The Luyas
Somewhere in June 2008 I did a presentation on a subbacultcha night in Studio K, Amsterdam
as a pre programm for the band Miracle Fortress. After the shows I met the band
members backstage and we talked for an hour about my instruments and the relation of the
Moodswinger with Chinese scales. Jessie Stein, the girl in Miracle
Fortress, showed much attention to the string division theory and she liked the
very early Sonic Youth albums a
lot, because of the dark sound, so we had something in common. Afterwards
Jessie approached me for purchasing a Moodswinger for her own band, The Luyas,
which consists besides Jessie of Pierre Amato playing French horn and Stephan
Schneider on drums. Both guys also play in the well-known experimental jazz
ensemble The Bell Orchestre. Before Amato played in Arcade Fire for a while and
currently also in Torngat. In a way JessieÕs vocals always remind me of Cinthia
Dall, the obscure girl singer on the early Smog albums, who also made an
untitled solo album with Callahan in 1997 and one in 2002, which IÕve never
heard unfortunatelly.
I was working on a re-edition of the Moodswinger. AaronÕs version
was about 15 kilo and had uncomfortable guiding rods that were too high. The
re-issue was only 5 kilo and a lot more comfortable to pluck, because the rods
were postioned differently. Also the 3rd bridge scale was more
worked out with an eight colored dotted system covering the first 8 harmonic
overtones and additional a large amount of numbered lines indicating all other
lesser prominent overtone positions up to the 16th overtone. In
August I had finished the first version for Jessie. Schneider was at one moment
on Schiphol Airport near Amsterdam, where I handed over the instrument and
showed him Amsterdam for a few hours. A day later I received a picture of a
sleepy, but wild haired looking Jessie excited showing the Moodswinger on
webcam. A month later she did a performance with the instrument at Pop Montreal
and informed Liam Finn and Vincent Moon about my work.
The Luyas went into the studio in februari 2009 to record
their second album. About 3 tracks are played with the Moodswinger, of which I
particularly like the track Canary Song. The Moodswinger on this track sounds
very Eastern, almost like a Koto. IÕve only heard the demos so far. No really
any idea when the album will be released, but looking forward to it.
Jessie is going to be present with me and the other invited
musicians at the Guitar au Palais Festival 2008 in Perpignan.
Discography
Faker Death, 2007, cd rerelease 2008, Pome Records
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