Charlie Looker & Mike Pride
Idioglossia
Guitarist Charlie Looker and percussionist Mike Pride have both been wildly prolific as composers and improvisers for the past two decades, with eclectic projects spanning the realms of improvised music, jazz, post-punk, metal, and contemporary classical. Their collaborative relationship reaches back to the DIY experimental music scene of 2000s New York, where they began performing regularly as a duo, under the name Period.
Charlie Looker is best known as the guitarist, vocalist, and main composer behind cult art rock band Extra Life, as well as co-leader of industrial metal band Psalm Zero, and founding member of the renown noise-chamber collective Zs. He is also known as a composer of chamber music and orchestral works, which have been performed by Yarn/Wire, Mivos Quartet, and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. Looker's credits as a collaborator, sideman, and producer include Xiu Xiu, Lingua Ignota, Dirty Projectors, William Parker, Tony Malaby, and Darius Jones.
Mike Pride currently performs as a solo percussionist, leads jazz quartet From Bacteria To Boys, the 7-drummer installation Drummer's Corpse, the piano trio I Hate Work, and his newest band, Tributary Trio. He is also co-leader of the ensembles Pulverize The Sound (with Peter Evans and Tim Dahl), Three-Layer Cake (with Mike Watt and Brandon Seabrook) and Location Location Location (with Michael Formanek and Anthony Pirog). A very shortened list of Pride's myriad notable collaborators includes Matana Roberts, Jaimie Branch Trio, Marc Ribot, Boredoms, Charles Gayle, George Lewis, Mary Halvorson, Haino Keiji, Eugene Chadbourne, and hardcore punk legends MDC (Millions of Dead Cops).
Under the name Period, Looker and Pride released a self-titled CD EP as a duo in 2006 (FnA label), and a full-length CD, II, on Public Eyesore Records in 2013, which featured several esteemed guests, including alto saxophonist Darius Jones, tenor saxophonist Sam Hillmer (of Zs), and electronicist/vocalist Chuck Bettis. These releases were accompanied by extensive performances in the New York area.
​​
On Idioglossia , Looker and Pride bring this kaleidoscope of experiences and influences to bear on a set of highly-focused semi-improvised compositions for electric guitar and percussion. As with their previous work as Period, they seamlessly fuse the jagged dissonance of 90s no-wave (U.S. Maple, The Flying Luttenbachers), the post-free-jazz restructured fire of the AACM (Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell) and the obsessive formal rigor of post-war classical composers (Morton Feldman, Helmut Lachenmann). Since Period, however, the duo have developed more subtle, restrained currents, reminiscent of the spacious, melodic coolness of classic ECM artists (Paul Motian, Bill Frisell). From slow-building, dramatic epics to more concise, modest sound-poems, Idioglossia manifests a unique language, developed gradually through these two multi-faceted and eccentric virtuosos' years of collaboration and friendship. The record is a crystalline document of the current state of creative, instrumental music, cutting to the heart of lovers of experimental, challenging music, across many genres and communities.
1. Night Drive
2. The Crumbling Boat
3. Nearly Flightless Birds
4. Crowd Feeling on the Skin
5. Black Flashlights
6. Quick Question
7. Male Telepathy
8. Clues in a Recurring Nightmare
9. Forgotten Conversation
10. No Closure Whatsoever
Press for Period II
"... like Derek Bailey covering the Melvins... massive, pummeling." - Taylor Peters, (TinyMixTapes)
​
"... maddening, unlistenable at times, but mostly overpowering, cathartic and jaw-droopingly good." - Ryan Hall (SLUG Magazine)
​
"This isn’t for the weak ears among us... you’ll swear your player has been possessed & go looking for a sonic exorcist immediately!... HIGHLY RECOMMENDED" - Rotcod Zzaj (Improvijazzation Nation)
"Although some of this music is rather scary and intense, it remains consistently focused like a well-planned assault". - Bruce Lee Gallanter (Downtown Music Gallery)
Contact: Charlie Looker charredlurker@gmail.com