Jon Mueller What's lost is something important. What's found is something not revealed. Crouton CD Available through the Helen Scarsdale Agency: $12.00 "For the past two years, individuals have been invited to contribute their beards, which would then be filed and placed in a special wooden case, for no apparent reason. The process, on the other hand, revealed many conversations that would not have taken place; moments of understanding, insight, curiosity, and and overall positive manifestations that possibly would not have happened under 'normal' circumstances. The intent of this recording is to mimic this process. On the surface, it is two compositions for solo percussion, using pieces from a typical drum set. But one would likely not realize this by listening. Jon Mueller either spent the necessary time to teach his drums how to actually sustain something, or he found them lying in the same swamp as the Warner Bros. frog. In any case, he has coaxed a gorgeous CD out of them: complex textures of sustained snares, nocturnal bells, and asymmetrical rhythms arising as if from within the drums; all subtly ordered, sometimes melting from passage to passage, sometimes popping with tape-edit precision. The pieces have the gravity of fine drone work, but they are also injected with a dry wit and assembled with the mechanations of a puzzle master. There are no singing frogs on this disc, no merely novel moments. Mueller makes the most of his chorus, and the music resonates as something beyond the sum of its parts, however interesting those parts may be. Thus hopefully this CD, like the collection of beards, will also inspire conversations that might not have otherwise taken place, moments of understanding, curiosity, etc. " -- Crouton