Album Notes

RARA AVIS is a new trio joining the fiery and focused talents of Gordon Beeferman, Jeff Arnal, and Seth Misterka. Their music springs from avant-garde traditions - both free-jazz and contemporary classical composition. The trio's debut album, a highly structured but entirely improvised tour de force for electric piano, percussion, and saxophones, traverses a rich musical territory from fierce and highly rhythmic complexity to evocative long-lined lyricism.


Percussionist JEFF ARNAL ("an inventiveness never caught short" - Improjazz) has performed throughout the U.S. and Europe, and collaborates with a diverse group of musicians, dancers, and other artists. Recent performances include the Knitting Factory, PS 122 and Tonic (NYC), and a tour of Germany and Belgium. Arnal received his MFA from Bennington College where he studied with Milford Graves. He has received grants and fellowships from Meet the Composer and Art Omi International Arts Center. Arnal is an Artistic Director of Improvised and Otherwise, an annual festival of experimental music and dance in Brooklyn. He can be heard on Cadence Jazz, Generate, Sachimay, PAX, and Oaksmus Records.


Pianist, composer and improviser GORDON BEEFERMAN has performed in a variety of contexts, from concerto soloist to free improviser, and his compositions, for voice, piano, and orchestra, have been heard in concert halls throughout the US. A "fully liberated pianist" (Cadence Magazine), Beeferman has has recently performed at Music at the Anthology, the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, San Francisco Alternative Music Festival, and the Merce Cunningham Studio. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan where he studied composition and piano. Recognition for his work has included multiple awards from BMI and ASCAP, various grants and commissions, and a Tanglewood fellowship. He lives in New York City where he continues to compose and perform.


Saxophonist SETH MISTERKA began his musicial activity in the underground scene of Western Massachusetts, releasing intricately packaged cassettes of electronic noise. He began playing saxophone and working with computer music as a philosophy student at Wesleyan University, where he became part of the vibrant musical community under the mentorship of Anthony Braxton. Misterka toured throughout Europe as a member of Braxton's Ghost Trance Ensemble. After relocating to New York, Misterka began organizing and performing solo concerts as well as leading his own bands, including Seth Misterka and the Misterka Clones, The Demon, and Dynasty. Currently, Misterka resides in his Brooklyn studio where he hosts recording sessions and concerts.