Albums

What do you get when you project twelve modern day creation myths onto twelve expressionist canvasses and flavor them with a cosmic rock opera?

Dancing on the Brink of the World is the companion CD to the book by the same name written by Sven Eberlein, featuring a song cycle through the signs of the zodiac, plus two bonus tracks. Weaving moments of pure Rush-like rock ‘n’ roll ecstasy into a tapestry of deeper reflective soundscapes that echo a darker side of the moon, Dancing on the Brink of the World is so much more than a random collection of songs. Each song has very distinct influences, yet none permeate the project throughout.

On their 6th album, Chemystry Set has come full cycle, pouring a vast reservoir of influences ranging from world rhythm, jazz, and groove to bluegrass, fusion, progressive rock, and punk into a sea of archetypes that take the listener from leisurely swims to adventurous dives. It is, as the band’s name, a leap into not knowing; and it is, as the subject matter of the CD, a mixture of the essence of every person in the world uniting in harmony.

Artwork by Evelyn Terranova. Produced by Dickie Ogden. Available through Amazon More info and extras at Tuber Creations.

The Band:
Sven Eberlein – Guitars & Vocals
Dickie Ogden – Drums & Vocals
Patty Hughes – Wurlitzer Piano, Farfisa Organ, Phil’s Organ & Vocals
Baba Ndjhoni – Bass, Mandolin, Ukulele & Vocals

Special guests:
Joel Oppenheimer – Extra Bass
Steven Forrest – astro talk

Produced by Dickie Ogden and the Set, Chemystry Set’s fifth CD, Cobblestone Below My Feet, ferments three years of travel, storytelling, friendships, and recording magic into a rich and highly intoxicating elixir. On their fifth release, the band that has made a name for itself over the last ten years with boundary-defying music and message-driven songs is coming of age in this beautifully dynamic tapestry of tightly-arranged and rockin’ compositions.

Written during and after their 2003 European tour, Cobblestone Below My Feet is an invitation across language, culture, and consciousness. Like a carriage ride through history, hitting the cobblestone with an amalgam of sounds and an ever-fresh poetic luminescence, this album takes the listener into another time zone, all along establishing connections not only to the present, but the future of humanity.

Includes beautiful black and white cobblestone photography by Debra Baida. Lyrics available at chemystryset.bandcamp.com.

The Band
Dickie Ogden – Drums
Joel Oppenheimer – Bass
Baba Ndjhoni – Mandolin, Vocals
Patty Hughes – Wurli Piano, Vocals
Sven Eberlein – Guitars, Vocals

Special Guests
Joe Balestreri – Trumpet
Dan Heffez – Alto Sax
Nathaniel Hawkes & Baba Ndjhoni – Horn Arrangements

A high quality multitrack celebration and documentation of the final show on Chemystry Set’s Pacific Northwest tour 2004. 80 minutes of music. It was an intimate semi-private party with open bar. The half-keg kicked right when the band finished! Good partying everyone! Rock, bluegrass, world influences, sometimes progish, groovy, 3 part vocals. Totally rocks.

The Band
Dickie Ogden – Drums
Joel Oppenheimer – Bass
Baba Ndjhoni – Mandolin, Vocals
Patty Hughes – Wurli Piano, Vocals
Sven Eberlein – Guitars, Vocals

EVERYTHING AND NOTHING

“I’ll set the scene for you, since being human means living in 3D space and linear time: Nighttime upon a great urban grid of streets, the perpendicular crossing of two of them, a boxy gray building, a small cubic room inside. Angles atop angles, boxes inside boxes, a Chinese puzzle. Outside it’s refreshingly cool, and the April moon is bright as the streetlights. Inside it’s sultry as a sauna, with the band taking up half the room to play and three dozen friends crammed into the other half to hear, no, to experience, be a part of, this live recording, this sweat lodge serenade. And what a serenade — music as opposed to its linear surroundings as the beating heart is to the cages of science. The first set tore a new riverbed through the hard rock landscape and the second set let the river roar. Every time I hear Chemystry Set I feel like I’m hearing it for the first time: musicianship tight as an atom, music wild and roaming as the imagination of the unknown. It’s like everything and nothing I’ve ever heard, a screaming reminder that rock is rebellion and must be reinvented each time it’s played, or else it’s just pop. I’m thinking of “The Last Real Experience” as I write that, but I could mean any of the songs on this CD. “Tiger on a Roll,” for instance, where prog rock meets the new age in an eco-power-ballad that sounds like all ballads and none of them at the same time. But you can hear all this for yourself. What I wanted to say was this: At one point during the serenade I looked over at the recording system in the corner, a tower of blinking amps and mixers and a futuristic iMac with sound moving across its display in orange bars as though pumped in right from the stage, sound re-conceived as light and movement, and in a flash I knew what I was experiencing: that the oxymoron live recording expresses something both contradictory and essential about us and about that night, the fantastic, surprising, human realization that every day is not the same old sunrise/sunset but is absolutely unique, and that our whole need and struggle is to capture this, because some moments are worth living forever, if only one could. That’s what the spirit is for. And that’s what this “live recording” makes happen. Impossible as such an endeavor may seem, insubstantial as the spirit may be, made as it is of nothing. Yet somehow, it’s everything.” – Randy Lyman, April 24th 2004

Birthed by the ever-present spontaneous combustions of all that is Chemystry, and produced under the auspices of Dickie Ogden (Dr. Dickie), this third incarnation in the underground trilogy is probably the most refined and momentous creation in the Set’s storied journey. Leaving more room for each song to breathe, the Set’s ever evolving musicianship shines through the brilliant dynamics, giving more meaning to the album’s daring arrangements and twists. And should you wonder about the implications of the album title, turn your attention to that most treasured and ancient wisdom, found between all lines and within yourself: The end is the beginning, be here now!

The Band
Sven Eberlein – Electric Guitar, Vocals
Dickie Ogden – Drum Kit, Vocals
Patty Hughes – Wurlitzer Electric Piano, Vocals
Joel Oppenheimer – Bass
Baba Ndjhoni – Electric Mandolin, Vocals

Special Guests
Rich Doucette – Esraj
JB White – Piano & Bathtub
Mica Tellez – Answering Machine

Lyrics, lines notes, and artwork at Bandcamp.

The follow-up to Life in the Underground, The Space Between celebrates the growing of seeds and the evolution of life with an uplifting soul journey through themes of community, activism and transformation. An edgy jazzy world groove provides the musical canvas to effusive storytelling, creating a rich texture of multi-stylistic peregrinations. Featuring soul singer Krystle Jones (SF Funk Allstars). Recorded on 2 inch reel-to-reel by avant-garde maverick Oliver DiCicco. Acrylic on canvas cover by Matt Ritchie.

The Band
Brian Fishler – Drums
Avidan Rose – Percussions, Vibraphone
Joel Oppenheimer – Bass
Sven Eberlein – Guitars, Vocals
Baba Ndjhoni – Mandolins, Vocals
Krystle Jones – Vocals
Greg Carney – Guitar

From the Spaces between
Ben Harris – Trumpet
Nicole Polisner – Flute
Bob Athayde – Piano
Scott Johnston – Soprano Sax
Dave Jacobson – Wurlitzer Piano

Lyrics, liner notes, and artwork at Bandcamp.

A groundbreaking debut by the eclectic rock ensemble. 13 tracks weave their way through deep realms of consciousness, telling stories of rebellion, conspiracy, roots and hope. Guest appearances by bassoonist Paul Hanson (Windham Hill), percussionist Avidan Rose (Mobius Operandi, Myron Dove) and Soji Odukogbe (Kotoja, West African Highlife Band). Binaural audio clips from the hands and ears of multimedia guru Tony Idarola. Original ball point pen cover by Matt Ritchie.

The Band
Sven Eberlein – Guitars, Vocals
Mark Sand – Drums
Joel Oppenheimer – Bass
Baba Ndjhoni – Mandolins, Vocals
Dave Jacobsen – Keyboard
Greg Carney – Guitar

Special Guests
Avi Rose – Percussion
Paul Hanson – Bassoon
Soji Odukogbe – Guitar
Ginger Thimlar – Vocals
Lisa Stadlen – Flute

Lyrics, lines notes, and artwork at Bandcamp.