The amplified piano piezo element, June 2009.
In early 2008 I was researching how to expand the vocabulary of the piano using amplification. I was listening to a lot of noise and experimental recordings (Aaron Dilloway, Kevin Drumm, C Spencer Yeh, and Caroliner were particularly big influences), and I started experimenting with a set-up using a contact microphone and tube amp. I quickly discovered the feedback that could be generated from this system was hypnotic and beautiful, unlike anything I had ever heard. (Alvin Lucier’s Music On A Long Thin Wire comes the closest.)
I tested the system out a few times in 2008, and performed with it in August at the Trumbullplex in Detroit. I posted an excerpt to MySpace. My friend Christopher Riggs heard it and invited me to record for him in late 2008. He produced and released my first recording The Reflector (2008).
I was inspired to release more solo recordings commercially, and Chris encouraged me to start a label. We talked extensively about aesthetics, recording media, composition, and improvisation. It was a fertile time.
If I was going to start a label, I would need to call it something. A “mansion made of sounds” seemed pretty cool to me: a big place where everybody could have everything they need to record their sounds together. So I went with the name Sound Mansion Recordings. The artwork was all handmade by me, using an aesthetic that combined stream-of-consciousness doodling and collage techniques.
| 
|  | 
|  |
| Amplified Piano, SMR001 | Two Organ Pieces, SMR002 | Piano Drones, SMR003 | Live Twice, SMR004 | Compline, SMR005 |
These first 5 releases were solo works, available as CDr’s with handmade covers. There are several other solo releases, which I will write about elsewhere.
Beginning in 2010, I made the pivot to digital formats. The files were hosted on MediaFire and linked to via a blog. During this period I released numerous duo recordings on SMR. Here’s a full list:
- Eric Gallippo (Dopamine Terrorism; 2010)
- Tim Cohen (Paradox Lost; 2011. This was a CDr, not available digitally.)
- Dustin Krcatovich (Sobornost; 2012)
- Ben Willis (Belly Up; 2012)
- Collin Johnson (Streamline, 2013)
- Gary Prince (Time & Place; 2013)
- Dan Sutherland (Sound Surfing(er); 2014)
- Jack Wright (Ear Saccades; 2015)
- Christopher Riggs (Charming, Grasping; 2015)
In 2012 I began hosting on Bandcamp. I also released a quartet recording:
Ethophonics (2012), a live performance with Mark Kirschenmann, Ben Willis and Jonathan Barahal Taylor.
In 2018, I released Jacob’s Ladder, two recordings of my composition of the same name. The project was a return to physical media, but not homemade this time. The discs and booklet/cover were professionally pressed and printed. This is also the first SMR to use the logo, designed by Jeff Thorneycroft.
This was followed by a Cage Match recording Seattle 2017 (2019). Cage Match is a quartet comprised of Kate Olson, Gary Prince, Tim Cohen, and myself, which has performed together since 2008.
In January 2020, I started organizing large ensemble improvisations at the AFM 257 Union Hall (Cooper Hall). I had plans to continue throughout 2020 but the COVID-19 pandemic changed things significantly. By 2022 it was finally safe to meet regularly again, so we had several sessions throughout the year and a recording session in June. This long session was co-produced by me and Paul Horton, and released in three volumes throughout 2024.
Click the cover artwork (by Lucy Bilson) above to hear each volume!
2025 saw the release of Myotome, a live recording with Jayve Montgomery, Jonathan Wires and John Westberry.
