Tasting Menu presents "Mueller Tunnel"
New album out now~~
Hi Everyone!
Wanted to break from my regularly scheduled programming to tell you about a new release from Tasting Menu, the experimental music collaboration I’m in with Tim Feeney and Cassia Streb. We make site-specific improvisations and pieces using found sounds, objects, and sometimes our instruments.
Last October we (Tim, Cassia, Eric, and I) piled out of a van with a box of rocks, a bag of cameras, and a pullcart full of microphones, and hiked off into the Angeles Forest. We spent a full day recording in and around the tunnel while Eric took pictures of the beautiful landscape. You can listen to these sounds while leafing through the accompanying photo book.
Many thanks to Andrew Weathers and Carl Ritger of Full Spectrum Records for helping bring this project to life and into the world.
Book and CD/eBook/digital download
Audio recording and photo essay by Tasting Menu
Cassia Streb, Cody Putman, and Tim Feeney, objects
Photography by Eric Basta
Graphic transcriptions by Cassia Streb
Recorded by Eric Basta and Tim Feeney, October 17, 2019
Mixed by Tim Feeney
Mastered by A.F. Jones
Layout by Patty Osborne
Produced by Cassia Streb
Andrew and Carl write,
"Full Spectrum Records is pleased to present Mueller Tunnel – an immense new work from Tasting Menu. Hailing from Los Angeles, Tasting Menu is a collaborative project featuring Cassia Streb, Cody Putman, and Full Spectrum alumnus Tim Feeney, exploring instrumental and found sound, movement, tape recorders, door frames, window panes, rainstorms, pine cones, concrete floors, and children’s cartoons.
Mueller Tunnel documents a site-specific performance that was recorded on-location within the Mueller Tunnel itself, which is located in the Angeles Mountains, roughly 20 miles north of Pasadena, California. The hundred-yard tunnel was blasted out of the middle of the mountain by the US Forest Service in 1942 to serve as a fireroad gateway to the summit of Mount Lowe. A landslide in 2009 closed the tunnel to motor vehicles, and today it is only accessible by driving to the Eaton Saddle trailhead and hiking or cycling further towards Mount Markham.
On this particular expedition, the performers hiked in with a wagon full of recording equipment and instruments strapped to their backs, accompanied by photographer Eric Basta, whose brilliant photographs of the surrounding landscape accompany the release.
The sounds they created, however, are truly astounding, as the group’s collective vibration frequently achieves a sort of primordial resonance that feels as if it were naturally emanating forth from the landscape. These are deeply intuitive performances that operate on a refined inner logic, which is thankfully documented within the ornate visual scores included in the liner notes."
<3
Between March and June, Tim, Cassia, and I separately took field recordings and recorded bits of audio to compile for a great series from Full Spectrum Records called Decentralized Sonic Quarantine Network. Below is our product for this series with a very slow background video made by Cassia in her garden. You can also download the audio from Bandcamp as well.
Thanks for checking this out and stay tuned for my next newsletter coming out next week. It will include a solo album release of techno and electronic music I’ve been working on, a write up on Panamanian Organ Music, ethical alternatives to music streaming and subscription based artist platforms, and maybe more.
Love y’all,
Cody