ProgDay 2023 (28th annual)
Day 2, Band 1 - A Light Sleeper
Sunday, Sept 3rd, 2023 ~11:15am - noon
Storybook Farm, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

Maria Elena Hernandez - alto and tenor sax
Traci Huff - viola
Matthew Jung - drums
Dheeru Pennepalli - guitar, effects

1. soundcheck and intro (1:09)
2. That to Which We Know Not What (4:29)
3. Chrysanthemums (4:42)
4. improv #1 (6:08)
5. band intros (0:42)
6. Beginners Waltz (5:21)
7. improv #2 (2:55)
8. Trees and Flora (3:44)
9. Old Weird Fiction (3:52)
10. improv #3 (5:53)
11. Eggcorn and Mondegreen,
Attorneys of Law (4:39)

Total Time: 43:30


Tascam DP-004 digital recorder connected to two Shure SM57 microphones
sitting about 15 feet back from center stage and about 2 feet apart ->
WAV -> Cool Edit '96 (volume, eq & track split) -> FLAC Frontend -> flac files


Notes:

A nice, mellow way to ease into Sunday morning. This Cuneiform band was
probably one the quietest groups to ever play ProgDay. Because of the
acoustic instruments and low volume, there's a good bit of hiss on the
recording - I think some comes from my mics, but it was noticable at the
time coming out of the PA stacks (along with a good bit of faint radio
signal from the nearby towers).

The cello and the structured arrangements gave the music a classical feel,
while the sax and guitar add a jazzy touch. The structured pieces are
offset by occasional meandering improvs. When you listen to this you'll
probably think I forgot to list the bass player, but that's actually the
guitarist getting really low notes out of his guitar. They played all the
composed pieces from their new album Equaeverpoise, plus three improvisations.
I went to buy the new album from their merch table and was handed a bookmark
that has a download code printed on it. Kinda wanted a CD, but...oh well.

The recording came out pretty well straight from the recorder. After having
an issue with all the Saturday recordings where the left channel was louder
than the right, I used the Tascam DP-004's level knobs to turn the right up
a bit louder while it created the master and converted it to WAV. After
copying the WAV to my laptop, I used Cool Edit's filters to roll a little
low end off to make the cello and sax more audible. The recording is still
a little bass-heavy, but I didn't want to overdo it.


A Light Sleeper on the web:

https://alightsleeper.bandcamp.com/
https://soundcloud.com/cuneiformrecords/a-light-sleeper-chrysanthemums-from-equaverpoise


About ProgDay:

ProgDay is an outdoor festival of progressive rock that has been held annually
since 1995. In 1996 it was expanded from one day to two and has been featuring
anywhere from eight to eleven progressive rock bands each year since, often with
related events nearby on Friday or Saturday nights. The event has been forced
indoors due to weather twice (1999 and 2002), was held online in 2020 due to
Covid, and was sadly cancelled in 2021 (also due to Covid), but every year apart
from those has seen some fantastic progressive rock bands take the stage at
beautiful Storybook Farm.

It's definitely worth the trip if you're a prog fan and don't mind a little heat,
humidity and sun. I first went in 1997 and had such a great time that I've been
back every year since. There's really nothing else like it - most of the bands
mix and mingle with the fans, you can sit or stand literally stage-side for any
band you're particularly interested in, the atmosphere is super relaxed, the
people are friendly and the hotel pool parties have become the stuff of legend.

If you'd like to make a donation via PayPal to help keep the festival afloat (and
ensure more of these ProgDay torrents in the future), please visit:

http://www.progday.net/ProgDay-Support.html

Images for all shows as well as full size images for this show.

Images for this show:











ALightSleeper2023-09-03ProgDayStorybookFarmChapelHillNC (8).JPG
ALightSleeper2023-09-03ProgDayStorybookFarmChapelHillNC (9).JPG