Barry Schrader News : April 2009 (Spring 2009)

The Monkey King CD has received a number of very positive reviews. Here are some excerpts:

Two large-scale electronic works that sparkle with clangorous timbres and bubble with rich washes of sound.

Electronic Musician Magazine (top picks for December, 2008)

While individual elements sound strangely familiar, the resulting entity is without direct reference, a style which is as timeless as it is futuristic and which revels in ancient mythology with the tools of today.
Tobias Fischer, Tokafi

Wildly inventive and unconventional, this album will appeal to folks who are drawn to truly strange instrumentals. Chock full of imagination and creativity. Highly recommended. (Rating: 5+++)

LMNOP, Baby Sue

Conjuring readily reflections of an underworldly, spiritual landscape set within Chinese mythology, it is difficult to remain cerebrally rooted in the contemporary age in which the suite was composed. “Monkey King” harmoniously coexists between modern technology and ancient mythology.
Will F., Leicester Bangs

Very accessible, large-scale and gorgeous!
Cousin Mary, KFJC 89.7 FM, Los Altos, California

Overall this is a very attractive album that may serve as a valuable gateway into electroacoustic music.

Tim Rutherford-Johnson, The Rambler

The November 5 interview with Bonnie Barnett on the Monkey King CD on Trilogy on KXLU 88.9 FM in Los Angeles is now on the

Downloads 2 page of the website. The 2003 interview I did with Bonnie on the EAM album has become a popular download on the Downloads 1 page of the site, and I'm sure you'll find this new interview to be interesting and entertaining.

Also available is the Monkey King interview I did on November 30 on Outsight Radio Hours hosted by Tom Schulte. You can hear this interview by going to the Cool Streams website. The interview is also available as a podcast on iTunes. There's a complete directory of Tom's interviews on the Outsight Radio Hours Podcasts page which you can access by clicking here.

To celebrate the release of the Monkey King CD, I've uploaded an MP3 of Twilight on the Downloads 2 page of the site; you can find this file at the bottom of the page, below the "store". Twilight was a live/interactive keyboard/computer improvisation. It was composed for my

first trip to China in 1988, and based on a poem of the same name by Ch’ên Yün (1886-1910). This performance was recorded in 1989. Using software that is now obsolete, the work can no longer be realized, and this remains the only recorded performance. Since I have no plans for releasing this on a CD, I'm offering it as a free download through the rest of 2009.

Matrix of Matrixsynth asked me about some of the technical aspects of composing the works on the Monkey King CD. You can read my response here.

If you haven't yet read the interview on the Monkey King CD on the Tokafi website with Tobias Fischer, please check this out. This serves as a preview of the CD. To read the interview, please click here. There's also an article on this interview on the Synthtopia website.

On Saturday, May 23, 2009, three movements of Lost Atlantis will be presented in their original quadraphonic format on the ElectroVisiones Festival in Mexico City at the Fonoteca Nacional. This is a festival of multichannel electroacoustic music. The three sections of Lost Atlantis that will be presented are: Introduction: The Pillars of Hercules - The Great Harbor; The Temple of Poseidon - The Dance of the Gods; The Destruction of Atlantis - Epilogue: “...and Atlantis shall rise.” Please see the website for more specific information.