When Colorado’s String Cheese Incident took a short hiatus half a dozen years ago, the break was bound to give birth to new productivity from band members with newly found free time.
New jam, funk and world music projects were born. In the case of the band’s percussion section, an improvisational duo playing a form of electronic music was created. Yet they incorporated instruments. What had begun as late-night jam sessions gave way to a full-time operation in EOTO. The duo of drummer Michael Travis and percussionist Jason Hann will return to Durango on Monday, playing at Animas City Theatre.
It was a project that grew when the two realized fans of their former band would dig it.
“After String Cheese practice, we’d set up random instruments and jam on them until four or five in the morning, and we did that kind of regularly,” Hann said from his home in Los Angeles. “At first, we played some things that had a jazz fusion vibe, or a rock vibe, but it felt like those jams would be the most fun for us if we were emulating electronic vibes. Eventually, we recorded ourselves, and we thought it sounded good enough to play in front of people. So we gave it a shot.”
EOTO is two musicians working without a net. There are no pre-thought melodies or ideas, let alone songs. Minutes before the show begins, the two could be backstage talking about sports, cars or the weather; what comes out of the equipment on stage is purely in the moment. While both musicians thrived in the improvisation of String Cheese, that improvisation was sandwiched between songs; that’s out the window for EOTO.
“We don’t have any pre-recorded tracks. Its all original things that we’re doing up there,” Hann said. “But we also don’t even have any songs or set lists. We’re literally improvising off the cuff. This is really the first kind of thing I’ve been in where we’re just improvising from the get-go. No practice, no talking about anything, just go. It is a different thing, and something that we’re proud of, let alone playing something that might sound like dance music that you can party to all night and have people that want to see.”
While the music they play sounds, to the ear, like electronic music, it defies the conventions of what electronic music is. Unlike electronic music traditionally performed by someone spinning vinyl – what to some is the original, organic and only way that it should be done – EOTO uses instruments and digital technology to create their sound. Electronic music is an easy target for critics. In the eyes and ears of many, a person bobbing his or her head behind a couple of laptops without turntables is just a person behind a computer.
“We have computers on stage, and we are using them to aid us to put effects on our instruments, or my voice or on the overall mix,” Hann said. “We have drums, guitar and bass and keyboards, quite a few of them, because we’re all about being live musicians.”
Liggett_b@fortlewis.edu. Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager.
Bryant’s Best
Saturday: Ace Revel will play acoustic soul and pop, 7 p.m., no cover, 6512, 152 E. College Drive, 247-9083.
Monday: EOTO will play improvisational electronic music, 9 p.m., $30, Animas City Theatre, 128 E. College Drive, 799-2281.
