Out Now: END TIMES TRIO

"Fracture Time"

End Times Trio's first CD, "Fracture Time," is out now. This release features Richard Gilman-Opalsky on drums and percussion, with Frank Trompeter on alto, tenor, and soprano saxes, and Mark Schwartz on guitar. They cover the spectrum from noise to freejazz to bop. Two of guitarist Mark Schwartz’s graphic scores are performed here, prompting the group to create a wild canvas of sounds that mesh together brilliantly. Each individual piece on this disc contains diverse elements of jazz, freejazz, and explosive cacophony. If you want to hear bop lines organically expanded into freejazz frenzy, and naturally blown into ecstatic noise, buy this CD.

The CD is available at CDBaby. Check it out for more info and sound clips.

END TIMES TRIO is the only freejazz ensemble based and working in Springfield, the capital city of Illinois. The trio features:

FRANK TROMPETER (saxophones) is a long-time mainstay of the central Illinois jazz scene, playing regularly in a number of jazz ensembles including his own Frank Trompeter Quartet. Trompeter has also played in experimental groups such as Elevator Shoe and The Untoward Quartet, and was the chief organizer of The Innovators New Music Series in Springfield.


MARK SCHWARTZ (guitar and bass) is an improvising musician who has played with Trompeter in The Untoward Quartet and recently in the experimental group, Liquid Sun. Schwartz also plays in Tin Ghost, an alt-folk/roots music project. He often uses objects, metal, toys, and electronics to prepare his guitar and bass, and evokes a range of percussive and horn-like tones.

RICHARD GILMAN-OPALSKY (drums and percussion) is a freejazz musician who relocated to Springfield from NYC to take a position as professor of political philosophy at The University of Illinois. In NYC, Gilman-Opalsky was one half of the saxophone and drums duo, Fire&Flux, which released two full-length albums and one EP. Gilman-Opalsky has performed and recorded with saxophonist Blaise Siwula, Japanese pianist Katsuyuki Itakura, and has split bills with Sabir Mateen, Ras Moshe, and Daniel Carter.

Press Quote:
“End Times Trio, is a local instrumental ensemble whose members have termed their music ‘uneasy listening.’ The trio’s music may be difficult for the average listener to understand; the musicians vamp on unusual scales and tempos… It’s supposed to stretch the boundaries of your listening capabilities and challenge your preconceived notions of melody, harmony, and rhythm. Richard Gilman-Opalsky, an acclaimed freejazz percussionist and drummer, moved to Springfield from New York City last year to take a position as assistant professor of political philosophy at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Music gods be blessed, he found Frank Trompeter, local jazz saxophonist, avid free-jazz performer, and, a few years back, main organizer of the Innovators New Music Series, the closest thing to avant-garde jazz music Springfield has heard. With the addition of Mark Schwartz on bass and guitar, the group was ready to play dynamic improvised music that treads a sonic terrain from sparse and melodic to dense, blustery cacophony.” -Tom Irwin, Illinois Times, June 28, 2007

New Fire&Flux duo CD out now!

This is Fire&Flux's 2nd CD. This CD was recorded live in New York City just before Rich moved to Illinois and Ben moved to Oregon. This CD documents the end of our time in New York together after 8 years of musical collaboration of one kind or another.

FIRE&FLUX
Benjamin Kates / Alto Saxophone
Richard Gilman-Opalsky / Drums and Percussion

Track Info:
We Support... is a completely improvised piece that covers most of the ground of what this duo was about.
New York on Two Hands is named after a poem Rich wrote and reads as part of the performance. We played this piece in a show space which require very, very quiet playing.
An Aphorism on Time is almost completely composed and lasts for about a minute.
Such Small Hands is a ballad with a head. This was the last song we played at our last show. It's our love song named for an EE Cummings poem that ends with the words "no one, not even the rain, has such small hands."

This CD differs F&F's first release by capturing the duo at the height of their powers. Between a piece that incorporates spoken word (NY on Two Hands), two pieces with composed heads (An Aphorism... and Such Small...) and the increased quality of the individual players this disc represents a leap forward for the duo.

Click here to read more, hear samples and buy it.

Split 7"!

We now have a split 7" available from Namenlos, a Swedish label run by Peter Henning. Our side has a song from our East Village Radio show from 2006. The other side features Kaburu: "Swedish duo Kaburu are working with spaces, bleak timbres and experimental instrumentation; scattered sounds slowly paint ghostly patterns over a dark, lo-fi canvas." It's really quite expensive unfortunately but it's a really beautiful package - as is everything Peter releases. Peter also featured a long interview with F&F in an issue of his 'zine which, unfortunately, is no longer available. But you can read the interview elsewhere on this site. We have a few copies each so if you see End Times Trio or Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! you may be able to get your hands on a copy for a substantially discounted rate.

Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! - Self Rule (F&FR #02) Available now!

Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! "Self Rule", the 2nd release on Fire&Flux Recordings, is available now from CD Baby. Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! is Ben from F&F's new band. Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! is a quartet of Ben on alto sax, Heather Vergotis (ex-Evolutionary Jass Band) on tenor sax, John Niekrasz (Poor School) on drums and Seth Brown (The Merce Cunningham Duo) on Rhodes piano. Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! play ecstatic free improv/noise. They just completed a two week west coast tour during which John Gruntfest and Wally Shoup sat in for a couple of sets. The CD was recorded at Evergreen state college in Olympia, WA by Evan Hashi. The packaging is made from recycled material with silk screening by Sky & Boat.

Brotzmann, Sun Ra & punk rock come together with very responsive playing. Rich says it reminds him of Glenn Spearman. On Noiseweek's Cold 100 Chart in September. Click here to read what about Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! in Sacramento over the summer.

Head over to our CD Baby page and pick up a copy.

Where and What is Fire&Flux NOW?!?

Over the summer of 2006, as Fire&Flux was starting to get more consistent and excellent performance opportunities, as well as exciting offers to play in other groups, Rich moved to Illinois and Ben moved to Oregon. Our 8 year musical collaboration is now on hiatus as we figure out how to rethink new collaborations with 2000 miles between us. While we puzzle out the answer to this riddle wrapped inside an enigma, you should know that the following is happening:

• Fire&Flux has a split 7" out now with Kaburu, a Swedish free improv band, as part of Peter Henning's multimedia project.  Get this by clicking here. Fire&Flux was interviewed at length for #2 of this project, and this interview is now readable on our site.

• Rich has formed a new freejazz trio with saxophonist Frank Trompeter and guitarist Mark Schwartz. The group is called END TIMES TRIO. This trio will proliferate heavy "out" sounds as far as possible throughout the midwest. CLICK HERE FOR END TIMES TRIO ON MYSPACE!
  

• Ben is playing in a group called Thicket with the drummer from Poor School. They played their first show 9/17 in Portland, OR. The owner told them to play quieter. Good start! Ben is also playing in a quartet called Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! You can buy the new CD by cicking here.
  

• Just before leaving NYC (July 2006), Rich recorded a studio session with Blaise Siwula (saxophones) and Katsuyuki Itakura (piano). Blaise Siwula is a mainstay of the DIY downtown NYC freejazz scene and Katsuyuki Itakura is a Japanese pianist who has also played and recorded with Peter Brotzmann and Keshavan Maslak. This session will be commercially released on a label TBA soon. Check back for details.

• Fire&Flux also has a considerable backlog of recorded work that may be released in some form or another in the future. So please check this site for news on more Fire&Flux releases.

• Finally, we should reveal that there are some additional reasons why we are maintaining this site even though our musical duo is no longer in action: Benjamin Kates and Richard Gilman-Opalsky WILL BE working on something together as soon as possible. Whether that collaborative work is a new record label, a new web-zine, a vehicle for releasing more Fire&Flux music, or just the promise of more sonic bombast from the two of us, whatever project we do together will be called "Fire&Flux" and it will be represented here.  You can check out all of our releases on CD Baby by clicking this link.
  

CD out now: Leavens for Rebellion. The CD is culled from two live performances at The Lucky Cat in Brooklyn, NY in January and February of 2005.

"Leavens for Rebellion" contains five tracks that total about 50 minutes of playback and an insert providing some textual context for each piece.

UTECH RECORDS IS PRESENTLY SOLD OUT OF THE CD, so credit card purchases must be made using the CD Baby (click!) website! Go to CD Baby (click!) for sound samples and credit card ordering.

RIGHT NOW, YOU CAN PURCHASE OUR CD FOR 0NLY $5.00 IF YOU ORDER 2 OTHERS FROM THE "3-FOR-$5-SPECIAL" AT CD BABY -- CHECK OUT THE FREEJAZZ SELECTIONS IN THE "3-FOR-$5-SPECIAL" BY CLICKING HERE!

The title of our CD, "Leavens for Rebellion", was derived from the following:

"Obviously, Anarchism, or any other social theory, making man a conscious social unit, will act as a leaven for rebellion... High strung, like a violin string, they weep and moan for life, so relentless, so cruel, so terribly inhuman. In a desperate moment the string breaks. Untuned ears hear nothing but discord. But those who feel the agonized cry understand its harmony; they hear in it the fulfillment of the most compelling moment of human nature." -Emma Goldman, 1917

Utech Records is a small label run out of Wisconsin that has released CDs from freejazz notables such as Frode Gjerstad, Paal Nilssen-Love, and Steve Hubback, among others. Check it out!

Fire&Flux Recordings is a small record label run by Rich & Ben.  We played music together for over 8 years in various forms when we both lived in New York City.  In the summer of 2006 we both left for different parts of the country and continue our musical collaboration through this label.