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Clang Quartet: Ava Ava
MP3 EP 2011 | Silber 094
1 track, 30 minutes
download zip file from Silber
Captured on Ava is a live performance from 2008 at the Ava Gardner Independent Film Festival.  It showcases the cacophony, chaos, order, & music that is uniquely Clang Quartet.

: Listen to Ava
: Press Release
: Digital booklet
 

Reviews:
Contradictory to what the name of this project suggests, Clang Quartet is really the one-man project of drummer Scotty Irving (of Prog Metal band Geezer Lake) which he started in 1997 as a personal expression of both sound and his faith.
Besides playing the drums and having those sounds altered through electronics, he's invented several home-made electro-acoustic instruments (those most notable were made from saws, masks, and crutches) but also uses guitars, keyboards, and sound collages of family tape recordings from his childhood and field recordings for his sonic interpretations of the Passion of Jesus Christ. His shows are a constant improvisation, never lingering on the recorded moments as could be heard on his 1997 and 1998 demo recordings Hackneyed Psalms And Other Fried Features and Saturday Night Sliver. He was then noticed by Silber CEO Brian John Mitchell, whom decided to release the split cd-R Cemented In Stone (his own Remora balancing Irving's noisy sound explosions) in 1999, before releasing Clang Quartet's official debut Jihad on CD in 2000. The follow-up album The Separation Of Church And Hate came in 2003, and finding his music was strongly misunderstood, Irving focused on live appearance from then on. Through his own Fried Features, he self-released the 2005 cd-Rs Noise And Other Road Sounds (with material collected from several live shows), Originals, Tributes, Rarities (collected compilation with unreleased material) and The Demo Years 1, The Demo Years 2, and The Demo Years 3 (collected demo works from his 1997-1998 cassette releases), and in 2007 RRR Records  issued the vinyl album Revival Of The Wretch (featuring live studio recordings).
Captured on Ava is a live performance from 2008 at the Ava Gardner Independent Film Festival, a 30 ½ minute exposé on the cacophony, chaos and order which is so typical for Clang Quartet's music, and which is so difficult to explain. There's an almost 8-minute passage where Irving actually uses no electronics or samples at all, but before and after the sounds he makes are at least partly shrouded to those of us, whom have not been to any of his shows! Well, I've enjoyed more experimental music of this ilk in the past, you know...but in this very case I feel the link to the musical expression and faith a bit hard to find. Ah well, as a means to break from Silber's usual output, this is certainly a welcome album. Would not put it on as background on any of the family's Sunday get-togethers though!
~ Concrete Web

So, going a bit obscure today, Silber Records has a free EP available from the Clang Quartet, a live performance piece dubbed Ava.  Earlier today, I did subject myself to the entirety of Ava, which is a thirty minute noise-centric work that deteriorates into nonsensical static, softening here and there for percussion's sake.

~ Letters from a Tapehead

Independent drone label Silber Records are putting out a brace of free EPs, one of which is Ava, a one track propulsive dirge by performance/noise act Clang Quartet. Heading off into the desolate, dark, green-tinged sunset, 'Ava' is over thirty minutes of cacophony, chaos, improvisation, noise and silence. It was recorded from a live performance at the Ava Gardner Independent Film Festival back in September 2008. It's actually quite coherent despite how disparate the various homemade instrumentations may seem at times. It's a percussive near-masterstroke - although the adherence to faith is unclear, it doesnt deter from the aural journey. I'm listening to it for the second time as I sit in the office gazing out at the green foliage outside, the rain steadily coming down - it's striking a Merzbow-like chord. Interesting stuff.
Download 'Ava' it is 56MB, but worthy, even for a one-off experience.
~ Sonic Masala

One of the few genuine contemporary artists continuing what Steven Stapleton and Nurse With Wound began in the 70’s, Scotty Irving’s Clag Quartet began life as a way of recording audible expressions of The Passion of the Christ, often using found sound elements via makeshift instruments of saws and crutches found in his home.
With ‘Ava’, we bear witness to a harsh, cacophonic and visceral thirty minute live performance that was recorded in 2008 as part of the Ava Gardner film festival. One can only imaging the immersing environment at the show (visual and all) as this ripped away ear drums, but sadly for those that were not there this is as close as we can get.
~ Michael Byrne, Left Hip