Ancient Future Times

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July 2010 Issue:
Welcome to the Ancient Future Times
Email newsletter of the World Fusion Music Ensemble Ancient Future

In This Issue:

Rare Ancient Future Southern California Concert Tour
•July 28, The Waterfront Theater, Marina Del Rey; July 31, The Fret House, Covina; August 1, Friends of Swanirvar Los Angeles Benefit, Altadena; August 2, Yoga Soup, Santa Barbara

New Challenge A.F.A.R. Nearly Met
•Last month the A.F.A.R. challenge was for ten new subscribers to add a seventh track to the archive. We've added seven new subscribers since then, so we only need 3 more to add a seventh track!

Social Networking Contest
•Best social networking or blog post about Ancient Future's Southern California tour wins choice of free concert tickets or CD.


Rare Ancient Future Southern California Tour

Photo of Mariah Parker and Matthew Montfort
Mariah Parker and Matthew Montfort Photo by Jialiang Len Gao

This is Ancient Future's first concert tour of Southern California since 1998. A duet version Ancient Future featuring scalloped fretboard guitarist Matthew Montfort and santurist Mariah Parker will perform music from Ancient Future's broad repertoire, including three current releases on Ancient-Future.Com Records celebrating 30 years of world fusion music: Planet Passion by Ancient Future (remastered to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the band), Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar by Ancient Future leader Matthew Montfort, and Sangria by Mariah Parker.

Southern California Tour Itinerary: Public Concerts

Ancient Future Duet

Matthew Montfort and Mariah Parker on Youtube
Ancient Future performing duet version of 'Moonbath' at 30th Anniversary Concert
(Subscribe to A.F.A.R. to download this song now!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGIliJuyfvs

www.ancient-future.com/epk.html

BILLBOARD calls the group Ancient Future “trendsetters” for their early contributions to the movement, which seeks to show how people from different cultures can grow by learning from each other. There are more than 12 versions of the band, each with different musicians from different cultures in order to fully explore the varieties of world fusion music. The Ancient Future duet concentrates on Arabic, Indian, and Spanish musical themes, and has performed in Spain at festivals in Sant Carles de la Ràpita, Botarell, Torredembarra, and Salou.

Planet Passion by Ancient Future

Planet Passion CD Cover
Planet Passion

Planet Passion by Ancient Future (Ancient-Future.Com AF 2010) $17.98 list (summer sale: $14): Buy Link . (>YTmusic.)

Planet Passion by Ancient Future has been re-issued with 64-Bit Tuned Harmonic Mastering to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the band. The seventh Ancient Future recording features nineteen top masters of of Indian, Nepali, African, Cuban, Celtic, Arabic, Palestinian, Jewish, Indonesian, Chinese, Eastern European and American music traditions performing music on the theme of mythical stories of love.

“If the members of the United Nations formed a world-fusion band, it might look and sound a little something like Ancient Future’s re-issue of their seventh recording. Featuring instrumentation from Africa, Asia, South America and the Middle East, Planet Passion is a mythical story of love, flirtation, seduction, courtship, marriage and longing. Manose Singh’s bansuri flute and Matthew Montfort’s scalloped fretboard work stand out in this eclectic, visionary global village, where each track features its own unique set of players. At its best, Planet Passion strives to preserve the world’s vast musical heritage via international collaboration: the idea that one protects the old by creating something new.” — Ryan Allen, LEO WEEKLY, Louisville, Kentucky

Matthew Montfort (scalloped fretboard guitar, Godin Glissentar)

Photo of Matthew Montfort
Matthew Montfort Photo by Julie Marten
5 Page Guitar Player Magazine Feature and Lesson:
http://www.ancient-future.com/pdf/MatthewMontfortGuitarPlayerMag.pdf

www.matthewmontfort.com

The leader of the world music group Ancient Future, Matthew Montfort, released his first solo recording, Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar, in 2009. He is a pioneer among guitarists who have had their fretboards scalloped in order to play various forms of world music that require intricate note-bending ornaments while still being able to play chords. Montfort immersed himself in an intensive study with vina master K.S. Subramanian in order to fully apply the South Indian gamaka (note-bending) techniques to the guitar. The December 2009 Les Paul issue of Guitar Player Magazine includes a full page feature on Matthew Montfort with a corresponding GuitarPlayer.Com video and lesson entitled “The Music of Jimi Hendrix Applied to Indian Raga.” He has performed concerts worldwide, from the Festival Internacional de la Guitarra on the golden coast of Spain to the Festival of India in Mumbai. He has worked with many world music legends, including tabla phenomenon Zakir Hussain and Chinese zither master Zhao Hui. Montfort wrote the book Ancient Traditions – Future Possibilities: Rhythmic Training Through the Traditions of Africa, Bali, and India, which has been used by many musicians to improve their rhythm skills.

Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar by Matthew Montfort

Seven Serenades CD Cover
Matthew Montfort

Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar by Matthew Montfort. (Ancient-Future.Com AF 2008). $17.98 (summer sale: $14): Buy Link . (>YTmusic)

Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar is the debut solo recording by Ancient Future leader Matthew Montfort. The recording showcases his pioneering work on the scalloped fretboard guitar, a special modified instrument able to produce ornaments more characteristic of the sitar. This first solo effort features his improvisational music.

“Because Montfort’s guitar has a scalloped fretboard, his fingers touch only the strings, enabling him to produce ornaments more characteristic of the sitar. This album reveals a thorough knowledge of Hindustani microtonal ornaments, transferred in ways that create one of the most distinctive guitar sounds in contemporary music. However, it also reveals a lifetime of exploration in world music, which can be immediately summoned in a flash of inspiration. When this level of mastery is reached, there is no need to rewrite. The first improvisation has the depth of a reworked composition.” — Teed Rockwell, INDIA CURRENTS, March 2009

“The mind-bending playing abilities of guitar virtuoso, Matthew Montfort, stems from the note-bending capabilities of the scalloped fretboard guitar. This produces a different sound than the more familiar guitar, because the fretboard is carved out, so the fingers only touch the strings. Musically, the songs verge on a flamenco-Indian-jazz continuum. This is partly due to Matthew's playing technique and the sitar-like sounds of his guitar.” — Matthew Forss, INSIDE WORLD MUSIC

Mariah Parker (santur)

Photo of Mariah Parker on piano
Mariah Parker with Santur Photo by Ross Pelton

www.mariahparkermusic.com

Mariah Parker is a composer and multi-instrumentalist whose main instruments are santur and piano. While completing her degree in music at UC Santa Cruz, she worked with ethnomusicologist Fred Lieberman and Mickey Hart on the Planet Drum project. She has performed in the US and Europe, and worked with many musicians of note including composer Pauline Oliveros, the late Dumisani Maraire (renowned composer from Zimbabwe) and others. She has studied with jazz great Art Lande and Latin jazz pianist extraordinaire Rebeca Mauléon.

Sangria by Mariah Parker

Sangria CD Cover
Mariah Parker - Sangria

Sangria by Mariah Parker (Ancient-Future.Com AF 2017). $17.98 (summer sale: $14): Buy Link . (>YTmusic).

Sangria by Mariah Parker blends the driving rhythmic syncopations of Latin jazz with the entrancing, asymmetrical meters of East India. This debut recording features her original compositions that draw musical inspiration from Brazil, Cuba, Spain, and India.

“This collection of eight original instrumentals by Mariah Parker is just one of many examples of the infusion of East Indian music into Western music, but to my ears one of the most successful.” — AUDIOPHILE AUDITION


New Challenge A.F.A.R. Nearly Met

Join with Ancient Future in the Creation of the Archive of Future Ancient Recordings

Band PhotoBand PhotoBand PhotoBand PhotoBand Photo

Your Financial Support of as Little as $10 Makes a Difference!

The Archive of Future Ancient Recordings concept is to involve you, fans of world fusion music, in supporting the creation of a collection of new live and studio recordings that are available to subscribers as they are created. When the archive is complete, the best of the collection will be selected for release as the eighth Ancient Future release.

To date, we've raised $1445 towards our goal of $25,000 for the project. When we reach $2500, we will have the funds to record the first brand new studio track for the archive.

In the meantime, we are mixing and mastering multitrack recordings of live concerts for the archive. Last month the A.F.A.R. challenge was for ten new subscribers to add a seventh track to the archive. We've added seven new subscribers since then. Now only three more subscribers are needed to support mixing and mastering the high resolution audio of the next track for the archive. Your support at $10 or more can be what puts "Dawn of Love" by Matthew Montfort in the archive! A video of this piece has been watched over 127,000 times on youtube.

Video of Next Song for the Archive

Guitar-Sitar Jugalbandi on Youtube
Ancient Future performing Guitar-Sitar Jugalbandi version of 'Dawn of Love'
(Subscribe to A.F.A.R. to put this song in the archive!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDJet-KlQLU

Please sign up for A.F.A.R. now and join us on this creative cross-cultural journey. There are four supporter packages available:

Recording Newsletter Package: $10. Subscribe Now. Supporters at this level receive the A.F.A.R. Email Newsletter which provides a window on the creative process, good quality 128 kbps digital downloads of legacy recordings chosen from the Ancient Future archives of live concerts, radio performances, and unreleased performances, good quality 128 kbps digital downloads of music to be recorded especially for the A.F.A.R. project, and a 30% discount on advance copies of the final commercial release.

Download Supporter Package: $25. Subscribe Now. Supporters at this level receive everything included in the Recording Newsletter Package plus high quality 320 kbps downloads of legacy recordings chosen from the Ancient Future archives of live concerts, radio performances, and unreleased performances, high quality 320 kbps digital downloads of music to be recorded especially for the A.F.A.R. project forming an exclusive preview audio recording with digital liner notes that will not otherwise be available in shops (selections from which will form a final public edition), and the chance to submit feedback to questions posed in the recording newsletter. Limited to 300 packages.

Limited Edition CD Sponsor Package: $50. Subscribe Now. Supporters at this level receive everything included in the Download Supporter Package plus an exclusive limited edition CD-R of the same recording with printed liner notes signed by Ancient Future leader Matthew Montfort. Limited to 200 packages.

Honorary A & R Representative Package: $75. Subscribe Now. Supporters at this level receive everything included in the Limited Edition CD Sponsor Package plus a DVD-R including video and 24 bit audio files for hi-res playback on computers. Limited to 100 packages.


Social Networking Contest

Simply make a post about Ancient Future's concert tour on any social network or blog. Then email the URL of your post to info@ancient-future.com. The best social networking or blog post about Ancient Future's Southern California tour we receive by July 24 wins a choice of a free pair of concert tickets or a CD copy of Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar by Matthew Montfort.