Al Pimentel

A few words from the author of the CD:

To be brief - Butterfly, conceptually, was in defiance of personal limitation. More specifically, that of physical limitation. Hence, the name of the album... the butterfly being a transcendent animal. Most of the tunes on that record were considered in more traditional musical terms, for example: "Land of no friends" has a bass drum part in 7/4, counterpoint to the bass/guitars which alternate between different meters, while the hat/snare are in 4/4... then the next part contracts and expands between various grouping such as: quintuplets, sixteenth notes, triplets, back and forth; the guitar/vocal unison line is over chords changes, etc. A thread throughout the album is the use of metric-modulation and harmony based in chord changes not relating to a tonal center, introducing these elements to a heavier kind of music where I felt they hadn’t really been explored deeply enough. At the time these ideas seemed larger to me than they do now... now I feel that, to think strictly in musical terms, leads to a musically undernourishing experience. Exocoetidae, conceptually, was in defiance of culture/communal/social, or to be more specific, collective limitations. Hence the name of the album which refers to the bizarre fish that grew wings and sort of "flies" for seconds at a time, out of the world from which it's kind belongs and into ours... another transcendent animal. When we were seeking an appropriate title for this album, it was Paula Stefanini, the vocalist from Rejectionary Art, who suggested this ultra-weird fish that she had seen while traveling around the world. This album was created less in extolment of the musical language and more in terms of expanding (or exploding) musical conventions (or stagnations). Each tune was recorded in a “virtual venue” - everything from a restaurant, to a laboratory, to a stadium, to a space ship, etc. The integration of several styles in each tune, intended to harness the cliches of each and to see how far they could bend before they break... in essence, to see how far I could bend the listener, before I break the listener. This was meant since the beginning, to lead to a Trilogy. There is a third CD which is next to be made, on the same transcendent concept... only much larger in scope. Just as the second album alienated some fans from the first album, the third will surely alienate fans from the second.