Albums
Host Skull Totally Fatalist (Antephonic) 09/13/2011
Antephonic label site: LP and MP3 links from the homepage. http://www.antephonic.com/
Amazon: LP http://www.amazon.com/Totally-Fatalist-Host-Skull/dp/B005DKGOCA
Insound: LP http://www.insound.com/Totally-Fatalist-Vinyl-LP-Host-Skull/P/INS98873/
If you are in Pittsburgh, feel free to grab it at Paul's CDs, Mind Cure, and Desolation Row.
Host Skull is a new venture from multi-instrumentalists David Bernabo and Will Dyar that aims to play with the concept of a band, while making interesting and engaging music. Since the band is split between Pittsburgh and Sante Fe, this obstacle has provided the chance for Host Skull to double. Instead of one band, Host Skull will consist of two bands that operate in different cities. This disjointed, yet distinct identity reveals itself on the debut full-length, Totally Fatalist, from the ensemble.
Totally Fatalist consists of eleven tracks that speak in one voice of many parts. There are moments of 5ive Style-inflected guitar cut short by skwonky staccato rhythms, dub bass, and pop bliss. Jagged pop songs are crafted and (de)constructed with 70s-era orchestrations of stirring horns and keys, flutes, flowering guitars, smooth vocals, and a melange of melodies, all undercut with a tilting post-rock articulation. The resulting record plays like a summer hangout session one always remembers and one hopes doesn't end.
Will Dyar was a founding member of Oakley Hall, has performed with Christy&Emily, and has worked with Company, Dirty Faces, and Ex-Models. David Bernabo has performed with a number of acts (Assembly, Boxstep, Vale and Year), curated the Abstract On Black imprint, and has worked on music and multi-media projects with Jem Finer, Justin Hopper, and Ragnar Kjartansson. Membership in the band may increase exponentially during Host Skull's live shows scheduled after Totally Fatalist is released in early fall of 2011, and certainly when Host Skull opens the "Inhabit Host Skull" art installation at the renowned Pittsburgh art gallery 707 Penn Gallery in March 2012 that will allow anyone to be a recording member of Host Skull. A number of other musicians have already contributed to the project: Brandon Masterman (saxophones, voice) , Liz Adams (voice, double bass), Ben Montgomery (trumpet, percussion), Kerrith Livengood (flutes, piccolo), Jim Siders (trombone), Vince Camut (pedal steel), among others.
Host Skull will be on tour consistently throughout the end of 2011 and through 2012, in support of Totally Fatalist, as well Fourth River: Vol I - Welcome to Pittsburgh, their release for Antephonic sister label Contraphonic.
Host Skull Fourth River (Contraphonic) 04/26/2011 PURCHASE FROM CONTRAPHONIC
Jeff Berman, vibraphone, bowed gong
David Bernabo, classical and electric guitars, bass, percussion, accordion
Will Dyar, mastering
Ben Harris, violin
Kerrith Livengood, flute and alto flute
Brandon Masterman, soprano and baritone saxophones
Herman "Soy Sos" Pearl, modular synthesizer and scenarios
Photography by The Alternative Photo Processes class, taught by photographer Elizabeth Raymer Griffin
Writing by Ben Schulman
Chicago’s Contraphonic label initiates the Pittsburgh version of their Sound Series with a new release from Host Skull. The Chicago Sound Series boasts five releases from the likes of Jon Langford (of The Mekons), Pillars and Tongues, jazz drummer Frank Rosaly and others. The goal of the series is to aurally illustrate the historic and modern mechanisms of the Working City. The Chicago Sound Series combines composition, field recordings, photography, and writing, and the Pittsburgh Series looks to do the same.
Host Skull is a new venture from multi-instrumentalists David Bernabo and Will Dyar that aims to play with the concept of a band. “Fourth River” is the first Host Skull output. The composition will be followed by a full-length album of orchestrated avant-pop songs in the summer. Following that, Host Skull will invite the audience to control the band in an interactive art installation in Downtown Pittsburgh. If you are looking to catch Host Skull, you may be able to see one of two Host Skulls, depending on which side of the country you live on.
Pittsburgh’s Fourth River is the sometimes mythologized, sometimes forgotten river that flows below the surface. More accurately, it is an aquifer that is given the name Wisconsin Glacial Flow. The visible manifestations of the river can be seen in the fountain at Point State Park and in some of the downtown drinking water. When the Fourth River is mentioned, grand notions of a flowing subterranean river come to mind. This is in direct contrast to what is actually is: sand, gravel, and a bit of water running through it.
“Fourth River” combines these two visions of the river, pairing arrhythmic electronics and percussion with majestic melodies from acoustic instruments. The contributing musicians are a small who’s who of innovative performers from Pittsburgh. Vibraphonist and percussionist Jeff Berman worked extensively in New York, performing in innovative jazz and new music groups before settling down in Pittsburgh. On the piece, he handles the rather gnarly vibraphone work and bowed gongs. Herman “Soy Sos” Pearl runs Tuff Sound Recording, has created music for dance and multi-media projects, and was a member of the genre-bending Soma Mestizo. Here, he contributes modular synthesizer, a series of signal-producing modules connected by patch cords/wires. A trio of musicians from Pittsburgh’s young New Music scene also makes an appearance: Brandon Masterman (soprano and baritone saxophone), Kerrith Livengood (flute and alto flute), and Ben Harris (violin). Connecting all the elements is Host Skull’s David Bernabo, who supplies classical and electric guitar, bass, percussion, accordion, and composed the piece.