It's taken a while, but New Thing at Novara is finally out (those of you in the US will have to wait til October 14th).

Its actually remix of an entire jazz festival - Novara Jazz 2006 - and a document of the frantic week I spent in a darkened Novara hotel room, going to the shows each evening, picking up recordings of them afterwards, and then putting everything together in time for the last night, where I performed the remix live in a medieval courtyard (w/ accompanying visual by the artist Luc Trevisani).

The remix is made of performances from Mina Agossi Trio, Di Terra Trio, Louis Moholo & Stan Tracey, Jelly Roll Morton, Fabrizio Ottaviucci, Nik Bärtsch's Ronin, Matthew Ship & Guillermo E Brown, Trovesi all'Opera, Galja Vranesevic & Fedor Ruskuc, David S Ware, & the World Saxophone Quartet.

This Saturday at 5pm, as part of Make Music New York, I'll be playing live on the streets of Williamsburg, at the junction of Metropolitan and Bedford Aves, outside 222 Metropolitan Ave. along w/ Bachelor Sound Machín.

There's no stage, no sponsors, and the amplifiers might blow up.

On May 4th, I will be taking part in an event called Hey Hey Glossolalia: The Erotics of Pedagogy (or something like that) at the Judson Church, Washington Square, NY.  There will be lectures from various artists, including Frances Stark, Liam Gillick & others.  I will be the house band.  There might, if I get my way, also be a gospel choir.

Next week I'm going to Vietnam for 2 weeks, to do some concerts with Vietnamese musicians.  Needless to say, I'm very excited about this...

One of the songs off of Some Beans & an Octopus, namely The Familiar Girl is hugely ripped off -- lyrically -- from Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn, The Fortress of Solitude, and so much more besides.

I took the idea for the song from a short story of his called out of the Vivian Relf out of the Men and Cartoons collection.

Spurred on by his great essay on plagiarism, the The Ecstacy of Influence, I sent him a copy of the album, and pointed out the, er, similarities.  His response?- "It's terrific, I like the song very much, and the album too!  Thanks so much for taking the inspiration"

I've just put online info about a load of new shows for September & October in the US (well, only SF), Germany, Austria & Portugal.  October dates for Italy will hopefully soon be confirmed, as well as November dates in Vietnam!

... due to a collapsed roof at the Silke Arp Bricht :(

Lots more shows - in Germany, Italy, Vietnam, you name it - coming soon.2

There 's a brand spanking new Vert  track, Rocket Man on a compilation of 3 remixes of music from the Hauschka album,  The Prepared Piano.  The album is called Versions of the Prepared Piano, and it's out on  Karaoke Kalk.

So far in reviews, Rocket Man's been described as "trip hop", "post-indie wave" and "jazz funk".  Any more offers?

I'm happy to announce the imminent premiere of the Vert band in Russia.  First, we have been contacted by agency or agencies unknown to provide expert consultation on the current, problematical plague of giant crabs in Murmansk.  As a front for this highly confidential work, we will appear at the Dialog Festival there on the 18th of March.

Once our work in Murmansk is finished, there are urgent matters requiring our attention in Saint Petersburg, matters which -- despite their urgency -- leave us free in the evenings for performances at Decadance on the 22nd, and Maina on the 23rd.

3

... I have added "Step Under the Bulbshine" to the player. It's a kind of flamenco/bossanova/r&b/newwave thing with a big hole in the middle, and it's about the little known fact that the sun actually makes this constant roaring noise that we're so used to that we just learn to ignore, to the point that we don't actually hear it any more, except for occasional moments where the sound is hidden by a shadow, and then you can suddenly hear what silence really sounds like.