Here is the text of the liner notes for "Instrumentality" from 1997:
Most of the music on this disc was created for a specific event such as a television show, film or musical. But, as often is the case, many of my favorite pieces were cut, unused or obscured in some way by the needs of the production. It's not that I'm complaining! Every project I've worked on has had great rewards and by assembling this collection I can document this music in a different context. The music was written and created over the past ten years in my home studio with a computer, sampler and several MIDI keyboard devices. On several occasions other musicians stopped by to record overdubs. By and large, this is electronic music.
Spy Suite 26:25 (Tracks 1-17)
When I met Stan Baker, we were both wearing white aprons behind the salad bar of a small West Village restaurant. I had no idea that we would become good friends and write three musicals together. The Spy Who Loved Too Much was our second show. We were able to develop it during a small production at the Cornelia Street Cafe and La MaMa E.T.C. over a six month performance period in 1992. While the performances had a three piece band, the songs were written and arranged in my home studio. In late 1995 we had the opportunity to bring the show to Jan McArt's Royal Palm Dinner Theatre in Boca Raton, but there was no budget for a band. Since all the music had to be played from a tape machine while the cast sang, I saw this as an opportunity to revise and rearrange the music. After important lyric and melody changes, I proceeded to replace most of the drum parts with samples of real drummers that I collected from special discs made just for this purpose. I updated the arrangements to make them sound more modern, but on the
whole, the bass-lines remained the same. To top it all off I created several scene change elements and the Entr'acte (2nd act overture), which starts the suite. The Ringo-esque drum programming in Hammer And Sickle is by Michael Mansfield.
Rich Bitches 2:21 (tracks 18-20)
Live On Tape is a comedy performance group that found themselves in a production contract with NBC. Mary Birdsong, who sang my Cat song and starred in Spy, introduced me to the producers of the television show. They asked me to write themes for several sections. For the "Candy and Sugar" sketches, I was asked to write "something with a clarinet."
A Short Meditation On The Impact Of The Automobile 2:08 (track 21)
A friend since childhood, photographer/videographer Tom Reiss asked me to create some music for a video installation in 1993. Although the title seems to tell the whole story, using samples and a "sequencer" style of composition, we tried to warn humanity of it's impending destruction, due in no small part to the internal combustion engine.
State Of Emergency Dub 4:03 (track 22)
Papa Linley and I met in 1984 in Los Angeles where we began to play in several bands and recording situations. This is the dub version of the last song we worked on together before Linley moved to Germany in 1995. Special effects (dub) remixing is by Roger Cane of Ultrasound Imaging.
Haunted Taxi Ride Suite 7:19 (tracks 23-27)
The third musical theatre collaboration with Stan Baker was commissioned by La MaMa E.T.C.
I have included the Overture, an edited version of Cotton Candy Girl, Entr'acte, the show's theme in a Ska version, and the Curtain Call. In this show I began experimenting with the banjo (sequenced, of course) as well as time signature variations. The fantastic jazz guitar parts were performed by Bernd Schoenhart. The amazing fiddle, mandolin and bouzouki parts were performed by Bob Green.
Blasteroid 1:21 (track 28)
This piece was created for the "Logan: Magician" segment of Live On Tape. With the exception of the bassline, all of the parts were programmed from samples of analog synthesizer snippets.
Slippery Beat 1:19 (track 31) • Superhero Theme 1:22 (track 34)
Moody Vapors 5:40 (track 35) • Fists & Punches/Pluck This 3:59 (tracks 37/38)
Emily Breer is an incredible film maker who specializes in animation. After meeting with her to discuss scoring her short film Superhero, I worked up about 30 minutes of material. Since there was no way she could use everything I wrote, some is included here. During the process Emily asked me to locate the sounds of people fighting, specifically punching and the associated crashes that occur in these situations. In Fists And Punches, the beat (if you will) is entirely made up of these "fighting" samples. Moody Vapors is a compilation of synthesized ambiances.
You Version 3:20 (track 30)
Ever since Bunny Wailer's classic album Rock'n'Groove I have been obsessed with Reggae. You is an edit of a dub mix of a song written with Bryan Webster.
Itty's Lament 1:34 (track 29) • That Bass Is Distorted 1:54 (track 33)
Too Much Free Time 2:55 (track 34) • Where's Alèb? 1:36 (track 32)
These tunes were not written for any particular project. Let's simply call them experiments.
Thanksgiving 2:23 (track 39) I dedicate this tune to Nassar Nassar, who has been a friend, sage and mentor of all matter musical and otherwise. Special effects (dub) remixing by Roger Cane of Ultrasound Imaging.
So there you have it. Thanks for listening. - Louie Fleck, New York City, June 1997
Design by Sandy Imhoff • Mastering by Pier Giacalone, Permanent Records
Produced, Recorded and Mixed by Louie Fleck
Thanks to those who have encouraged me with my music.
Copyright ©1997 Louie Fleck. All rights reserved Bungbilly Moosic, ASCAP