Album Notes

This debut recording from Temporal Mechanics Union presents the best of the percussion ensemble's eclectic repertoire. Traditional rhythms meet experimental composition and performance techniques, played on a variety of instruments & unexpected objects.

The title track All Hands is built on traditional kpanlogo rhythms, and features brief solos on djembe, talking drum, congas & berimbau.

Cookin’, by Bryan McChesney, fuses the art of noises with free improvisation, using kitchen utensils.

Mike Fell's Earth Tones is a free improvisation on clay instruments built by the Mechanics.

Drum Dance Song is another traditional/improvisational fusion based on gahu rhythms.

Lux Rhythmus is a very quiet soundscape embodying the movement of light, featuring a free-improvisation melody on the turtle pan, an instrument designed and built by Dave Lowry.

Technocacaphanon is a composed work in the art of noises style. The sounds of a vintage video game provide the "melody" to an accompaniment by kitchen appliances, metal grinder, air compressor, circular saw, vacuum cleaner and an air raid siren.

Tempus Arcanum is a percussion quartet composed using the cut-up method. The players randomly draw cards containing rhythms or other instructions, and play simultaneously to a "hidden time."

Place of Fire evokes classical Persian rhythms & mode in a flowing, meditative improvisation.

Chronomusicology is a minimalist composition for chromatic percussion.

Listeners should note this project was recorded using primarily open-air and binaural techniques, with very little post-production enhancement, producing a very “live” sound.