20.2.26

Zach Tenorio - Field Trip (Maximum Overdub)

representing a new work from Zach Tenorio.

‍

Zach Tenorio is a wizard:  a producer, composer, improviser, and true keyboard virtuoso not afraid to make deep and surprising choices instead of shredding—which he also does expertly.  Watching Zach play is electric, explosive, a sea of sounds and wild hair and big smiles and what sounds like it’s surely 4 hands, not merely 2.  

Tenorio started his career at age 16 touring with Jon Anderson of YES.  In the years since he has collaborated in studio and onstage with Willow Smith (with whom he co-wrote a Grammy-nominated song from her most recent record), joined the jamband Taper’s Choice, and has become a fixture of the improvised music scene in Los Angeles.  He has recorded and performed with everyone from Kimbra to Guster, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah to Gene Ween, all while maintaining an eclectic and constant output with his long-standing band Arc Iris.

On his second solo album the dynamic energy and unpredictable musicality that pours out of Zach on stage is compressed and chopped and smeared into 21 tracks and 30 minutes of pure wonder.  ‘Field Trip’ is a whirlwind of ideas: the sound of Rick Wakeman hurtling into the future towards the LA beat scene, Hermeto Pascoal trying his hand at J Dilla, a glimmer of 70s funk here, a cascade of sampled Tenorio vocals there, hymnal organ giving way to technicolor moog rippage, cracked an re-contextualized memories of DJ Shadow or The Avalanches fluttering around the edges.

In Zach’s words, “It wasn’t originally supposed to be a record.”  In a moment of mid-late-pandemic techno-dystopian malaise, not sure what his next big project might be or when he might tour again, he found himself making videos for the internet, drumming up studio work and keeping himself busy by casting funky, weird, and joyful bait out on his line into the digital sea.  Being the maestro he is though, these weren’t just clips of him demo-ing a piece of gear or playing a blazingly fast solo on an obscure synth.  He crafted little miniatures, fully formed micro-ideas, sharing pieces of himself, his musical loves, and things that excite him—always making something.  When he realized that he was actually in a flow that he liked creatively, he started thinking maybe it was time to pull the reel back in every now and then, catch a fish, and turn his bait into a meal.  These off the cuff ideas were developed and expanded upon while still maintaining their in-the-moment, light-speed energy (a Zach speciality).
  
Tenorio isn’t enamored by or here to glorify the big-tech interventions into how music travels these days, saying “the fact that so many of us have to do this to be seen and get work is a bummer, but I tried to make it fun.”  The result here is just that, it’s big fun.  ‘Field Trip’ isn’t a scathing critique of technological driven culture, it’s a joyful dash through literally anything that Tenorio chooses to explore.  In his own words: “The final product still has a kind of scroll-y feeling like you get on the internet, the record maintains some of that wandering quality because it has so many ideas in such a short amount of time, but it turns it into a kind of wild trip.”  Imagine if your algorithm wasn’t driven by the lizard overlords of techno-capitalism but rather by a musician with an encyclopedic knowledge, jaw-dropping technique, and a truly and honestly sunny outlook on the power of music and the joy it can bring you.  It’s an example of an incredible musician bouncing off and around his moment in time while never succumbing to it—adventure and excitement are his currency.  To quote The Sorcerer himself, the recently-deceased Hermeto Pascoal, “When people hear my music they find it very hard to pinpoint and to pigeonhole it.  When they think I am doing one thing I am already doing something else.  It’s very liquid.”  Such is Tenorio’s work here, an outpouring of big ideas constantly shifting while still maintaining that sense of wonder that comes from getting out of your everyday routine and going on a good trip.

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Zach Tenorio - Field Trip

Zach Tenorio - Field Trip (Maximum Overdub)

representing a new work from Zach Tenorio.

‍

Zach Tenorio is a wizard:  a producer, composer, improviser, and true keyboard virtuoso not afraid to make deep and surprising choices instead of shredding—which he also does expertly.  Watching Zach play is electric, explosive, a sea of sounds and wild hair and big smiles and what sounds like it’s surely 4 hands, not merely 2.  

Tenorio started his career at age 16 touring with Jon Anderson of YES.  In the years since he has collaborated in studio and onstage with Willow Smith (with whom he co-wrote a Grammy-nominated song from her most recent record), joined the jamband Taper’s Choice, and has become a fixture of the improvised music scene in Los Angeles.  He has recorded and performed with everyone from Kimbra to Guster, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah to Gene Ween, all while maintaining an eclectic and constant output with his long-standing band Arc Iris.

On his second solo album the dynamic energy and unpredictable musicality that pours out of Zach on stage is compressed and chopped and smeared into 21 tracks and 30 minutes of pure wonder.  ‘Field Trip’ is a whirlwind of ideas: the sound of Rick Wakeman hurtling into the future towards the LA beat scene, Hermeto Pascoal trying his hand at J Dilla, a glimmer of 70s funk here, a cascade of sampled Tenorio vocals there, hymnal organ giving way to technicolor moog rippage, cracked an re-contextualized memories of DJ Shadow or The Avalanches fluttering around the edges.

In Zach’s words, “It wasn’t originally supposed to be a record.”  In a moment of mid-late-pandemic techno-dystopian malaise, not sure what his next big project might be or when he might tour again, he found himself making videos for the internet, drumming up studio work and keeping himself busy by casting funky, weird, and joyful bait out on his line into the digital sea.  Being the maestro he is though, these weren’t just clips of him demo-ing a piece of gear or playing a blazingly fast solo on an obscure synth.  He crafted little miniatures, fully formed micro-ideas, sharing pieces of himself, his musical loves, and things that excite him—always making something.  When he realized that he was actually in a flow that he liked creatively, he started thinking maybe it was time to pull the reel back in every now and then, catch a fish, and turn his bait into a meal.  These off the cuff ideas were developed and expanded upon while still maintaining their in-the-moment, light-speed energy (a Zach speciality).
  
Tenorio isn’t enamored by or here to glorify the big-tech interventions into how music travels these days, saying “the fact that so many of us have to do this to be seen and get work is a bummer, but I tried to make it fun.”  The result here is just that, it’s big fun.  ‘Field Trip’ isn’t a scathing critique of technological driven culture, it’s a joyful dash through literally anything that Tenorio chooses to explore.  In his own words: “The final product still has a kind of scroll-y feeling like you get on the internet, the record maintains some of that wandering quality because it has so many ideas in such a short amount of time, but it turns it into a kind of wild trip.”  Imagine if your algorithm wasn’t driven by the lizard overlords of techno-capitalism but rather by a musician with an encyclopedic knowledge, jaw-dropping technique, and a truly and honestly sunny outlook on the power of music and the joy it can bring you.  It’s an example of an incredible musician bouncing off and around his moment in time while never succumbing to it—adventure and excitement are his currency.  To quote The Sorcerer himself, the recently-deceased Hermeto Pascoal, “When people hear my music they find it very hard to pinpoint and to pigeonhole it.  When they think I am doing one thing I am already doing something else.  It’s very liquid.”  Such is Tenorio’s work here, an outpouring of big ideas constantly shifting while still maintaining that sense of wonder that comes from getting out of your everyday routine and going on a good trip.

‍

Zach Tenorio - Field Trip (Maximum Overdub)

representing a new work from Zach Tenorio.

‍

Zach Tenorio is a wizard:  a producer, composer, improviser, and true keyboard virtuoso not afraid to make deep and surprising choices instead of shredding—which he also does expertly.  Watching Zach play is electric, explosive, a sea of sounds and wild hair and big smiles and what sounds like it’s surely 4 hands, not merely 2.  

Tenorio started his career at age 16 touring with Jon Anderson of YES.  In the years since he has collaborated in studio and onstage with Willow Smith (with whom he co-wrote a Grammy-nominated song from her most recent record), joined the jamband Taper’s Choice, and has become a fixture of the improvised music scene in Los Angeles.  He has recorded and performed with everyone from Kimbra to Guster, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah to Gene Ween, all while maintaining an eclectic and constant output with his long-standing band Arc Iris.

On his second solo album the dynamic energy and unpredictable musicality that pours out of Zach on stage is compressed and chopped and smeared into 21 tracks and 30 minutes of pure wonder.  ‘Field Trip’ is a whirlwind of ideas: the sound of Rick Wakeman hurtling into the future towards the LA beat scene, Hermeto Pascoal trying his hand at J Dilla, a glimmer of 70s funk here, a cascade of sampled Tenorio vocals there, hymnal organ giving way to technicolor moog rippage, cracked an re-contextualized memories of DJ Shadow or The Avalanches fluttering around the edges.

In Zach’s words, “It wasn’t originally supposed to be a record.”  In a moment of mid-late-pandemic techno-dystopian malaise, not sure what his next big project might be or when he might tour again, he found himself making videos for the internet, drumming up studio work and keeping himself busy by casting funky, weird, and joyful bait out on his line into the digital sea.  Being the maestro he is though, these weren’t just clips of him demo-ing a piece of gear or playing a blazingly fast solo on an obscure synth.  He crafted little miniatures, fully formed micro-ideas, sharing pieces of himself, his musical loves, and things that excite him—always making something.  When he realized that he was actually in a flow that he liked creatively, he started thinking maybe it was time to pull the reel back in every now and then, catch a fish, and turn his bait into a meal.  These off the cuff ideas were developed and expanded upon while still maintaining their in-the-moment, light-speed energy (a Zach speciality).
  
Tenorio isn’t enamored by or here to glorify the big-tech interventions into how music travels these days, saying “the fact that so many of us have to do this to be seen and get work is a bummer, but I tried to make it fun.”  The result here is just that, it’s big fun.  ‘Field Trip’ isn’t a scathing critique of technological driven culture, it’s a joyful dash through literally anything that Tenorio chooses to explore.  In his own words: “The final product still has a kind of scroll-y feeling like you get on the internet, the record maintains some of that wandering quality because it has so many ideas in such a short amount of time, but it turns it into a kind of wild trip.”  Imagine if your algorithm wasn’t driven by the lizard overlords of techno-capitalism but rather by a musician with an encyclopedic knowledge, jaw-dropping technique, and a truly and honestly sunny outlook on the power of music and the joy it can bring you.  It’s an example of an incredible musician bouncing off and around his moment in time while never succumbing to it—adventure and excitement are his currency.  To quote The Sorcerer himself, the recently-deceased Hermeto Pascoal, “When people hear my music they find it very hard to pinpoint and to pigeonhole it.  When they think I am doing one thing I am already doing something else.  It’s very liquid.”  Such is Tenorio’s work here, an outpouring of big ideas constantly shifting while still maintaining that sense of wonder that comes from getting out of your everyday routine and going on a good trip.

‍