West ZooOpolis Official Release


My new album, West ZooOpolis, featuring Marco Minnemann is now available for you at Abstract Logix! To recap, this album was written over a virtuosic 51-minute drum performance Marco recorded and then invited me and several other composers to compose around. The complexity of the drums makes analyzing the rhythms of Stravinsky and Boulez easy by comparison. However, Marco’s inspiring performance kept the ideas cooking!

Many thanks to those of you who have already purchased West ZooOpolis during the pre-sale phase to help it already become the top seller at Abstract Logix. Additionaly, thanks to the listeners of the preliminary digital download and all your supportive emails.

Thanks to radio hosts, Dick Heath in the UK, Randy Allar of the Cleveland based “Fusion Show” and Tom Gagliardi of the Philadelphia based “Gagliarchives” show for quickly bringing such a large portion of the album to your listeners. Additional thanks to Randy Allar for such an extensive on air interview as well. Thanks to writer Angelo Hulshout for introducing the album to the Prog Archives crowd.

I would like to especially thank Kevin Freeby for his fantastic bass playing and commitment to West ZooOpolis. His unique sound helps give the varied elements of this music a unifying sound and identity. Additional thanks go out to Chris Taylor for rolling up his sleeves and joining me on guitars, keyboards and co-writing on the two tracks “Three Trains to Tennessee” and “Mayor Ass.” Also thanks to big DeGenaro for a twisted fretless solo at the end of “Viking Rats.”

Additional thanks go to all the makers of the gear who have supported me to include: Ernie Ball Musicman and Suhr guitars, Deering Banjos, Egnater amplifiers, DiMarzio pickups, Port City cabinets, Evidence Audio cables, Tonefreak and XTS pedals, Sound Sculpture audio routing matrixes, and Fractal Audio Systems (makers of the Axe FX). Also, thanks to Victor Rocha for the revolving door of guitar loans!

Lastly, please don’t forget to go check out Trey Gunn’s CD, Modulator, as well as Alex Machacek’s CD 24 Tales which were composed around Marco’s drum performance. Marco also put together an album of his own! We are still waiting for Mike Keneally and Phi Yen-Zek to release their versions as well. I have heard some in full and just parts of others, but what I can tell you is that the creativity and unique voices of each composer and the wealth of opportunities provided by Marco’s beautiful playing give you several highly distinct albums in this historically unprecedented project. So, last but not least, many thanks to Marco!

Best wishes,

John Czajkowski

 

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