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  ----Review by Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
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  TURBULENCE with PEK / BOB MOORES / MELANIE HOWELL- BROOKS / DUANE REED - Vertical Currents (Evil Clown 9278; USA) Featuring PEK on clarinets, saxes, flutes, double reeds & loads of percussion, Bob Moores on trumpets & percussion, Melanie Howell-Brooks on contrabass clarinet, flutes & assorted percussion and Duane Reed on baritone horn (small tuba) & percussion. There are around a half dozen Leap of faith offshoot projects by now, but only two that record more frequently: Turbulence and Metal Chaos Ensemble. Turbulence started out in 2016 with two constant members: PEK and former LoF drummer Yuri Zbitnov. Since Zbitnov has left the scene, Bob Moores & PEK are the two constant members with Duane Reed (the name of pharmacy chain) also now a regular member. The newest member is Melanie Howell-Brooks who is making her first appearance on Evil Clown. This disc was recorded at Evil Clown Headquarters in July of 2021, just 2 months ago.
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  Things begins quietly with occasional clouds of trumpet, contrabass clarinet and subtle yet eerie percussion (mostly cymbals, gongs & bells). The ensemble take their time and usually concentrates on one instrument or small group of hand percussion, as this piece evolves. There is a solo midway but I am not so sure what instrument it is: baritone horn with a mute perhaps? Next another solo by a double reed (sheng?) floats in over a solemn cushion of soft, mysterious percussion. It takes some patience in order to appreciate the way things slowly unfold and build together. Once we slow down, we can appreciate the way things evolve, carefully crafted sounds moving on spacious clouds, ethereal, mystical and sublime at times. There is not that much turbulence although there is still some compelling sounds which wash over us like a warm stream.
  - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
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  ----Liner Notes by PEK
  
  I formed Turbulence in 2015 as I started to assemble players for the Leap of Faith Orchestra. Turbulence, the extended horn section for the Orchestra (along with guests on other instruments), also records and performs as an independent unit. As if this writing in May of 2021, we have recorded over 30 albums on Evil Clown with greatly varied ensembles. All the smaller Evil Clown bands are really more about a general approach, rather than a specific set of musicians. A session gets credited to Turbulence when it is mostly horn players and the only musician on all of them is me. The sessions range from an early duet with Steve Norton and me (Vortex Generation Mechanisms) to a 5-horn band with bass and two percussionists (Encryption Schemes) to four albums by the side project Turbulence Doom Choir which feature myself, multiple tubas, percussion, electronics and signal processing.
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  I opened Evil Clown Headquarters in mid-May to players that have been fully vaccinated. Horn players can’t really wear a mask, so there was no way to do ECH studio sessions inside during the stupid CV. There has been some shifting in the roster with some players no longer available and some players returning after a period of absence. This set was originally scheduled around clarinetist Todd Brunel (who played on a couple Leap of Faith sets following the reboot in 2015) and Evil Clown newcomer Melanie Howell-Brooks (who plays flutes, clarinets and saxophones). As often happens with scheduling busy players, Todd had a schedule conflict arise after we arranged the session, so we went on with out him as a quartet with Melanie, Evil Clown regulars Bob Moores (trumpets) and Duane Reed (baritone horn), and me.
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  I met Melanie during the pandemic when she reached out to me regarding my contrabass clarinet, a fairly unusual horn at the bottom end of the clarinet family. I love low clarinets, and I had this metal, paperclip shaped, contra since the early 90s. In 2015 or 2016, I bought a nice contralto clarinet and I started to use the contrabass infrequently – it is a nice horn that plays well, but it has a tricky peg arrangement and is a bit awkward as a result. I tended to use the contralto as my main low clarinet, it’s in a great register, almost as low as the contrabass, and did not have any of the awkwardness of the giant paperclip. Anyhow, I bought a new contrabass at the beginning of 2020 which is a straight horn without the peg issues during instrument changes. In a wild coincidence, she inquired about this rare instrument and I happened to have two of them! Anyway, she bought my old horn from me to use for her immediate need and to extend her clarinet range to the bottom register.
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  I’m always looking for new qualified players to bring into Evil Clown, and during our discussion around her purchase of my old instrument, we decided that we would like to play together. This was her first set with Turbulence and she was great as I expected! Look for more of Melanie in Turbulence and Leap of Faith albums coming in the future from Evil Clown…
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  PEK – 7/17/2021 ... more
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• Killer new quartet Turbulence set featuring Evil Clown newbie Melanie Howell-Brooks on contrabass clarinet and flutes...

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