisation.
On Strings, the result is a percussive and droning album for fans of electro-acoustic improvisation, offering an immersive listening experience.
Jan 12th 2025
Hello!
The first full moon of the year is tomorrow if you live in the northern hemisphere.
The start of the year has been very cerebral. For reasons yet obscure, I am down the rabbit hole of astrophysics and contemplating the implications of Cosmic Microwave Background in my current work, Without Form (or perhaps Unformed).
It started with a thought: I wonder what the beginning sounded like. This is where I landed:
A quick summary: John G. Cramer, Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Washington in Seattle used data from Cosmic Microwave Background to estimate “the sound of the Big Bang.”
Hope to see you on February 7th at the soon to be rebranded Studio 62 in Omaha. I will continue exploring static, tape looping, and the newly added Theremin.
Here is a List of Upcoming Releases:
Strings (Eh?) - Coming in Jan/Feb 2025
Live Acoustics (Bandcamp) - Coming in March/April 2025
Nov 16th 2024
Strings is an upcoming release on Eh?. The work is an exclamation point on the acoustics series, an 18-month adventure exploring the possibilities of an acoustic guitar.
I continue to uncover fresh surprises. On Strings, the guitar opens as a percussion instrument before making a return to its earlier form as a feedback generator.
In this release, I also incorporated no-input mixing and modular synthesis, creating rich and dynamic soundscapes. Check out Strings soon on Eh?.
While working on the Acoustics series, I began another project with the working title Without Form.
Inspired by creation stories, I started making densely layered sonic walls that imagined what it sounded like before the beginning.
Without Form has also been an opportunity to practice painting. Primarily using different variations of black paint, I’ve been exploring what “formless and void” might have looked like.
Join me at Studio 62 at 8 p.m. on February 7th to experience the sights and sounds of Without Form.
© 2021 - 2024 by cast off form