The Knitting Factory was the tour de force for experimental and indie music in the 90s in NYC and a place we visited often to see the newest of the new music and artful alternative touring artists. It was an honor to grace its stages over the course of the years.

Fragments of two such magical nights were preserved here. The base foundation is Stratosphere: Ian on drums, Sasquatch on Chapman Stick, and me on electric guitar. We were joined by special guests on both. For the first track, which is called "Fantastic Cruise and The Triangle Offense, The incredible Michael Bloom joined us on guitar for the laboratory vibe in the Soundstage bubble. Not so many folks there (Todd Amodeo for sure, I remember!), but we dug in considerably in a louder way than early Stratosphere jams but equally as raga-like. Track two involved a free music ensemble in the Tap Bar. I was in the middle of a ten day vow of silence and god knows what else on the mind and it was super late and free jazz multi-instrumentalist and poet of the dialectic Daniel Carter stepped aboard with reeds and woodwinds and brass in the way that only he does and old-school brother Ben Forstenzer on tenor sax, and the one and only Bopa King Carre (he won't remember this) on percussion. Epic is one way to describe it. Murky and calling up all the demons is another. Celebration is a wide open embrace and takes it all in. This was never a stage. It was our unconscious at work and coming through in a window of time left open because the breeze was just too damn good.

Enjoy, my friends. There is a lot in here. BItches Brew. Dolphy. Ambient art noise rock. You tell me what you hear.

From the sleeve: Stratosphere is a fierce blending of improvisational music borrowing from many different traditions including rock (American/noise/art), funk, jazz, ambient, and space. At its core is the trio of Alan Semerdjian (electric guitar), Tom Karcher (Chapman Stick), and ian Katz (drums). Stratosphere frequently collaborates with musicians from varied genres to create further explorations of sound and groove. It is a free kind of playing that borrows as much from the environment it is played in as it does the players themselves. This particular compilation consists of two tracks recorded live at The Knitting Factory in NYC (circa 1999/2000?) and features some excellent innovative players sitting in. The tracks were recorded "guerilla-style" with an overworked PZM room microphone, so the recordings are hardly pristine. The first track was recorded in the now defunct "Soundstage" and the second as part of a month-long residency in the Tap Bar.