Album Notes

Music for Dance is Maurice Rickard's latest full-length CD of music to accompany belly dancers, and is improvised live on laptop, electric guitar and electric ukulele. While the ukulele isn't an instrument associated with electronic music or belly dance, it works just fine here--the uke sounds spacious, exotic, and more evocative of the desert than of the desert island. The guitar appears in both sparse and atmospheric volume swells, and in more aggressive soloing, though always with a clean tone. The percussion is based on traditional patterns, processed through modern electronics for additional variations. The resulting music is rhythmic and trancelike, propulsive yet reflective, ideal for dance or contemplation. The CD Music for Dance consists of one continuous set (broken into nine tracks for convenience) recorded on May 18, 2005. There's also one short separate piece--the "Scimitar Dance"--from a live performance in June of 2004, with rhythms that are more modern in influence. While the first nine tracks form an integrated suite, part nine is a good sum- mation of the whole, if you want to preview only one track. Parts eight and nine work well together if you have more time and want to hear the uke, while part one concentrates on the guitar. The ukulele is also featured in part two, in part five, and the second half of part four. You can download Music for Dance from the iTunes Store, onezeromusic.com, MusicIsHere, MusicNet, Interia, Puretracks, GroupieTunes, Rhapsody, WrapFactory, MP3-Extension, MOD Systems, Destra, Tradebit, Napster, Choice Records, Inprodicon, PassAlong, MSN Music, MusicNow, Arvato, Daiki, Verizon Wireless, Chondo, MP3tunes, YooPeDoo, PayPlay, BuyMusic, AudioLunchbox, Bitmunk, DigitalKiosk, iSound, GreatIndieMusic, Liquid Digital Media, Weed, Intent Media Works, Sony Connect, TastyAudio, Enterport - DEAD, USEN, PeerImpact, PlayIndies, MPGreek, Sonific, LoudEye-OD2, DigiPie, NextRadio, QTRnote, HearMusic, or Ruckus. (Wow. With all those options, surely your favorite digital format is in there somewhere.) Shiny discs you can actually hold in your hand are available from CDBaby. Serial band-starter Maurice Rickard has been performing live guitar-and-PowerBook ambient electronic improvisation since 2001, and has been recording since long before that. He was included on the Circuits of Steel compilation, and was on the 2003 CoS tour, where he played to as many as 230 people in Austin, Texas, and as few as four in St. Louis. He's also played shows in New York, Chicago, Houston, Detroit, Cleveland, other cities, live on the radio, and live over the Internet. He ran a Pittsburgh electronic music performance series in 2003, instituted the annual Open Mic Jandek Cover Night (on Jandek Day, November 5), and founded the Internet-based store and label onezeromusic.com. He's collaborated with many Pittsburgh-area musicians from the experi- mental, electronic, rock, and jazz communities, and lately has been playing electronically processed guitar and ukulele in performances with a troupe of belly dancers. He co-founded both the Stem Cell Liberation Front (with drummer Ryan Sigesmund) and the Unindicted Co-Conspirators (with accordionist/ overtone singer Steven Pellegrino), and has collaborated with trance duo Life In Balance. His flexible compositions for large groups of guitarists (Comprovisations & Impositions) are being sporadically performed and recorded for eventual release. He is a member of the Glenn Branca Ensemble (tenor 1), having joined for the recording of Branca's Symphony No. 13 ("Hallucination City") in October 2004. He also played again in the February 2006 recording sessions and performance, which are slated for release by Bang On A Can's Cantaloupe Music. Most recent projects: recovery from a broken finger (broken in a freak baby-food-buying accident; it's 90% healed now), more performances with the dancers (including a collaboration with a fine vocalist), and a track contributed to the Silkworm tribute disc, An Idiot Not To Appreciate Your Time. (http://silkwormtributerecord.com/) Maurice is currently based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.