Goodbye Blogspot, Hello Awesome New Website...

I am writing to announce that I finally have a proper website! I want to thank the fine folks at The Leaf Label for pulling this together! They did a wonderful job and made me an awesome site and I am incredibly excited to now have this as a hub for everything coming up! There is a lot!


So make sure you head over to jherekbischoff.com for all the latest news as I will no longer be updating this site. 


On the site you can also sign up for my newsletter to keep abreast of all of my news!

New Live Dates

New shows supporting and performing with Amanda Palmer...

 Tue 12 Jun 2012
    Platoon Art Gallery, Berlin, GERMANY  
    Thu 14 Jun 2012
    Roter Salon, Berlin, GERMANY  
    Mon 18 Jun 2012
    Village Underground, London, UK  
    Wed 20 Jun 2012
    Village Underground, London, UK  
    Wed 27 Jun 2012
    Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY, USA  
    Thu 28 Jun 2012
    Momenta Art, Brooklyn, NY, USA  
    Thu 12 Jul 2012
    Public Works, San Francisco, USA  
    Fri 13 Jul 2012
    Public Works, San Francisco, USA  
    Wed 18 Jul 2012
    The Roxy, Los Angeles, CA, USA  
    Thu 19 Jul 2012
    Pop Tart Gallery, Los Angeles, USA  
    Wed  1 Aug 2012
    The Middle East, Boston, MA, USA  
    Thu  2 Aug 2012
    The Middle East, Boston, MA, USA  
    Sat  1 Dec 2012
    The Moore Theatre, Seattle, WA, USA      
   

Today marks the day of the world wide release of my record Composed! So incredibly happy that my ears are flapping!
To get the record into your very own hands and ears, follow the links!

 

CD/LP (US + ROW) @ Brassland

CD/LP (UK + Europe) @ The Leaf Label

Amazon (US)

Amazon (UK)

iTunes (US)

iTunes (UK)

Insound

I'm excited to present my new album, "Composed". You can find out more (and where to get hold of it) by visiting The Leaf Label or Brassland.

I am thrilled that my new record “Composed” is so close to coming out and is now streaming! I have been working on this record since May of 2009 and it has been a wild journey! What started out as songs written on a ukulele and me humming gibberish has blossomed into a full orchestra and collaborations with pretty much all of my heroes! What started out as me as a very behind the scenes guy that was always afraid to ask people to participate in my own thing turned into quite the opposite.

This record is the culmination of so many things, it makes it a little hard to write about. Mostly, it has shown me that everything musically I have done in the past has been for a reason and all of the musical and non musical growing pains I have gone through have brought me to this insanely special place of working with so many wonderful musicians, singers, and the labels that have given this record a home. It has given me greater appreciation for my past, time with all of the bands that I have been in and worked with, which in turn gives me a real awareness of how exciting this time is. Many of these collaborators had never heard of me and had absolutely no obligation to be involved, but decided to collaborate because they believed in the music they heard. This gives me a lot of hope personally and for humanity!

I had a show in February at The Ecstatic Music Festival that brought everything to light. The concert was all of the tunes from “Composed” and featured nearly all of the musicians that played on the record, most of the singers as well as a couple of my best friends. All of these people that had been put together one at a time on my little laptop and some headphones, were all now in the same room together. As I looked around the room and saw all of these amazing personalities and friends, even in the midst of all of the craziness, I made a conscious effort to take a minute every so often to really take in all of the love and support these people have given me and to remember this time where everyone is healthy, happy and freaking awesome. It was the most beautiful night of my life (so far!)!

This record to me is a celebration of my friends, family, collaborators, and to all of the musicians I have crossed paths with on the road and at home. I am taking this moment right now, before this record is released into the world and hopefully into your hands and hoping that my happiness and all of this love travels into your ears and spreads love bugs all over your brain.

This year I will be doing several tours with my friend Amanda Palmer. I will be playing bass in her band and also opening a lot of her shows. I also have some big shows later in the year planned in Seattle and NY. I hope to travel to your neck of the woods soon, so check in to my website jherekbischoff.com every once in a while and come see a show!

Sincerely
Jherek Bischoff

Check out the new video for "Young & Lovely" Featuring Zac Pennington and Soko! The video was directed by my good friend Michael McQuilken and was filmed during a couple days we had off while recording for Amanda Palmer's record in Melbourne Australia. The whole concept and cast was based on our surroundings and the good friends that we made while spending 6 weeks there in Melbourne. The cinematographer is a lovely man named Jim Batt . A very nice, talented and hard working man. We also got access to the insanely cool apartment owned by David Walsh of Mona Museum fame. It was a lovely experience working with a bunch of new friends in beautiful Melbourne! I hope you enjoy! XO Jherek
Cast -

Anthony Cleave (as MAN)
Saint Clare (as DAWN)

additional performers
Jherek Bischoff (as CONDUCTOR)
Heather Rush (as DAMSEL)
Jess Daly (as MOON)
Chad Raines (as SUN)
Kim Boekbinder (as MUSICIAN)
Otis Glenn (as BOY)

song by
Jherek Bischoff (feat. Zac Pennington and Soko)

directed and edited by
Michael McQuilken

produced by
Jherek Bischoff
Michael McQuilken

cinematography/first camera
Jim Batt

assistant to the cinematographer/second camera
Joel Loxton

production stylists
Jess Daly
Anthony Cleave

makeup by
Jess Daly

props designed and built by
Chad Raines
Jherek Bischoff

video concept by
Chad Raines
Jherek Bischoff
Michael McQuilken

production assistant
Heather Rush

apartment donated by
David Walsh

apartment coordinated by
James Walsh (a.k.a. DJ Dameza)

Free music!

For a limited time you can stream 2 songs from "Composed" for free! These two songs feature my collaborations with David Byrne, Zac Pennington (Parenthetical Girls) and Soko! Both songs will appear on a very limited edition 7" for Record Store Day. I will be performing a short set at my favorite record store in the world, with some of my best friends! 7pm sharp!
Enjoy!

New Album, Composed

After years of work, I am extremely pleased to officially announce the release of my record Composed. It will be coming out in late May on Brassland (US) and The Leaf Label (UK). This record is the most exciting project I have ever worked on due largely to the amazing collaborators I have had the chance to work with. It is also exciting because through this process I feel like I have very organically found a way to utilize all of the things I have learned through playing music for most of my life in a genuine way. If you told me 5 years ago that I would be composing orchestral music and collaborating with my heroes I would have thought your were nuts!

The Guardian premiered the track 'Young And Lovely' (which features Zac Pennington & Soko) today. You can also listen and download it for free from my Bandcamp page.

Check out the trailer for the record that gives a glimpse into most of the songs.

Composed from Jherek Bischoff on Vimeo.

Track list-
1. Introduction (Defeat)

2. Eyes (Jherek Bischoff & David Byrne)

3. The Secret Of The Machines (with Caetano Veloso & Greg Saunier)

4. The Nest (with Mirah Zeitlyn & Paris Hurley)

5. Blossom (Jherek Bischoff with Nels Cline)

6. Your Ghost (with Craig Wedren)

7. Counting (with Carla Bozulich)

8. Young And Lovely (with Zac Pennington & Soko)

9. Insomnia, Death And The Sea (with Dawn McCarthy)

Big show coming up!

Feb.4 2012 - Merkin Hall NYC

A co-presentation with Wordless Music

Musical polymath Jherek Bischoff is joined by an all-star cast of guest vocalists from his new album, due out in February, including David Byrne, Craig Wedren (Shudder To Think), Greg Saunier (Deerhoof), Mirah and Zac Pennington (Parenthetical Girls). This concert features the Wordless Music Orchestra, supplemented by a number of Bischoff’s long-time collaborators, and marks the first-ever collaboration between Wordless Music and the Ecstatic Music Festival.


I have started a Kickstarter page to help raise funds for transportation for all of the out of town artists. You can donate here! Thank you so much for your support!

Song giveaway!

Brassland is giving away song a day in honor of their 10 year anniversary, and today they are featuring an instrumental version of a song off my upcoming record "Composed"!
The version of this song that will be on the record will feature vocals by the INCREDIBLE Caetano Veloso! This track also features Greg Saunier (Deerhoof) playing that radical drum solo at the end! Song-a-Day Giveaway by Brassland

Ambient Orchestra Video!

Hello! For the first time in my musical career, I finally have something well documented! I am so extremely pleased to be able to share with everyone what I have been up to! This was shot live at The Chapel Performance Space in Seattle by some folks from Into The Woods (intothewoods.tv). I have more videos to share but they will come out later. This will give you a taste! For better quality video head over to vimeo.com/jherekbischoff
xo

NW New Works

There are some exciting shows coming up next month! On The Boards NW New Works Festival will be featuring a ton of great performances. I have been collaborating with a lot of dance works lately and two of these groups have been chosen to participate in the festival.
Part & Parcel (Allie Hankins) has a really great show happening with a lot of themes that are very close to me including great distances and the sea, which are both themes I am very familiar with, so this collaboration has been very satisfying for me. One of the pieces that will be included I created by contact micing the inside of a piano-turned-sculpture, that has been outside in the elements for the past 20 years. This piano sculpture is outside of the post office on Bainbridge Island that I used to go to with my mother. I used to sit outside the post office and throw rocks at the piano to make these insane dissonant chords. One evening a while back, I went to Bainbridge Island late at night and contact miced the piano, recording every sound I could get out of it. I then cut up these sounds in my computer to create this piece. I am super happy this piece finally found a home.
Weekend two features Haruko Nishimura performing restructured dance from the Red Shoes Project and some of my pieces from the show, performed by myself and a live string quartet.
One final note; my old main man, Sam Mickens, has created music for Shannon Stewart's piece that I am sure will be great, also in the 2nd weekend!

Weekend 1 | Mainstage Theater Showcase
June 11 - 12 at 8pm
Holcombe Waller – Music (Portland)
Part & Parcel – Dance
Paige Barnes – Dance
Jessica Jobaris & general magic – Dance

Weekend 2 | Mainstage Theater Showcase
June 19 - 18 at 8pm
aluminum siding & mattisonthemove - Dance
Haruko Nishimura - Dance
The Blank Department - Music
Shannon Stewart – Dance | Film

Stop Motion!

I just finished a soundtrack for a fantastic short film by the amazing Eva Hall. I was introduced to her and her work through our mutual friend Jason Webley, who thought we would make good collaborators. I had a great time working on this. I used cello and some homemade instruments built by the Degenerate Art Ensemble that are in the Frye Art Museum's current exhibition, as well as one of Robert Wilson's ancient pots that I sampled at the Watermill Center. I hope you enjoy!!

Degenerate Art Ensemble pics and closing thoughts

Well, The Degenerate Art Ensembles Red Shoes shows have come to a close. It was such an incredible journey from start to finish. I had a chance to write string quartets, brass band music, a totally disgusting mish mash of midi music that we called Midi Madness, subsonic bass frequencies, and choral music for the St. James Chorus! The project took us out to NYC and The Watermill Center (see post below), and was an introduction to working with the INSANELY talented Dohee Lee. The show took place in four locations around the First Hill neighborhood here in Seattle. I took myself to the limit with performing by playing bass, drum, keyboard, sousaphone, amputated leg, and laptop... CRAZY! I want to thank everyone who came out and REALLY thank all of the volunteers and amazing collaborators that were involved in this very ambitious project! Here are some beautiful pictures from Bruce Tom.

Rober Wilson's Watermill Center Residency

I am currently in New York state at Robert Wilson's Watermill Center. I am here with The Degenerate Art Ensemble for a couple weeks working super intensely. This place is like nowhere else I have ever been. It is like an insanely well curated art museum where you are actually able to touch and interact with the art. Everything is a piece of art here, from the chairs we sit on, to the bowls we eat out of (they have catalog numbers written on the bottoms!) There are modern art pieces as well as little pop art things that have no real "value". It is exciting to see some of these priceless pieces of art along side things that still have artistic merit, but are readily available in stores or found on the side of a road. It reminds you to look for art in everything! There is a fantastic library here too with rare and out of print art books. One of the most exciting things I have done here is record a library of samples of 29 of the ancient pots that are on shelves around the building. Some of these pots date back to as early as 2000 BC. I would pick up a pot(extremely carefully!) and find the resonant frequency of the pot by singing into it and then record it. I then put each pot onto a different key of my midi keyboard so every note corresponds with a different pot. I did not change any of the natural pitches of the pots and left the tuning to be decided by the pots themselves. Here is the first little piece I made to demonstrate. Singing Pots Study 1 by Jherek Bischoff It was truly amazing to sing into these ancient pots. It is crazy to imagine that some of these 4000 year old pots may have never been sung into, and I feel super lucky to be in a place that not only has these in their collection, but also embrace and trust artists to interact with them in their own way. How much more generous could you ever be! Thank you Robert Wilson! Looking forward to writing some music with these!

Privilege Pt. 3

My crazy face is the cover of the newest installment of the 5 part Privilege set by Parenthetical Girls. These will also be hand numbered in my blood. My mom watches too many crime dramas and is afraid that someone will use this blood at a crime scene, while Zac assures me that actually now we can get away with anything, that we can call plausible deniability because now our blood is widely available. Anyways to commit crimes with our blood, or to just listen to some new tunes.. Head on over to www.parentheticalgirls.com

Free Music

A cover I just made of an X-Ray Press Song. Featuring Paris Hurley (Violins), Amy Denio (Sax), Myself on everything else.

The Terms (Jherek Bischoff version) by Jherek Bischoff


This is an orchestral version of Konono No. 1's Kule Kule. Released on a CD named Tradi-Mods Vs. Rockers on Crammed Discs (2011)
The song features-
Jherek Bischoff- Bass, Cello
Paris Hurley- Violins
Brianna Atwell- Violas
Beth Fleenor- Bass Clarinet
Sam Boshnack- Trumpet
Fred Hawkinson- Trombone

Kule Kule (Orchestral Version) by Jherek Bischoff

At the Museum!

Hello,
Beginning March 19th the Frye Art Museum in Seattle will be hosting a retrospective exhibition of all things Degenerate Art Ensemble. I have been a part of the DAE off and on for the last 10 years with about 5 years of full time membership. I have recently rejoined the group for their Red Shoes project to be held May 12, 19, 26 and June 2nd. I am mostly just composing along with founder Joshua Kohl. We are writing a huge variety of music ranging from string quartets to brass band to choral music. I am super excited to see all of the work put in by so many talented folks finally collected in 1 space to be viewed by the public!

Ambient Orchestral Show. One Night Only!

On February 19th, I will be premiering a collection of ten ambient pieces composed during a recent residency at Port Townsend’s Fort Warden State Park. These pieces were specifically written for and recorded in the Park’s Cistern -- an empty, two million gallon, underground water tank, boasting unique acoustic properties which produce an incredible, 45-second reverb decay. For this one-time musical event, Jherek will be joined by a live orchestra, as well as sound engineers, to help recreate the incredible reverb and ambience of the Cistern in surround sound.

I will write more about this event as it gets closer!

Organ Recording!

On Friday I had the chance to get into St. Marks Cathedral in Seattle and have their organist play a few of my pieces on their huge organ! It was super amazing. To hear that much sound coming from 1 person, activating thousands of pipes... wheeeew! It was a very exciting moment for me. When I was maybe 12 or so, my school took all us kids on a field trip to check out all the major religions and houses of worship. We ended up at St. Marks Cathedral. They took us up to the organ and a man played the organ for us. This was right around the time when I was choosing an instrument to play. He showed us the range of the instrument and when he played those foot pedals and made the gigantic bass notes come out, well I really believe that that was when I decided to play bass. To feel the whole place vibrating and to hear the wind whizzing through the tubes, it really had an impact on me. So to come around probably close to 20 years later(!!!!) and hear my music played on this instrument was a real pleasure. I recorded 3 pieces.
1. A song I wrote for Parenthetical Girls.
2. A song for string quartet that I arranged for the organ.
3. A piece that Mayumi Heider wrote. She wrote this great piece that when I found out I would be getting access to this organ we arranged it specifically for it.
I would like to thank Robb Kunz for recording and Alan DePuy for being kind enough to play our music!

Kule Kule Live @ Nuemos

Last night at Nuemos in Seattle. Me and my sextet played a bunch of songs including this one. I arranged this cover of Konono No 1's Kule Kule for this crew of players and it turned out well. The video and audio were shot on my Iphone so its not so clear but I think I might be getting a different more high quality version of it soon. Thanks Mayumi for shooting this!
Also been working super hard on this new Kultur Shock record. It is sounding really cool and it is really fun to be around this different kind of music. Yesterday we recorded about 20 people marching and singing which was great. Tomorrow, horns and more violins. should be wrapping it up this weekend!
Kule Kule (Orchestral Version) by Jherek Bischoff