The Compositions of David Mansbach:
"There is a folk legend of a little boy who finds in the forest a bird with a beautiful song and brings it home. He asks his father to bring food for the bird. The father doesn't want to feed a mere bird, so he kills it. And the legend says the man killed the bird, and with the bird he killed the song, and with the song, he killed himself. He dropped dead, completely dead, and was dead forever." ~Joseph Campbell
Trepanning Trio is an instrumental avant-chamber ensemble named for a surgery in which a hole is drilled into the human skull. Cave paintings indicate that people believed the practice would cure seizures, migraines, and mental disorders by letting evil spirits escape.
Trepanning Trio is the passion project of Infinite Number of Sounds co-founder and producer David Mansbach. Since its "unofficial" formation in 1998, David has invited fourteen musicians from all over the United States (and Ireland) to record using only classical, traditional and handmade instruments (i.e., violin, viola da gamba, stem glasses, guzheng, pan lids screwed onto sticks and played with violin bows, etc). Hours of material was recorded, scattered across reels of tape and archived on several generations of studio computers and hard drives until it was finally organized into two distinct bodies of work:
"I am a Crooked Arrow" is a collection of string compositions and sweet little songs inspired by a disparate amalgam of film, literature and music.
"The Man Killed the Bird..." is an album of recent recordings of tones, textures and themes fueled by creative improvisation and unlikely collaborations.
Ten musicians will assemble at the Beachland Tavern (15711 Waterloo Rd, Cleveland, OH 44110) on Friday, February 13, 2009, to perform selections from "I am a Crooked Arrow" and "The Man Killed the Bird..."
David Mansbach met with John Panza of Heights.Arts.Radio to talk about Trepanning Trio and its Friday, February 13, double CD release at The Beachland. Listen to the interview here:
http://heightsartsradio.blogspot.com/
