DAVID CIERI | Albums
DECEMBER 2022 - The second book of the Omniotik Record series - out on John Medeski’s Ropeadope Records. Immensely thrilled to continue collaborating with the immensely talented Rachael Hacking - album cover photography and art.
JUNE 2022 - THE SOUNDTRACK FOR THE DOCUMENTARY FILM BY THE EWERS BROTHERS AND KEN BURNS - HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT.
FORTHCOMING ON ROPEADOPE RECORDS - 2022_2023
As of this APRIL 1st, 2022, ROPEADOPE RECORDS is releasing 4 new recordings - a series centered around writing I have done for the Armenian duduk. Titled OMNIOTIK books one through four. Big appreciation for Ben Matthewson, Fabian Brown, and Louis Marks (Ropeadope) for getting behind this new music.
In addition - 6 more new recordings - soundtracks and new imaginings/experiments, in addition to the 4 Omniotik Books, will be released in the next year. More soon about these new records.
Here is a video of the making of palefire - a track from the latest Frederick_Cieri record entitled nmash (out on all platforms via Ropeadope Records) - Hammond C3 Organ with leslie speaker + modular synth + nagra tape machine -
Below is the complete recording -
MUSIC FROM THE KEN BURNS AND LYNN NOVICK DOCUMENTARY - HEMINGWAY. THIS SOUNDTRACK PUT OUT BY JONNY GANDELSMAN ON HIS IN A CIRCLE RECORDS.
An Homage to Carl Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc (Music Inspired by the Film) (Ropeadope Records, 2020)
David Cieri, a visionary and prolific composer of movie music has made a new score for one of the essential films of the silent era, director Carl Th. Dreyer's La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc . On January 24, 2020, Ropeadope Records will release An Homage to Carl Th. Dreyer's 1928 The Passion of Joan of Arc, Cieri's expansive and gripping new score for this cinematic classic. Cieri's release can be synchronized to the film for the full experience, but stands on it own as a dynamic and independent musical work.
David Cieri (Piano & Haken Continuum); Paige Breen (Carillon); Tenores De Aterue (Traditional Sardinian Vocal Quartet: Avery Book, bassu; Gideon Crevoshay, mesu boghe; Carl Linich, contra; Doug Paisley, boghe); Shahzad Ismaily (Electric Bass & Elka Synthesizer); Anjna Swaminathan (Violin); Rubin Kodheli (Cello); Sam Ospovat (Vibraphone & Drums), John McCarthy (Bagpipes)
Engineered & mixed by Michael Coleman
Recorded May 8 and 9, 2019 at Figure 8 Studios in Brooklyn, NY
Mastered by Kevin Blackler at Blackler Mastering in Brooklyn, NY
Album art & design by Kaya Marks
Cover photo by David Cieri
The Mayo Clinic: Unity of Forces (Ropeadope Records, 2019)
Music from a film by Ken Burns & Ewers Brothers Productions - Featuring Bill Frisell on guitars.
Bill Frisell (Guitars), Putnam Murdock (Guitars), Dan Brantigan (Flugel Horn & Trumpet), Jay Frederick, (Drums & Percussion), David Cieri (Piano), Rubin Kodheli (Cello), Yoko Waynen (Violin), Mike Brown (Bass)
Engineered & mixed by Bryan Pugh. All music produced by Erik Ewers & David Cieri.
Dark Furniture (Ropeadope Records, 2018)
Yusef Komunyakaa, David Cieri & Mike Brown
While David Cieri was writing the music (along with Trent Reznor & Yo-Yo Ma) for Ken Burns’ The Vietnam War, he kept close Yusef Komunyakaa’s poetry book Dien Cai Dau as a source of insight and inspiration. As good fortune would have it, The Gavagai Music & Reading series run by Danielle Blau, brought Komunyakaa, Cieri & Mike Brown together for the first time on St. Patrick’s Day 2016 to perform in NYC. From the downbeat, a deep relationship and understanding immediately caught fire and they have been playing with matches ever since as they fuse Komunyakaa’s poems with the sounds & music of Cieri and Brown.
Yusef Komunyakaa (Poet & Reader), David Cieri (Keyboards, Piano, Vocal, Waterphone & Dan Nguyet), Mike Brown (Contrabass & Looping), Shahzad Ismaily (Percussion & Moog), Sam Ospovat (Percussion)
Recorded & mixed by Eli Crews at Figure 8 Studios in Brooklyn, NY. Mastered by Kevin Blackler at Blackler Mastering.
Notes From The Underscore: 10 Years With Florentine Films (Ropeadope Records, 2017)
Music from The Roosevelts, The Vietnam War, Prohibition & The National Parks
Collaborating with Florentine Films over the course of the last 10 years has yielded music which I am very grateful and excited to share. To remove these compositions from their visual counterparts — from the bath that the images have been swimming in — and present them as expressions in their own rite has its advantages. Working with these remarkable human beings has taught me a great deal about the potentials inherent in stitching together Sound and Image — the compositions are true co-conspirators in helping to have mutual influence over the film watcher and in a sense, this music has “changed” the images as much as the images have framed the music.
My first assignment for the Florentine gang — the stately ‘Leola’ by Scott Joplin works to accentuate the freedom and accessibility of our national treasures in The National Parks while the swag in ‘Prohibition Ramble’ was built to dance with a newly emerging sense of inner freedom as exemplified in Prohibition. After traveling to Vietnam so as to ready myself for writing and performing the music for The Vietnam War, the music that eventually was tempted forth worked to etch out the mystery and the horror of our darkest potentials as humans while never losing sight of our redeeming qualities.
This record surveys the landscape of music I have made for these documentaries over the last ten years. I hope you imagine the films these compositions were made for but I also hope you hear the love and friendship that I have steadily and increasingly been feeling for this gang of collaborators. Now that this music is “detached” from its original homes, I also hope these compositions open you up to your own “scenes” and imaginings because above and beyond anything, I feel as Roger Ebert did about the movies — my wish is that this music activates our finer feelings and broadest sense of humanity as only art — empathy machines — can do.
White Dust (Ropeadope Records, 2017)
Yusef Komunyakaa, David Cieri & Mike Brown
Yusef Komunyakaa (Poet & Reader), David Cieri (Keyboards, Piano, Vocal & Waterphone)
Mike Brown (Contrabass & Looping), Shahzad Ismaily: Percussion & Moog), Sam Ospovat (Percussion)
Recorded & mixed by Eli Crews at Figure 8 Studios in Brooklyn, NY. Mastered by Kevin Blackler at Blackler Mastering
White Dust EPK
The Roosevelts: An Intimate History (PBS, 2013)
Music from a film by Ken Burns
David Cieri (Composer & Piano), Jonathan Barnes (Flugelhorn & Trumpet), Dan Brantigan (Flugelhorn & Trumpet), Jay Frederick (Drums & Percussion), Rubin Kodheli (Cello), Putnam Murdock (Banjo & Guitar), Jordan Scannella (Bass), Chris Speed (Clarinet), Edward Herrmann (Recitation)
Engineered & mixed by Brian Pugh. Produced by Paul Barnes, Ken Burns, David Cieri & Erik Ewers
Formal Proof That The Universe Is Neither Cruel Nor Kind & That This Is the Greatest Conceivable Horror (small e records, 2013)
David Cieri (Piano & Waterphone), William Parker (Bass), Daniel Carter (Saxophones, Trumpet & Clarinet), Elizabeth Brown (Dan Bao, Shakuhachi & Theremin), Rubin Kodheli (Cello), Jay Frederick (Drums)
Engineered & mixed by Rick Kwan at Brooklyn Recording, Brooklyn, NY. Mastered by Kevin Blackler at Blackler Mastering.
Hard Times: Music From The Film, Not Working (small e records, 2012)
D.W. Gibson recently penned Not Working about the latest recession and the effect it has had on people from all different professions. In a way it acts as the counterpart to Studs Turkels Working. He is also directing a film by the same name and this record is the score for the film.
David Cieri (Piano), Jay Frederick (Drums), Putnam Murdock (Guitars), Rosa Valenze Gilmore (Violin), Rich Hinman (Pedal Steel), Rubin Kodheli (Cello), Bryan Pugh (Monotribe)
Engineered & mixed by Bryan Pugh at Bunker Studios in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Mastered by Kevin Blackler at Blackler Mastering.
Ether Variations (small e records, 2009)
Free improvisations and compositions.
David Cieri (Piano), Jay Fredrick (Druns), Gilad Ronen (Clarinet), Josh Sinton (Bass Clarinet)
Engineered & mixed by Bryan Pugh at N. 6th Media Labs in Brooklyn, NY. Mastered by Kevin Blackler at Blackler Mastering.
Use Your Inside Voice (small e records, 2009)
Selections from performance residency at The Rockwood Music Hall in NYC.
David Cieri (Piano), Jay Frederick (Drums), Bill Mead (Drums), Estelle Bajou (Violin), Daniel Carter (Reeds & Horns), Dan Brantigan (Flugel Horn), Matthew Hamilton (Banjo), Aaron Jonah Lewis (Violin), Mike Brown (Bass)
Ten Truths About East & West (small e records, 2007)
David Cieri (Solo Piano)
Recorded at Avatar Studios, NYC. Mixed & mastered by Bryan Pugh.
The Goat & The Violin (small e records, 2007)
David Cieri (Piano), Chris Speed (Clarinet), Cody Geil (Violin), Mike Brown (Bass), Brian Ravitsky (Drums), Bryan Pugh (Baritone Saxophone), Jessica Goodkin (Vocals), Putnam Murdock (Guitar), Bruce Bell (Dobro), Dan Brantigan (Flugel Horn)
Recorded at Mission Sound Studios. Mixed & mastered by Matt Sandowski.