Duane Pitre - Bayou Electric/Feel Free, Live At OTO - LP BUNDLE

This pre-order bundles together Duane Pitre's acclaimed Feel Free recorded live at Cafe Oto (with James Blackshaw on dulcimer) with Pitre's new Bayou Electric on clear or black vinyl. 

FEEL FREE @ OTO:

Beautiful ensemble performance of Duane Pitre's Feel Free including James Blackshaw on hammered dulcimer. LP pressed in an audiophile grade edition of 1000 copies.

Shortly after the release of Pitre's Feel Free, the composer set out for a 2012 solo tour in select European cities. To start off this tour he staged an ensemble performance of Feel Free, at London's renowned Cafe OTO. For his ensemble, Pitre chose to utilize only one veteran of a Feel Free performance (Jesse Sparhawk) and for the remainder of the group he used English musicians who'd not played the composition prior. The resulting performance sees Feel Free taking new shapes and producing different energies than the studio recording. 

BAYOU ELECTRIC:

For synthesizers, sine tones, amplified violin/viola/cello, field recording and custom software.
Written/recorded/reconfigured/mixed July - October 2014, New Orleans.

Dedicated to Pitre's family: past, present and future.

"Bayou Electric" is the final installment in an unplanned trilogy, with "Feel Free "and "Bridges" making up the first and second installments in the series, respectfully. All three works share similar characteristics, compositional processes, alternate tuning schemes, instrumentation and a certain ethos that the composer views as cohesive whole. There is a progression toward refinement over the course of this trilogy, in the overall "sound" of the albums and in their dependence on other musicians to realize them (each less dependent than its predecessor). "Bayou Electric," which contains a single, calming and cathartic composition (of the same title), brings this cycle to a gentle and unhurried finale.

The field recording utilized in "Bayou Electric"  was captured on a late night in August, 2010 at the edge of Four Mile Bayou; Louisiana land that has been in Pitre's family since January 14, 1922. Upon listening to what he'd captured, Pitre become enthralled by the fabric of sound that the wildlife on this waterway had created. It evoked many feelings - such as how past generations of his relatives lived amongst these same sounds and walked the same land - creating a powerful connection and a sense of timelessness.

Pitre was set on finding a way to use this field recording in his music, but wanted to do so without simply adding it to a composition as just another layer of sound or by molding it (via 'processing') into something easier to work with. Instead, Pitre decided to start with the unaltered field recording and build the instrumentation around it, in a highly sympathetic manner, with the musical portion becoming accompaniment to the sounds of this remote land. This was the catalyst of "Bayou Electric" and of primary importance to him, as a way to connect to his Cajun heritage in his own artistic way.