Mark Allender and Matt Coffman - "Jack Szechuan" Copal - "Ice Crystal" Ashia - "Fossil" Local Lingo - "Third Sight" Hi everybody! This comes to you from my new place of employment - Mars horsecare us, inc. I am outside of the main plant as I recorded this - fighting the wind - so please don't mind the odd gusts that blow into my microphone! It adds character, right? First up on the show is a collaboration between me and my longtime friend Matt Coffman. He and I have been friends since high school. In the wake of the events of the past year, I have asked a lot of my friends to contribute artwork as I rebuild my new life (an incredibly healing thing to do by the way if you find yourself in a similar situation and have a lot of creative friends). So in the spirit of this, I asked Matt if he would help me put together a recording of one of the old tunes we used to do in a we were in together called North River Company. So over the past couple weeks we got together and laid down some tracks -- with me on violin. I'm far from being a competant violinist, but I can put out a fire with it ... so I hope you enjoy it! Copal is a group out of Boston featuring violinist Hannah Thiem and cellist Joe Ball. Together with electronica artist Ammon Ep, they create a wonderful mix electronica and Arabic idioms. Fascinating work. This group has recently released a full-length disc entitled eso-terra. Ashia - a cellist with Cirque de Soleil in Las Vegas, makes her second appearance on this show. Her passionate, vaguely sinister delivery brings a unique quality to what she calls her "songs about nostalgia, desire, transcendence, and love ." Wild, seductive, yet understated. Local Lingo is the collaboration of violinist Jason Kao-Hwang and Sang Won Park, who plays traditional Korean instruments such as kayagum and ajaeng. Both are veterans of the celebrated Far East Side Band, but in this incarnation, they bring an intimacy to their intercultural improvisations. Thanks everybody! Take care! Mark Allender, producer-host www.bowed.org Less