Infinite Mirror of Dreams
I dreamt of you and your mummified squirrel
Then I dreamt of your spirit’s transferal
How many dreams are we away from madness?
How many dreams are we away from gladness?
When your shape is re-shaped
there’s every chance you’ll be miss-shaped
You used to feed the squirrel in the park
then you found it dead and dark
Then I dreamt of you two
Two that I never knew
Yours in words,
Count Robot
Batlantis is the 6th Amplissima album.
Amplissima is a four person audio project.
Recorded on Saturday 10/12/24 at Maudslay Park, Newburyport, MA, in the Bunker
The Bunker in Maudslay Park is an acoustical dream. In years past it had been built to house orange trees in the winter.
The place sounds just incredible and is a character in every track on this album.
This session was really long. We have about another hour’s worth of recordings to sift through.
The sequencing for this album was pretty easy. We just went from the shortest track to longest. It felt natural.
Amplissima is:
E Dahlfree: Trumpet, overtone singing, duck call, alto recorder, percussion, prepared phone
Tim Mungenast: Acoustic guitar, vocals, overtone singing, and Trans-Siberian Llamaphonics. -Tim had never played acoustic guitar with us at any of our recording
sessions with Amplissima before and it was a nice change but it is also a challenge to bring that instrument up in the mix with so much power coming from the trumpet.
Dobra Jené Ashentree: Mandolin, one string Cigar box dulcimer, tamborine, shuffling dance, vocals, and general beating on anything metal
Van Wyrdlocke: Voice, bell, circuit bent toy keyboard, kazoo, soupcan microphone, slide whistle
1. Batlantis 2:43 - A rather different track for us. E (AKA Eric) asked us if he could “direct” us and of course we said yes. The results were interesting.
Speaking for myself, I had been listening to a lot of early rock and roll and started thinking about all the strange vocal sounds people would put into these recordings so that’s where I was at. E came up with the title for this one and that led to naming the album. E made a lot of audio captures for this session and one of them is featured in the background here. What does “directing” mean, well he previewed what we were going to do then cued us when he wanted us to start and stop. Lots of fun.
You can hear Eric walking around us as he directs. We don’t try to hide the reality of recording outdoors, we embrace it. Dobra has some fine vocal moments here. Tim has tasty stellar guitar too.
2. Ice Cream Truck vs Giant Singing Goat In The Sumner Tunnel 4:21 -Tim came up with this title. I did a spoken rant, the content of which really didn’t fit with the Amplissima vibe. So I warped it, so that the words just become part of the soundscape. Do you hear dreams when you’re awake? Lots of collaging in this one.
Lots of feedback courtesy of the soupcan microphone. Big time feature of E’s prepared phone later in the track. Gives a nice corroding kick towards the end. You can also hear a circuit bent toy keyboard towards the end.
3. Flamenco Tibetto 7:26 -Great trumpetting by E. A whole lot of bells. Eric singing like a viking. Lots of overlaying on this one too. Dobra’s shuffling dance occurs during this track. Tim and E duel with overtone singing. The angelic dream of Dobra’s singing calms the battle. E does some nice old timey trumpeting. Great booming prepared phone stuff on here too. I give a lot of credit to the acoustic brilliance of the Bunker for the way this album sounds. E leads the way out.
4. Altered Bird States 11:46 -The beginning of this track features some gorgeous guitaring by Tim. Ok this whole track features gorgeous guitar by Tim. Also enjoy the vocals by Dobra and Tim. The first of the two epic tracks.
There were lots of spiders hanging around in the corners of the Bunker. I hope they dug this recording session. Percussion explodes in this track.I am responsible for the slide whistle. If you don’t like it blame me. E used a stick to smash against a pole in the Bunker during this track. E the barbarian! E and Tim nailed the overtone singing.
5. The Countess Waits In Her Crumbling Mansion 12:02 - What is plasmodium? Ask Tim! There’s a lot of layers on this track. Like a psychedelic birthday cake.Kazoos galore! If there were more kazoos in the world, there would be less crumbling mansions. Chaos in composition. Dobra cuts it up on the mandolin! I hear the knocks and you can enter. E’s prepared phone and the sounds of his videos go wild here. Mad sounds spread around you. It didn’t sound like this when were recording this track, but that’s ok, because this sounds unlike reality. Guitar and mandolin locked into grooves on the downslide of the track.
Everything created, produced, and mastered by Amplissima
The song Batlantis was directed by E Dahlfree who did a wonderful job with it.
Here is the first ever video band interview with Amplissima!
Yours in album chat ups,
Count Robot
A dude with a Primus Shirt
Found myself at a mall.
There he is, a man with a faded Primus t-shirt walking slowly down the hall.
I say to him, “Cool shirt, dude.”
He smiles as every vast wrinkle on his face folds with a crinkle.
He’s probably not much older than me.
That smile still has the 1990’s attitude of someone who saw Primus while they still sucked.
Rock and Roll will never die until we’re all dead.
Yours in in rock and roll,
Count Robot
Yes, I've blogged about this a bit but here's a bit more!
So for those who don't know we were part of a musical/improv/spoken word/livestream inanity with our group Neurodivergent Orchestra. You can watch the show by clicking on the video above.
Here's some more behind the scenes and other related pics.
My rig for the set. I got the idea to use tapes because it felt like 80's alien conspiracy theory stuff. So I made a tape and wanted to use some existing ones that I had. Sadly the tape players all rebelled. Not sure why. I tested them before and after the show and they all worked fine but for some reason during the show they wouldn't play. Alien interference? Maybe!
DNA Girl vamping it up before the show.
Gongs were made to be gonged!
Tim's squeaking pig! Used during the set.
Pek (the band leader) sent us these cool altered photos he made from the set.
For those who don't want to watch the whole show, here's a shorty!
Thank you Pek for letting us perform at these shows. These are some of my most favorite shows I have ever done. Amazingly fun and almost zero stress.
Yours in musical madness,
Count Robot
These shows are structured musical/spoken word chaos.
Here's some behind the scenes photos from the show.
The big screen TV with part of the narrative. We use this for a pre-show discussion.
Printed copy of the script.
Musician fuel or as it's commonly called, pizza. We eat a bit before and after the show.
A pre-show shot of the studio space.
Believe it or not, this was once a coffee machine that has been converted into a wild sound making device. Even though it doesn't give me delicious bean beverages, it gives me delightful sounds.
Synths!!!!!!!!
One of the many stationary cameras in the studio. Sadly the live camera operator couldn't make it.
Gongs, bells, crazy!
Rubber chickens!
Tim! The mighty guitar stylings of Tim Mungenast! A pre-show shot.
Tim's array of pedals.
DNA Girl's orange amp. My amp is to the right of it. Sadly my gear rebelled just at the start of the show so I used almost none of it.
Tim's guitar. Here he is using a screaming goat toy on the guitar. Screaming goat guitar!
The camera switching board.
More stuff in the studio. All instruments free to use during the show.
And that's it. Hope you dig the show!
Yours in chaotic weirdness,
Count Robot
5/2/26
Sometimes it’s the little things that someone does for you that matter
Yours in tasty ice tea,
Count Robot
