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Semiconductor is sort of an umbrella term for the various musical projects that I've been developing since January of 2004. (I'm Gregory Tippett, and I live in St. Paul, Minnesota.) Over that time, it's been a singer/songwriter project, an electric guitar duo, a prog-rock four piece, a 10-20 piece conducted improvisation ensamble, an 7 piece improvisation session, a four piece rock band again, and finally, just me once more. I've apparently come full circle; I have realized Semiconductor ultimately as more of an alter ego than a 'band.' The history below tells more of my story.
I started Semiconductor in January 2004 - the first show under that name was a singer/songwriter sort of thing, guitar and vocals with Greg Rierson on drum kit. The following show was totally different: improvised double guitar exporations with longtime friend and guitarist Jeremy Szopinski of the Urban Hillbilly Quartet. (Thanks to Jeremy for providing the original design and support for this website, as well!) Over the summer and fall of the following year, Semiconductor evolved into a four piece including Sena Thompson (later to become the mysterious Viola Formica) on violin, Jared Penberg (Festoon and Swags) and later Matt Kanive on bass, and drums variously by Greg Rierson, Nick Pichet and Bob Lewis.
In January of 2005 I had a space to fill at the Kitty Kat Club in Dinkytown for a show and, by a stroke of luck, some free time to dream. I had always had this idea about how much fun it would be to do conducted improvisation, ('conduction' as Butch Morris calls it.) So I called all my music friends, set up rehearsals, dreamed up a system based on sign language cues, and debued the Semiconductor Orchestra in the middle of a huge snowstorm on Friday, January 21st. The lineup for that show was: Erik Brandt (accordion), Kevin Cosgrove (doumbek), Sean Eagan (clarinet), Matt Kanive (bass), Aaron Kerr (cello and conducting), Nick Pichet (drum kit), Sena Thompson (violin), and me (guitar and conducting.)
It was a huge blast, and instantly I started to dream about the possibilities. Imagine: a new vision of a style of music that would evolve from regular improv sessions, with members taking the turns as conductor, and continuously refining and imporoving the language; it would be more like a collective. Over the next several months, the Orchestra continued to play out all over town (a Bedlam Theater romp, the Walker Church, every other friday at Rudie's Coffeehouse, the Cabooze, the Acadia Cafe, Patrick's Cabaret and the Terminal Bar.) Regular shows and a large group of busy musicians meant a continually evolving lineup; many thanks to all these musicians who have also been a part of the orchestra: Geoff Anderson (cello), Wendy Alton (violin), Mikey Bales (violin), Jeremy Bensoussan (clarinet), Ryan Billig (drums), Dan Griffin (keyboard), Bob Lewis (drums), Myrrhia Resnik (bari sax), Steve Rettner (keyboard), Damium Strange (saxophone), Jeremy Szopinsky (guitar) and Laila Vera (flute and vocals.) Also thanks to MC Owen Buddy for kickin' it freestyle at our Terminal Bar show.
As time went by, I I felt more strongly the tug-of-war between my interest in developing the songs I had written, and the notion of the group as a collective. I liked both ideas, but they didn't seem work in the same project. There were other confusing elements; the musicians I recruited were so diverse stylistically that it could be hard to figure out what the common ground was. So I pulled back from doing shows do develop a greater focus. Summer of 2005 was spent exploring smaller group improvs - much thanks to Kim Martinez and Out On A Limb dance company, and also to Walker Church for providing rehearsal space.
This fall I worked with a four-piece featuring some really outstanding musicians: Andrew Cox (bass,) Dan Griffin (keyboard,) and Ross Renning (drums.) I'm calling the recordings from those sessions the Jamband Ep. They are up on the mp3 page!
Current plans for Semiconductor include more recordings, a once-a-month conduction session (for the orchestra) at Rudie's led by Aaron Kerr (see the home page for details,) and more artistic development of this site, including Wheeler's Cloud, my blog/writings page.
last updated: 12/28/05