Mark Egan & Arjun Bruggeman “Dreaming Spirits”
Article by Eric Larson, © Copyright 2018 FretlessBass.com
This new release from Mark Egan and Arjun Bruggeman, featuring Shane Theriot, gets better and better the more you listen. Originally intended to be a bass guitar and tabla album, the project evolved to include guitar and more. Mark Egan was as generous as always answering my questions about how this project and trio came together, giving me thorough details of the project and the players that contributed. There is plenty of beautiful fretless bass work, and the complimentary styles that flow between the musicians are impressive. Read more to be brought behind the scenes of this unique project.
Basses – Mark Egan
Tabla & Drums – Arjun Bruggeman
Guitars – Shane Theriot
FretlessBass.com: How did this trio and project come together? What was the initial concept for this album, and did it change along the way at all?
Mark Egan: I met tabla player, drummer and percussionist Arjun Bruggeman in 2008 when we recorded and toured with master Kirtan singer-chanter, Krishna Das. Arjun is a world percussionist and session recording artist and is highly acclaimed for his unique hybrid of East-meets- West rhythms.
Early in his career he toured with punk rock bands. His interest in early progressive, metal and jazz rhythms led him into a creative journey and later found himself enthralled by world percussion.
We had an immediate musical connection and we’ve had a wonderful musical dialogue ever since as we continue to tour and record with Krishna Das.
We always talked about doing a creative recording project together since we first met and finally decided to organize sessions at my studio in January of 2017. During this same time period I had been playing in the New York area with guitarist from New Orleans, Shane Theriot. Shane is a multifaceted player who is comfortable in a wide range of styles and has a unique voice on the instrument.
The first two sessions were recorded as a duo with tabla, percussion and bass since our original concept was to make this a duo project. I did organized some preproduction ideas utilizing some looping effects and bass lines that we used as a backdrop to improvise over as well as organized different key centers and tempos to work with. Arjun had great ideas for various grooves on tabla, frame drum, percussion, tone drum and drum set.
As the songs and sessions progressed we did change our orchestration concept and felt that the music could use another voice and made the addition of guitar.
Guitarist Shane Theriot who had recently moved to the area from New Orleans to be the music director and guitarist for Daryl Hall of Hall and Oates was the perfect choice as he is a master guitarist who has toured and recorded with the Neville Brothers, Dr. John, Jewel, Beyonce, Rickie Lee Jones, Gavin DeGraw, Aaron Neville, Ben Folds, Amos Lee, The SYN (with Chris Squire and Alan White from YES), Little Feat, Sammy Hagar and Allen Toussaint. Shane recorded acoustic, electric and lap steel guitars on the basic tracks that Arjun and I had recorded. The project evolved from a duo project to a trio with the addition of Shane playing guitar.
I worked on additional orchestrations of the tracks by adding bass effects, bass harmonies and melodies and by creating extended percussion beds from some of the grooves that Arjun had initially recorded.
FretlessBass.com: What is it like to play with a tabla player in the studio for a project like this, compared to a full drum kit?
Mark Egan: I love the sound of tabla and especially the way that Arjun plays. The sound of my M.V.Pedulla fretless five string bass fits so well with the frequency range of the two drums of the tabla set which is comprised of the low drum, Bayan and the higher drum, Dayan. The bass and tabla sounds have a great bond.
Arjun was originally a drum set player before playing tabla and when he plays tabla, he has the same sensibilities of a western drummer combined with Eastern influences which makes it very comfortable for me to lock in with him.
One example would be a song that you would normally record or play with kick and snare like the 3rd track on the CD “Wave Motion”. Arjun would play a similar kick rhythmic pattern on the low Bayan drum and simulate a backbeat snare rhythm on the high Dayan drum. He also has a beautiful way of embellishing the in between rhythms that you would associate with hi hat or cymbals with his fingers.
FretlessBass.com: Tell me a bit about Arjun Bruggeman’s equipment and approach/style for those who may not have much exposure to a tabla player?
Mark Egan: Arjun plays his tabla in the traditional Indian way as far as the set up. He sits on the floor with the tabla at his knees, the low drum on his left and the high drum right. On the track “Mombossa” he only played the low Bayan drum for the basic track almost like a bossa feel then added tabla groove later as well as overdubbed cymbals.
On this recording Arjun also played a frame drum which is a large round skin that looks like a large tambourine with out the metal shakers. On some of the tracks he also played two of the high tabla (Dayan) tuned to different pitches. That is the sound on the 1st track, Village Call. On two of the songs on the recording, Arjun played a tone drum with his hands which I later orchestrated with multi tracked basses.
FretlessBass.com: Your rhythm on the bass guitar stands out to me on this project. I wonder if it is because of the sparse percussion element. Do you approach rhythm differently in a situation like this?
Mark Egan: This is a very open sonic recording and we wanted to create a very ambient record with a lot of space and it gave me a lot of room and freedom to experiment rhythmically and melodically. You are correct that because of the sparse percussion element, there is more sonic space to hear the bass and it gave me freedom to experiment more than if I was playing with a more typical rhythm section.
As with any music situation, I listen to the sonic picture and use my sensibilities to react to what is happening. In this project since most of the basic structures were first recorded duo and then we added guitar at later sessions. The basic tracks gave me a lot of room to experiment rhythmically and melodically.
This type of recording is different than if all the tracks were recorded with an entire group live in which case I would have to be more selective with the bass line liberties that I could take.
FretlessBass.com: Tell me about Shane Theriot, how he got involved, and his influence on the music.
Mark Egan: Around the time that Arjun and I had finished the first few days of recording basic tracks, I had a show in NYC at club Bonafide owned by bassist Richard Bona. It was with vibe player Steve Shapiro, Shane Theriot and drummer Joel Rosenblatt.
I had been thinking of guitarists to contact to play on the “Dreaming Spirits” project and then asked Shane if he was available. He also plays great jazz, funk and acoustic guitars. As you can see from his above resume he has played and recorded with some of the greatest artists in the music business and he also has his own deep New Orleans music roots.
I was very impressed with the preparation that he did for the sessions. I sent him the duo tracks that we wanted him to play on and he came to the recording really prepared. He had made a notebook of altered tunings for his various electric, acoustic and lap steel guitars. These various tunings and his music genius added an additional dimension that the music was calling for.
On some of the tracks he played a supportive acoustic groove role which he doubled. He also added ambient waves with his lap slide guitar as well as wonderful solos on electric and acoustic on many of the songs.
When I listen to the finished tracks it sounds like we cut the tracks as a trio live. He has a way of anticipating and playing the perfect parts to compliment the music and he has an enormous amount of soul and finesse in his playing. On his slide ambient textures we added a lot of reverb to create a very wide depth of field in the mix. He brought the tracks to life with his great soloing and multilayered parts.
FretlessBass.com: Tell me about the writing and recording process for this project. How much live recording with the trio happens, and when does overdubbing or adding tracks come in to the process? How much does improv play a role?
Mark Egan: Improvisation played a large role on this project. As I mentioned, Arjun and I first tracked this project as a duo with open improvisations as well as pre written basic forms and groove ideas. Some of the original concepts started as establishing a tempo and various key centers that we wanted to play and then we improvised in those areas.
Arjun and I have played a lot together for the past ten years so we know each others playing very well and the various tempos and grooves that come naturally to us. We were aware that we wanted to explore different key signatures and tempos in order to balance the tonal and rhythmic order of the songs. My preproduction ideas were to write basic bass line themes and tempos in six keys as well as a few bass grooves that I wanted to experiment with such as the song Wave Motion. Arjun also did the same and had great ideas for using various tabla tunings, frame drum and tone drum combinations as well as cymbal and drum set ideas.
Arjun also had compositions that he had been working on with tone drums in two different keys. A Tone drums is a wooden box with different carved tone bars that Arjun plays with his hands. He recorded these tone drum songs with a click track.
On the tone drum song, “When Spirits Dance”, I orchestrated his tone drum performance by transcribing a few bass lines that were part of his performance and figuring out the tonal centers. I put together an arrangement for Shane to create his parts to. He really made this track come alive with his multi track overdubs of acoustic and electric guitars.
Tracks like C Drone Expansion and Morning Light were improvised as a duo. I pre recorded drone bass loops similar to the function of an Indian tamboura and we recorded duo live.
On the track “The In Between” Arjun was just starting to get sounds in the studio and that was his first solo take. We liked it so much that I then added layers of bass waves underneath by using effects such as the Strymon Time Line delay and Blue Sky reverb and looped them through two Lexicon PCM 42 digital delays with extended memory.
The song “Framonics” evolved from a frame drum groove from Arjun. I looped his groove in Pro Tools then added bass harmonics in 6/4, doubled them then created a structure for form and added 8-string fretless melodies. Shane later overdubbed acoustic guitar rhythm, electric fills and solos. I also orchestrated this with bass pads created from the Strymon Time line digital delay.
The track “Waking Spirits”was created from bass loops on the Lexicon PCM 42 digital delays and heavily effected tabla. I played the strings at the head stock between the tuners and the nut at a fast delay on the digital delays then slowed them down to half speed to create a haunting slow motion effect.
This project was a very open experimental process of composing, orchestrating and improvising.
FretlessBass.com: Tell me about the equipment you used on this album (basses, amps, effects, setup, etc.).
Mark Egan:
Basses-
I used all M.V. Pedulla basses.
5-string fretless signature M.E. bass, 8-string fretless Octobuzz, double neck with 4 –string fretless and 8-string fretted
Strings-
DAddario strings-XL170 set with a 125 on the low B string
Amps and cabs-
Markbass amps-
Markbass Multiamp, Big Bang
Markbass cabs-
Standard 102 HF, New York 151
Effects-
Strymon Time Line DDL, Strymon Blue Sky, Lexicon PCM 42 digital delays, Korg AX300B multi effects
Mark Recording path-
We recorded amp and direct sound.
From effects into splitter to:
A: Amp and cab to AEA R84 ribbon mic into Radial JDI direct box to BAE 1073 Mic Pre amp line in to Protools HDX converter.
B: Direct to millennia TD1 Mic pre/EQ to Protools HDX converter.
Arjun played-
Tabla, Drums, Cymbals, Shakers, Tone Drums, Frame drum
Shane played-
Acoustic guitar, Electric guitar, Lap slide guitar
FretlessBass.com: Did all of the recording take place at your Electric Fields studio?
Mark Egan: Yes, all of the project was recorded and mixed at my studio in CT. I engineered all of the sessions and mixed the record with Jeremy Gillespie. Jeremy is a great engineer who I first met at Barbershop Studios in NJ while recording a project of the music of Bjork.
FretlessBass.com: What do find unique about this project and the experience recording with this trio?
Mark Egan: The instrumentation and choice of material is unlike any other recording that I have released. For years I have been thinking of doing a more ambient recording using exotic percussion, guitars and fretless bass and when I met Arjun I knew that this would be a great collaboration. Shane was the perfect addition to the music, bringing his jazz, R&B and New Orleans roots.
FretlessBass.com: I like how the album opens with Village Call. It has great fretless bass runs in the first section, giving the listener no doubt about the role of fretless on this project, complimented by beautiful fretless chords and slides in the second section. Tell me more about how this track came together.
Mark Egan: To record Village Call Arjun used two of the high tabla tuned differently for the basic track. We recorded his tabla part first and came up with a basic form alternating from a modal D7+11 tonality to the bridge which features his tabla melody along with the bass chords and melody. He added a low Bayan tabla to give the track some low end drum.
I then spent time orchestrating the drum arrangement by adding bass chords on the bridges using 5-string fretless along with melodic slides and fills. I soloed on the other sections. Shane later added acoustic guitars doubled, Lap Slide steel guitar swells as well as electric solo guitar at the end along with the bass open string repeating line over a D7+11 tonality.
FretlessBass.com: Wave Motion: This one may well be my favorite. It has a nice chord progression and beautiful 8-string fretless bass melodies. The guitar lines that start to pick up about half way through the track give it a lot of depth. How did this song come together?
Mark Egan: Wave Motion was an idea that I had written which started as a chord progression Dm, C, Bb, Dm, C, Gm and a bass loop of G,A,G,A etc…generated from my Lexicon PCM42 DDL. I first looped the repeating bass pattern on my 5-string Pedulla fretted bass and we recorded that first along with a click track. Next Arjun and I played along with the basic chord progression that was only the first chord progression of the song. I lived with it for a few weeks and then orchestrated it by adding the bridge chords and melody.
This meant that I had to redo my original bass part in order to fit the new form. Once the basic track was complete I composed the bass melody and recorded it on an 8-string fretless Pedulla bass and doubled it as well to give it a rich sound.
At the guitar sessions Shane first recorded acoustic guitars doubled, electric guitar fills and then a guitar solo. Arjun also added cymbal ride on the final Bridge and for the ride out of the song. The bass loop is in the underlying glue track throughout and the level was mixed up and down as the track developed.
FretlessBass.com: Joy Ride – another one of my favorites on this album. The bass and tabla rhythms really stand out in this song to me. It has a joyous feel, and the fretless bass melodies in the chorus really seem to sing out with a gentle and positive vibe. Nice fretless chords and beautiful fretless melody. And there is the absence of guitar which I didn’t exactly notice until I started to dissect it a bit.
Mark Egan: Joy Ride started by recording click track and a solo performance of Arjun playing his tone drum which is tuned in a somewhat Ab major key. He came up with the form with different sections and it really sounded great just a solo piece but we decided to orchestrate it and add basses.
I lived with this track for a while and transcribed the form that Arjun had played and worked out the groove bass lines that are parts of the tone drum lines. If you listen closely I was doubling his tone drum parts. When his form changed I orchestrated the bridges with fretless chord changes (1,10) that seem to fit and then added a fretless melody on both bridges that are slightly different. We decided to keep this track as a duo since it had a nice joyous and open sound and seemed complete as a duo.
FretlessBass.com: Voices: Very interesting effects coming from all instruments. I hear what sounds like subtle backward fretless effect, nice 8-string fretless melodies, percussion that seems to branch out a bit on this, with what sounds like cymbals and other drums, and the very nice acoustic lead. I particularly like the moment at 7:00 where the bass moves into sliding bass chords and melody leading the song home.
Mark Egan: Voices was inspired by an effect that I was using along with my two Lexicon PCM 42 DDls. I recently had started experimenting with a Strymon Time Line effects pedal and one particular setting seemed to not only reverse my bass melody but regenerated it to morph into what sounded like voices so that became the theme and title of the piece.
Arjun and I recorded the first basic track on tom toms at the drum set, later adding cymbal swells and shaker. My bass track was recorded live using 5-string fretless with the effected delays. I later orchestrated the song adding bass chords, doubled melodies with 8-string fretless bass and added more bass swell textures.
At the later guitar sessions Shane overdubbed rhythm and lead acoustic guitars. Shaun has a beautiful way of complementing the music while at the same time leading the way. He is a very special musician.
FretlessBass.com: I like the contrast of dreamy haunting tracks with some of the more upbeat and melodic selections. Spirit Blues comes in with a different uniqueness that makes me wish it was a longer track. Was that kind of variety initially planned for this album, or did that evolve along the way?
Mark Egan: Spirit Blues evolved from a duo jam and we used just a short part of it since initially we went into a different groove which became the song Framonics. We liked the feel and added Shane on electric guitar. It does feel like it could have gone on for a while though. The frame drum groove sets up the vibe and identity of the song which goes to the four chord at the end which is why we called it “Spirit Blues”.
FretlessBass.com: What are your current plans for 2018 (with this trio, other projects, touring, other recordings)?
Mark Egan: We will be recording a promotional video of the trio at my studio and performing some dates in the New York area. Arjun and I will be touring with Krishna Das and working on more tracks that Arjun is producing for a new project of his.
It feels great to keep the creative recording process going. Whenever I finish a project I feel ready to immerse myself into another. I love being in the music moment.
Other projects that I will be working on this year are a duo project with drummer Danny Gottlieb, drums and bass. We have a lot of music recorded that we will be arranged and mixed for a release in 2018. This project will be just drums and bass and a very personal statement from Danny and I from our forty-five years of playing together. Danny and I first met in music school at the University of Miami then later were the rhythm section of the original Pat Metheny Group. During the last few years we have been recording various duo sessions which we will be releasing as two or three Cds of music.
I will also be recording a new project with Drummer Karl Latham and Vic Juris as a follow up to the last recording, Standards of Living. We will be performing dates at venues in the North East area to support that release.
In the summer I will be traveling to Austria to play a 10-day music festival with the Outreach Orchestra. This is highly creative ensemble that performs original music with great players from New York and Europe. Some of the players are: Franz Hackle-Tpt, Adam Holzman- Kbds (Miles Davis, Steven Wilson) Jane Getter- Gtr, David Taylor- Tbn, John Clarke-Fr Hn, Craig Blundel- Drms (Steven Wilson) Mino Cinelu- Perc (Miles Davis, Weather Report), Christophe Schweizer- Tbn, Gene Pritsker- Gtr, Composition.
FretlessBass.com: You keep yourself very busy. How do you spend your time off or downtime these days?
Mark Egan: It never seems like there is much downtime because I love to play so much. Even when there are no shows on the schedule I like to exercise, practice and compose on bass, piano and guitar as well as read.
When we have open time, my wife and I enjoy the Connecticut shore and being around the water. I am an avid fisherman so in the spring, summer and fall I enjoy salt and fresh water fishing and boating. We live near reservoirs as well as the ocean so there is a lot to choose from.
We also enjoy traveling to Tuscany Italy and have made some very special friends there that we like to visit in between tours.
