I just got a recording of Shadow Rituals in the mail performed by the Dublin Concert Band. I love hearing different recordings of the piece (though people rarely send me them… hint, hint). One of the hardest aspects of Shadow Rituals is the fast tempo (quarter note = 180). Couple that with the constantly changing meter and you’ve got a fairly complex piece. Usually, the recordings I hear are much slower than 180. The Dublin Band, however, managed to play it even faster than suggested. If the piece is performed at 180, it usually lasts about 4 minutes exactly. The Dublin recording ends in a record breaking 3 minutes, 35 seconds!

Speaking of Ireland, I don’t think I’m going to drink Irish Whiskey ever again. Ugh.

It looks like Shadow Rituals is one of the top 100 pieces published for 2007-2008 according to bandworld.org and the Western International Band Clinic. Also on the list is my East coast friend Vincent Oppido’s piece, Skysplitter! Apparently, my name is Mark Markowski (which would be pretty cool, but seriously… how difficult is my name?). I also get Mark Mike-owski… and occasionally even Mike Wazowski.

For the first time in many, many years, I woke up early on a Sunday morning and went to church. But it wasn’t for God; it was for Dan. Dan had asked me yesterday to come help out on a recording session that would require 24 tracks… thats 24 microphones… that’s a helluva lot of microphones. Go ahead. Count ‘em.Naturally, it took a while to set up and only about an hour to check levels and make sure the mics were working properly. We haven’t done a recording project like this in a few months. I was starting to miss it. Man, I miss not working, too. Exciting things on the way: 1. Bully Mammoth Christmas Show; 2. Turkey in the Straw publication; 3. New film produced/composed by me, Heartwood; and hopefully much more to come!