THE MIMETIKS

(promising to be the first of many sunday night updates)

The days have not been altogether kind to us. Nor have they been completely unkind. But whether it bring joy or whether it bring pain — we are bringing you music. Since that first spurt of productivity we’ve been hitting the stacks to find some standards to rework and workshopping some new material. this blog represents that work in progress. there are three new joints to check out.

alchemy-1 and alchemy-6: kyle suggested a look at those changes at the beginning of “corcovado.” we jammed on it one night and came up with some workable ideas. it seemed appropriate as the first tune we listened to together (during those unbearable days of August 2001 in the unair-conditioned rooms of Tewksbury at Bard College) and broke down. i took them back to the fender rhodes to work them out until a lyrical idea came through. Once we had that, we took it to the rig and tried it in like seven consecutive takes. it came out as an original called alchemy. the first take — we hadn’t decided on the form or the length (or the lyrics to anything after the first two lines, really) but it cohered in the taping and it made sense. the intervening takes were all about structure. We finished up with the closest thing to a final track we could come up with in a 2-room street level flat in bedstuy. that is: alchemy-6.

some time later we finished recording alchemy and bunch of other projects (that we’ll post as soon as they are ready) and just kept playing (and recording). the result was yesterday’s-boy.

that’s it tonight. sunday is officially over. so is the update. enjoy the music.

Akie Bermiss and Kyle Jaster have (separately and/or collectively) shared the stage with with:

• Joe Lovano
• John Esposito
• George Clinton and the 420 Funk Mob
• Brad Mehldau
• The Slip

(Continued)

the mimetiks is – word – a concept. the duo pairing of two interleaved musical minds. akie bermiss and kyle jaster have been writing and playing together for over five years. Having cut their teeth in the jazz and jamband scenes, they set out to cover new ground with a more sparse approach. the mimetiks concept is simple: the singing, virtuosity of mr. jaster’s bass playing and the broken sweetness of mr. bermiss’ voice-and-piano style exploring the musical abyss; whirling in the darkness of absolute sound. they strip it all down to get to the visceral heart of a song and make it brilliantly clear.

(Continued)