my bands:
End Times Trio
Tin Ghost
Danger Music
solo:
mark schwartz
plot
I love exploring, shaping, and experiencing sounds ~ letting them surround me, flow around me, flow through me ~ creating and existing in atmospheres. I most often use the guitar, computer, and bass, in unconventional ways, to channel these sounds. From preparing the guitar, using various objects, materials and electronics, to playing two prepared guitars simultaneously in tabletop fashion, I try to coax as many sounds out of instruments as possible. But it's not so much about the instrument. An instrument is just another means for creating sounds.
I play guitar and bass in End Times Trio, an avant-garde freejazz ensemble, with Frank Trompeter (saxophones; of Elevator Shoe, Untoward) and Richard Gilman-Opalsky (drums and percussion; of Fire & Flux). We have released our first CD, entitled "Fracture Time" (on Fire & Flux ), which is available at CD Baby.com . We also have an album soon to be released on Foreign Frequency Records. Please visit our page by clicking on the icon below.
End Times Trio hosts the Springfield Freejazz and Creative Music Forum, a monthly event where likeminded individuals can enjoy or collaborate in the creation of exploratory music. We have welcomed such guest artists as NY bassist James Ilgenfritz, CA pianist Thollem McDonas, and saxophonist Ben Kates. Rose Schweikhart, local master tuba player, also regularly collaborates with the Trio.
In addition to End Times Trio, Richard Gilman-Opalsky, Rose Schweikhart, and myself have recently formed Danger Music, yet another ensemble braving the furthest reaches of experimental, avant-garde freejazz sound exploration.
I have also formed an alt-folk band, Tin Ghost, in which I play guitar, sing, and am chief songwriter and lyricist. Joined by Amanda Cox (vocals, piano/keyboards, accordion), Linda Goriszewski (vocals, cello, dulcimer, cornet), and Rose Schweikhart (upright bass, tuba), our ever-expanding repertoire includes 90+ originals songs, traditional and contemporary folk tunes, and folk-ified versions of rock and popular songs. Please visit our page by clicking the icon below.
Individually, I realize long-form free improvisations, compose long-form computer music pieces, create ambient music, experimental electronica (under the name Plot), graphic scores, musique concrete, neo-classical compositions, and write songs. Please visit my computer music page by clicking on the "plot" icon in my friends list.
I am a participant in the Universal Orquesta del Rey Trueno, an international collective of musicians, contributing to its next production of "Rey Trueno y su Orquesta," which is described as a "very eclectic and bizarre project." Elliott Sharp and Andres Argil are amongst the ranks of the Orquesta. Please follow the link below.
I was a founding member, along with Frank Trompeter, of Untoward, a freejazz collective, and was also a member of Liquid Sun, an improvising rock-jazz power trio.
I have had the good fortune to have been able to perform alongside such artists as Vinny Golia, Jerome Bryerton, Carol Genetti, Birth, Wolfgang Fuchs, Chris Heenan, Marco Eneidi, Damon Smith, The Late Severa Wires, Mark Sarich, Andrew Hefner, James Ilgenfritz, and Thollem McDonas.
My solo experimental guitar CD-R entitled "The Black Oil" is available through Recommended Records (ReR) at www.rermegacorp.com I have other CD-Rs available as well, so contact me if you are interested.
In addition to music, I also write screenplays and poetry, enjoy painting and photography, and occasionally act. I appear in the Hazard Films production, Zombie Movie, and recently in an educational documentary. I am represented by Shawnee Studios for my acting endeavors.
Thank you for very much for visiting!
