ambibat @ 4th Annual C.O.M.A. Benefit for ABC No-Rio (6/16/02)

A year had past since the last ambibat show. We were unofficially broken up but when the 4th Annual C.O.M.A. Benefit for ABC No-Rio came around we thought it would be cool to stage a reunion, of sorts. For this performance we planned to have the two synth players who'd been in ambibat – Doug Walker and Eric Hoffman. But on the day of the show Doug couldn't make it because of his increasing health problems. He eventually lost the battle in 2006. RIP

For these benefit shows ABC No-Rio opens all four floors, plus the rooftop and garden, so there's a constant stream of music coming from every room for six hours. I was currently in documentary mode working on Bellmore: The Unscene so I brought along my camera and shot a bunch of footage of the benefit. My sister filmed the ambibat performance.

Here's what I pieced together using the footage I shot (ambibat is at 14:35)…



If you'd like to see a longer performance of ambibat, look below. I had two cameras going for our set. My sister had one and the other was on a tripod. When I combined the audio from the two cameras the sound would sometimes go out of sync causing an echo effect. I liked it so I left it.



ambibat
Frank Fusco - guitar, electronics
Chris Altenhoff - bass, electronics
Blaise Siwula - saxophone
Eric Hoffman - keyboard

To read about the first three C.O.M.A. Benefits for ABC No-Rio (click 1 2 or 3).

Random Photo: ambibat @ Kim's Video & Music, NYC

This week turned out to be ambibat week. Thanks for putting up with it.

On May 8, 2006, I was at Kim's Video & Music on St. Mark's Place checking out the used section. I looked up and was surprised to see a few ambibat CD's for sale. If you remember Kim's, the used section had all the CD's alphabetically in bins – the shelves were used for "select" merchandise. I felt somewhat proud we made the shelf (forget the fact they were already used), so I took this blurry photo with my old crappy cellphone.

ambibat @ Knitting Factory (6/8/01)

Doug Walker couldn't make this gig. He was sick in the hospital with some type of a stomach ailment so we played it as a trio. I didn't know it at the time but this was the last show I'd play with ambibat (not counting a semi-reunion with Eric Hoffman a year later). By this time I had begun work on Bellmore: The Unscene and it demanded too much of my time so ambibat just sort of fizzled out.

[DOWNLOAD] ambibat @ Knitting Factory (6/8/01)

ambibat
Frank Fusco - guitar, electronics
Chris Altenhoff - bass, electronics
Blaise Siwula - saxophone

ambibat @ 3rd Annual C.O.M.A. Benefit for ABC No-Rio (6/3/01)

Here's ambibat with guest trombonist Stan Nishimura, at the 3rd Annual C.O.M.A. Benefit for ABC No-Rio...


[DOWNLOAD] ambibat @ 3rd Annual C.O.M.A. Benefit for ABC No-Rio (6/3/01)

ambibat
Frank Fusco - guitar, electronics
Chris Altenhoff - bass, electronics
Blaise Siwula - saxophone
Doug Walker - arp odyssey
with
Stan Nishimura - trombone

To read about the 1st C.O.M.A. Benefit for ABC No-Rio (click here) or the 2nd C.O.M.A. Benefit for ABC No-Rio (click here).

ambibat "Prowling The Midnight Walker" video

Here's a video I made in 2004 for ambibat's "Prowling The Midnight Walker" – from our album Fresh Blood (here).

Starring Michael Garetano
Directed & Edited by Frank Fusco

ambibat
Frank Fusco - guitar, electronics
Chris Altenhoff - bass, electronics
Doug Walker - arp odyssey
Blaise Siwula - laptop

Not Saved & ambibat @ Ground Zero (5/26/01)

In May of 2001 Jim invited my band to play Ground Zero with Not Saved. I thought it would be cool to introduce the ambibat sound to the people of Bellmore. I'm not sure how well it went over, though...judging by the amount of chatter during the mellow parts.

Scott Jacobs was there with his video camera (of course) and shot a good deal of it. No Not Saved...unfortunately. I cut it down to roughly 10 minutes because YouTube has a silly 10 minute rule...



ambibat
Frank Fusco - guitar, electronics
Chris Altenhoff - bass, electronics
Doug Walker - arp odyssey
Blaise Siwula - saxophone

ambibat @ ABC No-Rio (10/29/00)

When Eric was in ambibat he always said he wished he could experience one of our shows from the audience. Now that he wasn't in the band anymore he came to our "Halloween" show (three days before Halloween), and brought along his video camera. Another audience member, Robert O'Haire, also shot the show. Robert documented a lot of New York's experimental scene from that time period.

Here's two 10 minute pieces – using Eric and Robert's footage – edited down from a much larger piece...




[DOWNLOAD] ambibat @ ABC No-Rio (10/29/00)


ambibat
Frank Fusco - guitar, electronics
Chris Altenhoff - bass, electronics
Blaise Siwula - saxophone
Doug Walker - arp odyssey

C.O.M.A. @ ABC No-Rio (10/1/00)

C.O.M.A. – the Sunday night series at ABC No-Rio – would usually have open sessions after the night's scheduled performance. Blaise would act as the master of ceremony by pairing up the musicians that came to perform. On October 1st I went to see World of Tomorrow and brought my guitar along. (World of Tomorrow's drummer Cliff Ferdon was also in Action Adventure Systems – a band that was friends with and often played with Not Saved).

Here's the open sessions...

[DOWNLOAD] C.O.M.A. @ ABC No-Rio (10/1/00)

ambibat @ ABC No-Rio 7/9/00

When Eric left ambibat in June we filled his position with Doug Walker (of Alien Planetscapes) and debuted ambibat mach II in July. A month after that we'd go into the studio to record Fresh Blood (which you can find here). I wanted to record the new band early – while we were still feeling each other out – in hopes to capture that spontaneity. We did.



[DOWNLOAD] ambibat @ ABC No-Rio 7/9/00

ambibat
Frank Fusco - guitar, electronics
Chris Altenhoff - bass, electronics
Blaise Siwula - saxophone, laptop
Doug Walker - arp odyssey

ambibat - 2nd Annual C.O.M.A. Benefit for ABC No-Rio (6/4/00)

Eric handed in his resignation papers and left ambibat right before the 2nd Annual C.O.M.A. Benefit for ABC No-Rio. So with Eric's departure we were going to perform as a trio...sort of.

ambibat was originally scheduled at 8pm on the 2nd floor but at 6pm Blaise (our saxophonist and curator of the benefit) asked Chris and I to perform as a duo on the first floor because Born To Go was a no show. Blaise was busy running the event so he couldn't join us. Chris and I started our piece soft and ambient, then around 4 1/2 minutes into it we started to get loud. Right on cue a squealing came from just outside the room and in walks Blaise honking and blowing his horn and joins us – great entrance. Then when we came down and got soft again Blaise walked out of the room to attend to the benefit leaving Chris and I to finish the piece. That's improvisation.

Here's a recording of that performance...

[DOWNLOAD] ambibat - 2nd Annual C.O.M.A. Benefit for ABC No-Rio (6/4/00)

After that performance, Chris and I walked upstairs to the 2nd floor for our 8pm slot. We asked the saxophone player (forgot his name), who performed in the room before us, if he wanted to sit in. We also asked guitarist Hans Tammen, who was scheduled after us, to join as well. After the first piece the sax player left and Doug Walker (Alien Planetscapes) sat in on synth. It was a lot of fun and I remember thinking Doug would be a great replacement for Eric.

To read about the 1st C.O.M.A. Benefit for ABC No-Rio (click here).

ambibat - Palm Sunday (4/16/00)

On Palm Sunday of 2000, Eric and I took ambibat into the studio to record the follow-up to our debut CD (found here). But for some reason we didn't feel the session was worthy enough to release so we shelved it and it was forgotten. About a year ago I came across a cassette tape of rough mixes from this "lost" ambibat recording. After listening to it again I felt it aged nicely. It at least captures where we were in the evolution of ambibat. So I took the rough mixes and edited them down to make an album. It doesn't have that studio mixed sheen to it but it's still good. And like most ambibat releases/flyers, I used some artwork I drew when I was seven years old – it seemed to fit the vibe.


"Psalm I"


"Psalm II"


"Psalm III"


[DOWNLOAD] ambibat - Palm Sunday (4/16/00)
01- Psalm I
02- Psalm II
03- Psalm III

Here's the complete piece of artwork I got the cover art from...


ambibat
Frank Fusco - guitar, electronics
Eric Hoffman - synthesizer, electronics
Chris Altenhoff - bass, electronics
Blaise Siwula - saxophone, reeds

ambibat - Strider News (1999)

Adam Strider was a fan of New York's experimental scene and produced a bunch of fanzines in the late 90's/early 2000's. Ambibat made it into issue no. 8 (not sure if we made it into others?). The first mention was in a piece about our saxophone player Blaise Siwula. (Blaise is a veteran in the scene and is still very active.)

In this article Adam talks about seeing us twice. He liked the second show better – when we added a drummer. I believe it was David Gould on drums. David was a friend of Blaise's and sat in with us a couple of times. In hindsight, Adam's opinion is pretty valid. When Eric switched from drums to synth we lost some of that driving force. We should've got a full-time drummer. But hindsight has 20/20 vision.

The second time ambibat is mentioned is in the Mogwai write-up. Just a small blurb...

A show for my other band, FrankenHöff, was plugged on the back page of this issue. (Tomorrow's post).

FrankenHöff (1998 - 2001)

During our years in ambibat, Eric and I would often get together to do some 4-track recordings as a duo. It was still improv but it leaned more towards the ambient than ambibat. As FrankenHöff – that's what we called ourselves – Eric and I played a few shows at ABC No-Rio and Spiral.

Here's one of our homemade recordings on Eric's 4-track...


[DOWNLOAD] FrankenHöff - Four Studies Of A Motion (2/28/98)
01- Motion_1
02- Motion_2
03- Motion_3
04- Motion_4

In 2000, Eric and I decided to take FrankenHöff into the studio. For the recording we recruited Chris Altenhoff (ambibat bassist) – his last name has "hoff" in it so it's all good. As a trio we recorded a few hours of improvisations on the sci-fi tip.

As I was listening back to the tapes during the next few weeks a story began to take shape in my head. I figured if we took a passage here, a section there, add some found sound and record some extra layers...piece them together and it could play like a soundtrack to a lost sci-fi film. Well, this process became very labor intensive and it cost some dough in studio hours. This, plus the arrival of Earl Pickens, lead to Eric quitting both ambibat and FrankenHöff. At least that's my take on it.

In the end, FrankenHöff Battle To Save The World And The Girl, Too! is a pretty cool recording. I think Eric would agree...


[DOWNLOAD] FrankenHöff - Battle To Save The World And The Girl, Too! (2000)
01- I
02- II
03- III
04- IV


When I was making Bellmore: The Unscene, I asked Joe Kollar to help out with the graphics. He did, of course, and I'm very grateful. In the package of art and images I gave him there was some illustrations I used for the back of the FrankenHöff CD. Joe took it upon himself to animate them, so I put it to some music from the album...



FRANKENHÖFF
Frank Fusco - guitar, turntable/tape deck/radio, electronics
Eric Hoffman - synthesizer, drums, electronics
Chris Altenhoff - bass, arp odyssey, electronics

ambibat @ Spiral (2/26/98)

This performance of ambibat at Spiral could also be considered the debut of FrankenHöff (I'll get to the proper FrankenHöff post in the next couple of weeks). Blaise our saxophone player couldn't make the gig so we performed as a trio...Eric, Chris and myself. This combination would later record under the name FrankenHöff. Also playing this night was the space-rock band Alien Planetscapes – the other band Chris was in.

[DOWNLOAD] ambibat @ Spiral (2/26/98)


ambibat
Frank Fusco - guitar, turntable/tape deck/radio, electronics
Eric Hoffman - synthesizer, electronics
Chris Altenhoff - bass, arp odyssey, electronics

Baird Jones Presents the Artwork of Cheryl Tiegs @ The Tunnel, NYC 9/26/97

"Is that a ball I see?" Those were my initial words when Eric and I first saw the photos from the night we played The Tunnel. But I'm getting ahead of myself...let's start from the beginning.

With ambibat I was always looking for interesting people to play with. I noticed an ad in the New York Press from a percussionist so I gave him a call and he came down to one of our practices. Howie – that's the dude's name – brought some kind of Asian percussive instrument with him and we jammed. He was a little strange, but then again, people who play this type of music tend to be a little strange.

At the end of the practice he asked if we'd be interested in playing a gig he had lined up at The Tunnel? For some reason Chris (our bass player) wasn't available but Blaise, Eric and I were up for it. The Tunnel was basically a dance club in NYC, but we'd be playing the mezzanine for a party hosted by Baird Jones (gossip reporter/celebrity art collector/club promoter). Baird was showing off his collection of Cheryl Tiegs artwork and we were to be the musical backdrop. I had no idea Cheryl Tiegs was an "artist"? (Unfortunately, the person who took the photos below didn't take any shots of the artwork.)

Howie left his Asian percussive instrument at home opting for his electronic drums – it was a dance club after all and this thing had all the techno rave sounds going on. The club had a weird mixture a club kids, old men and transvestites, and Howie was sporting some short-shorts...hence the ball shot. Howie also invited a trumpet player named Takia who was pretty cool. The five of us played for about three hours to a steady stream of club goers. After the show Howie was overly touchy-feely and sweaty and weirded us out. Never heard from him again.


During one of our breaks from our performance some dude handed me his card and told me he owned ESP Records. ESP-Disk was an influential record label in the 60's and 70's for the free-jazz movement. Sun Ra, Pharaoh Sanders, Ornette Coleman, and Albert Ayler all released records through ESP. When I got home I looked up the guys name and he is in fact the owner of ESP. But for some reason I never called him. I guess I felt that ESP had seen it's day...but I should've called anyway.

Here's a recording I taped on my mini-tape recorder the night of The Tunnel, plus the jam at Prince Studios with Howie...

[DOWNLOAD] Baird Jones Presents the Artwork of Cheryl Tiegs @ The Tunnel, NYC 9/26/97
01- Tunnel 01
02- Tunnel 02
03- Tunnel 03
(bonus extra)
04- ambibat @ Prince Studios with Howie (Sept. 1997)