Contrasts

Welcome was written as a piece to introduce the band when playing out live. It was written in December of 1994 in preparation for a live performance at Lake Tahoe, California. The song evolved out of the first note Zel played on his Korg 05 R/W synthesizer the first time he used it.

D Toon was first written and performed in 1983 as a demo for entirely on the synthesizers Zel used to record for Zel’s sister Nanci’s friend Dennis. Dennis was an inventor whose device for synthesizers Zel used to record the first version of D Toon. The song features the angelic breaks between musical phrases. You can hear her singing in tight four part harmony with herself during the interlude in the middle of the piece. Jack LoCastro did the original percussion programming on an MXR drum machine. Zel later transcribed Jack’s percussion programming by beat, into MIDI format.

Asako-san was written in February 1995 following Zel’s first trip to Japan. It was inspired by the sights and sounds of Tokyo. The song was written after Zel listened to numerous recordings collected during his trips to Japan. Zel also toted a Sony MiniDisk player which he used to capture actual streets sounds from Tokyo. These are artfully mixed in throughout the song.

Joy was written in July of 1997 for Zel’s tria Sinporn, inspired by her sweetly mysterious, mischievous, at times enigmatic, nature. The result is a very musically complete song which ends all too extremely sweet and haunting (just like Siri), which resides in the capable hands of his daughter, Michelle. The piano now soon leaving you with a yearning for more. (The best antidote for this feeling is to simply replay the song.)

The Observer was first written in 1981 after discussions with a friend about how some people like to “observe” other people. It goes through many phases, starting and ending with long, mournful chords. In the background are woven sounds from the area around Shinjuku Station in Tokyo.

Revelation was first one of Zel’s first compositions, written entirely on the piano and performed in 1982. The current variation was introduced in January 1995 at Lake Tahoe. Images of a field of flowers dripping wet after a recent thunder shower come to mind.

Something Will Occur was first developed in 1982 by a subset of Control called Zelpha and the Planetoids. It was written as one of the soundtrack songs for a film by Jim Myrick called Machine Men. The film was never completed, but here is the song! This song is interesting in that it represents an event which “will occur,” yet somehow never does. Something Will Occur features the brilliant guitar work of Steve Peterson, lead guitarist for the now defunct band Control. In the first half of the song you can hear a portion of a speech recorded by Herr Doktor Juergen Spitzner von der Haar in the Fall of 1995. It has specific recommendations about the merits of personal cleanliness. Throughout the song is the percussion work of Jack LoCastro, including an impromptu chant towards the end.

Plateau, like Revelation, was an early piece composed on piano in 1975. It was converted to synthesized format in 1982.

TLM was written in 1982 on synthesizer. It uses several overlapping repetitive patterns. The melody line starts at the upper register of the keyboard and is repeated continuously, each time an octave lower, until it drops out of the audible spectrum.

Lookup was written in 1985 when Zel was playing with Tony B. in San Francisco. Tony’s bass/keyboard work and upbeat attitude inspired Zel to compose this piece. Lookup is a very uplifting, joyously compelling, rhythmic song.

Speed Limit, written in 1981, is based on Optimism Control by Steve Small and performed by Zel. Its title was suggested by Ric Small. It is a very heroic song which suggests high speed travel on a highway with many miles to go. In this song you will hear the searing guitar work of Ja Juba in both the foreground and the background.

Twilight is both a sad and happy song written in its entirety at 3:00 AM one morning. Imagine the trees, plants, birds, animals, etc. at twilight. There is sadness at the end of a beautiful day, and restfulness with the coming of night and sleep. There is also a hint of happiness with the prospect of a new day tomorrow.