Scotty Irving: electric and acoustic slide guitars, E-Bow, 'The Crutch'
Bret Hart: E-Bow resonated objects

t1 Sao Paolo 1978
t2 Rural Mississippi 1988
t3 Nepenthe, Big Sur 1984
t4 Worcester Artist Group 1991
t5 White Churches in Eden 1999
t6 Chapel Hill Lock-out 1986
t7 Stompin Yo Foot 2001
t8 Monterey Manatee 1985
t9 HIV Benefit Show 2000
t10 Knitting Factory 1987
t11 Wherehouse One 2000
t11 Wherehouse Two 2000

REVIEW: (J. Kranitz@aural-innovations)
"Scotty Irving is one of the few collaborators in the series who is local to Bret, and some of you may know his recordings under the name Clang Quartet. For this Duets, Scotty contributes lots of avant-traditional guitar bits, including some enjoyably creative slide work and Bluesy styles. Bret put the finishing touches on Scotty's recordings with E-bow, the result being yet another one of the Duets series' interesting union of contrasts. The E-bow provides ambience, noise, and orchestral sounds. At times it's almost like a dark theatrical symphony. Some of the highlights of the set are the varied E-bow manipulations played alongside Scotty's Bluesy acoustic parts. Very nice. I also enjoyed the quiet melodic moments that again mixes slide Blues guitar with the spacey atmospherics of the E-bow, some of which sounds like pure electronics. Things get a bit clashing and banging at times, though the noise levels are very controlled. I'd say my hands down favorite track is "Knitting Factory" which consists of fiery jazz/ethnic percussion alongside the E-bow atmospherics. I never cease to be amazed by the variety of sounds that can be wrenched from stringed instruments and the Duet's releases are genuine case studies of this phenomena. "

When our family moved to NC in 1998, one of the first creative players we met was Scotty Irving, who had only recently embarked on his CLANG QUARTET adventure, which continues to evolve to this day. Scotty performed with my wife and I in BARBWIRE HEARTS and THE CAT'S PANTS as our percussionist between 1999-2003, and with me and a host of improvisers in AUTOMATIC MUSIC between 2001-2007. 'The Crutch' is a modified crutch with numerous pedal FX, sonic toys, guitar parts, and things that make noises attached to it. It changes constantly...often, I suppose, owing to breakage during performance. He is also the inventor of The Electric Stapler, and other creative electronics. For this project, Scotty gave me a series of slide guitar, E-Bow, and Crutch performances. I pulled one of his live Clang Quartet performances out and added that to the sourcetracks. To these things, I provided accompaniment with a variety of E-Bow-resonated stringed instruments and E-Bow-resonated desk stapler spring.

A Brief Introduction to Clang Quartet
"Clang Quartet is the musical project of Scotty Irving (drummer for Geezer Lake, Eugene Chadbourne, Benjomatic, and others). Live, Clang Quartet is predominantly an improvisational percussion/performance-art show, based metaphorically on his life as a follower of Jesus Christ.

The recorded output features standard instruments like guitars, keyboards, and drums as well as Irving's own electrified crutch mixed with sound collages of family tape recordings from his childhood and field recordings. Truly experimental music in the spirit of Swans, Whitehouse, Merzbow, and AC/DC.

Clang Quartet is one of Silber's most important and misunderstood artists. CQ is the subject of a documentary from Bright Eye Pictures titled Armor of God. In 12 minutes it explains more than I could in 24 hours.

Clang Quartet's second album The Separation of Church & Hate was released in late 2002 on Silber. For the past few years Clang Quartet has focused on live performances rather than recorded output as can be heard on Revival of the Wretch & Ava."
(from http://www.silbermedia.com/clangquartet/)

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