JAMES PLOTKIN and BRENT GUTZEIT met in Japan in 1994, at
a JIM O'ROURKE gig. Plotkin was touring with SCORN,
Gutzeit was living in Tokyo. They began a collaborative project.
Plotkin recorded a guitar track. Gutzeit destroyed it then rebuilt it,
adding unique handmade instruments (an upright 18 string steel
"bass" strung with piano wire and a 3 string instrument using
100 foot piano wires), boom box, stereo and four track tape deck to
create 5 different tracks. Plotkin remixed those tracks and sent
Gutzeit 40 minutes of music. Gutzeit did another round of mixes and
sent them back to Plotkin. By that time Gutzeit had moved to Chicago.
Plotkin mixed more tracks. The final round of mixes ended up in KRANKY's
hands in the fall of 1998. Distilled over 2 years, each remix that
became MOSQUITO DREAM took a year to complete, Mosquito Dream
is expansive but attentive to details, reverberant yet subtly shaded.
Brent Gutzeit is a member of the groups LIMINAL and TV
POW, constructs his own sound making sculptures, and records and
performs as WHEATON RESEARCH. He has become an integral part of
Chicago's creative music community and started the BOXMEDIA
label to document the work of sound organisers world- wide. He has
collaborated with OTOMO YOSHIHIDE, JIM O'ROURKE, KEVIN
DRUMM and ANTHONY COLEMAN.
James Plotkin should need no introduction. His solo guitar work
and collaborations with like minds such as K.K.NULL and MICK
HARRIS marks PLOTKIN as an innovator in a field of sound
manipulation which escapes classification. Mosquito Dream
continues the relationship between James Plotkin and Kranky
that began with A PERIPHERAL BLUR his collaboration with MARK
SPYBEY. This album is wide and deep, constantly challenging the
listener with prickly details and textures that shift back and forth
from rough to smooth.