The Squall players are:

Nick Didkovsky - guitar
Andrew Drury - drums & percussion
Michael Lytle - bass clarinet (plus piano and bird & duck calls)
Andrea Parkins - electronics & percussion
Steve Swell - trombone (and wood flutes)
Lesaew Retlaw (aka Weasel Walter) - drums & percussion

This music was recorded to eight tracks by James Carozza and mixed by Michael Lytle

The session was videoed live with two cameras by Don Mount and can be seen on his You Tube site.

Picture (from) "my window on the world" by Andrew Drury

Presented at the Firehouse Space, Brooklyn, NY and curated by Sandra Sprecher (without whom this event would not have been possible) and was planned as an expanded "Swim This", a trio with Me, Nick and Gerry Hemingway (drums) you may know from this bandcamp site. Instead of me playing my electrionic music with a foot pedal, and two drummers to sub for Gerry and adding another horn, we became a "ST" sextet.

The Squall would not have happened if James Carozza had not agreed to ventured out into the biggest North Eastern winter storm of 2013 to travel from Westchester to Brooklyn. (We knew there would be little audience and events were cancelled all over the area.) The weather was terrible/exciting. Not only was there several inches of snow but it was topped with ice and freezing rain. All traffic was warned off the roads. His stubborn dedication to us and our music was the key and inspired me and the others to become the heros we were, to show up and play amazingly.

As Nick said the next morning, " (I) Feel extraordinarily lucky today to be a part of (a) musical community that is willing to schlep through a storm of snow & freezing rain (without complaint and nary a second thought) to play improvised music together"

So the concert billed as the "Giant 'Swim This' at the Firehouse - a colossal event!" became the "Giant Squall" colossal recording session.

Oh, and special thanks to our one brave audience member, Bill Herrlich - A true friend and fan and Lesaew Retlaw, who actually trudged a complete drum set through the ice and snow and hung late to see us all safely off.)

About the players:

NICK DIDKOVSKY - is a guitarist, composer, and music software programmer. In 1983, he founded the rock band Doctor Nerve. In 1997 he developed the computer music language JMSL which he continues to develop and use today. His Punos Music record label releases his more extreme projects. He has composed new music for Bang On A Can All-Stars, Meridian Arts Ensemble, Fred Frith Guitar Quartet, loadbang, ETHEL, ARTE Quartett, and others. His compositions and guitar work appear on over 50 records. His Black Sabbath guitar lessons on YouTube are enjoyed by metal fans all over the world. His $100 Guitar Project passed a guitar through the hands of over 60 players worldwide, culminating in a CD on Bridge Records. Website: www.didkovsky.com

ANDREW DRURY is a drummer/composer whose work juxtaposes conventional drumming practices with techniques that employ breath, friction, and bowing. In the 90’s, at Wesleyan University, he studied with Ed Blackwell, poetry with Annie Dillard and played with Wadada Leo Smith, Wayne Horvitz, John Tchicai, and a young Brad Mehldau exploring environmental theater, performance and conceptual art. Since moving to New York in 2000 he has performed on over 40 cds and in 20 countries with artists such as Jason Kao Hwang, Frank Lacy, Jack Wright, TOTEM>, Michel Doneda, and Steve Swell. Drurys three solo recording projects feature Myra Melford, Mark Dresser, Chris Speed and others. Recent performances include duos with Darius Jones, Robert Dick, and Kris Davis and in groups with Elliot Sharp, Ned Rothenberg, Daniel Blake,and Peter Evans. His newest group feature Briggan Krauss, Ingrid Laubrock, and Brandon Seabrook. www.andrewdrury.com

MICHAEL LYTLE (aka elewhale), MA, University of Iowa, has been a New Music Improvisor since 1968. He has performed with William Parsons, Karl Berger, George Cartwright, Garette List, David Moss, John Zorn, Nick Didkovsky, Hans Burgener, Martin Schutz, Gerry Hemingway, Mark Dresser, Eyal Maoz, Mari Kimura, Robert Dick, Denman Maroney, Kyoko Kitamura, Kathleen Supove, Weasel Walter and has been involved in over 30 recordings since the 5* rated Iowa Ear Music of 1976. In solo, projects with Karl Berger and Hans Burgener, as a member of Nick Didkovsky's band "Dr. Nerve" and a co-founder with Didkovsky & Hemingway of "Swim This", he has played in festivals and venues all over the world. An early Electronic Music composer, Lytle invented the set of totally unique methods of clarinet family sonic modulation and performance, called the “most radical of his generation” by Joachim Berendt. www.elewhale.net

ANDREA PARKINS is a composer, sound artist, and electroacoustic multi-instrumentalist who engages with interactive electronics as both material and process. Known for her pioneering gestural/textural approach on her electric accordion and self-designed virtual live-processing instrument, she creates sonic fields of lush harmonics and electronic feedback punctuated by intentional moments of gap and rift. Parkins records and performs as a solo artist, and across genre/discipline with innovators such as Otomo Yoshihide, Nels Cline, Vera Mantero, and Lê Quan Ninh. Her work has been presented at the Whitney Museum of American Art; Experimental Intermedia; 1st International Sound Art Festival, Mexico City: q-02, Brussels; Cyberfest, St. Petersburg; and NEXT, Bratislava. Parkinsʼ audio recordings have been published by Important Records, Atavistic, Henceforth and Creative Sources; and she has received support for her work from American Composers Forum, the French American Cultural Exchange, Harvestworks Digital Media Art Center in NYC, and the Frei und Hanseastadt Hamburg Kulturbehoerde in Germany. www.soundcloud.com/andreaparkins

STEVE SWELL, born in Newark, NJ has been an active member of the NYC music community since 1975. He has toured and recorded with many artists from mainstreamers such as Lionel Hampton and Buddy Rich to so called outsiders as Anthony Braxton, Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor and William Parker. He has over 40 CDs as a leader or co-leader and is a featured artist on more than 100 other releases. He runs workshops around the world and is a teaching artist in the NYC public school system focusing on special needs children. Steve has worked on music transcriptions of the Bosavi tribe of New Guinea for MacArthur fellow, Steve Feld in 2000. His CD, "Suite For Players, Listeners and Other Dreamers" (CIMP) ranked number 2 in the 2004 Cadence Readers Poll. He has also received grants from USArtists International in 2006 an MCAF (LMCC) award in 2008 and 2013 and has been commissioned twice on the Interpretations Series at Merkin Hall in 2006 and at Roulette in 2012. Nominated for Trombonist of the Year 2008 & 2011 by the Jazz Journalists Association, Steve was selected Trombonist of the Year 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012 by the magazine El Intruso of Argentina and received the 2008 Jubilation Foundation Fellowship Award of the Tides Foundation. The Downbeat Critics Poll selected him for the Trombone category in 2010, 2011, 2012 & 2013. www.steveswell.com

WEASEL WALTER is probably best known for leading the seminal no wave/punk jazz/brutal prog unit The Flying Luttenbachers between 1991 and 2007. In addition to his work in the field of extreme rock music with groups like Cellular Chaos, Lydia Lunch Retrovirus, Behold The Arctopus, Burmese and XBXRX, he has worked extensively as an improviser with luminaries like Marshall Allen, Evan Parker, Elliott Sharp, Henry Kaiser, Zeena Parkins, Vinny Golia, Mick Barr, Ken Vandermark, Jim O'Rourke, John Butcher, Frank Gratkowski, Peter Evans, Mary Halvorson, Nels Cline and Kevin Drumm .nowave.pair.com/weasel_walter/