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Jay Mollerskov - Celadon Science

Writer's picture: Johno WellsJohno Wells

One of our most prolific (links below) and also enigmatic friends of the show, Jay Mollerskov comes out swinging once again with Celedon Science, a 22min journey of textures, reverberations, alien voices and the structural vision of a true jazz improviser.

I could wax poetic, but Jay is more interesting, so here we go.


JW: You mentioned on BandCamp that this recording was an attempt to document an approach you had planned for a live show which was canceled. It's great you were able to capture it. Can you tell us a little about the approach for this performance? JM: My history as a performer on other instruments (mainly guitar) is largely one of improvisation. I've played my fair share of written music over the years as a performer & teacher, but there is something about the musical conversation of improvising with other performers that I love. In a solo context, modular (and related) synths offer enough in the way of chaos or complex/feedback-related modulation that I can set up in such a way where it feels like I'm having a conversation with the instrument.


In this recording, the Cocoquatus was used to loop and mangle my voice. I used different groups of words or poems every time I practiced the material, and the Cocoquantus is just unpredictable enough that it yielded different results every time I ran through a practice performance. This is why I say I recorded this performance to document the material & approach rather than saying I just recorded the piece. It changes every time, and that's how I most enjoy it!


In the case of this particular music, I experimented until I had some approaches and groups of instruments that felt right and then built out from there. For example, the underlying drone material was the last piece to be put in place once I knew the kinds of textures and things I would be playing over it.

Jay Mollerskov portrait close-up
Jay Mollerskov

JW: You play "it all" from acoustic to the most esoteric electronic instruments including many you've built yourself. What gets you going the most out of all your instruments? And/or--what instrument is currently being used the most?


JM: Instruments that have elements of chaos as well as things like sets of modules that can be patched with feedback to respond differently lend an unpredictability that is really fun to play with.


JW: You put on events around Milwaukee and surrounding cities, and perform live as a solo artist and additionally with a band. You're a busy guy. What's next for you?

JM: I've got a local show coming up next week playing modular with the rock band I'm in, Hey Muchacho! along with a couple of other bands. Aside from that, I've been attending a lot of poetry readings lately and have been trying my hand at writing for the first time in probably 30 years. There is a potential show in the works next month for another group I'm in, Trove, which is myself on modular along with one of my oldest/best friends, Jamie Briewick on trumpet, and a keyboard player as well. In that group, I stick mainly to processing the live trumpet playing as well as synth drums. It's fun to focus on that in that group, where I can really get rhythmically creative over hour-long sets for 3-4 hour-long shows.


Beyond that, I'll probably take some of the material I worked on for the track I just recorded and see if I can pull some small seeds of things out of that to come up with shorter tracks for another EP or full album.


JW: Thanks for stopping by the Modular World Studios and giving us a few minutes to chat about Celadon Science. Great work!


JM: Thanks for doing this, and for your continued friendship and support!


 

Please take a moment to check out Jay's BandCamp page, and make sure to follow on Instagram if you're not already.

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