Random Touch

Random Touch: A Way From the Heard

by Glenn Astarita
December 12, 2009

The Illinois based-trio had its origins in the 1970s and is steeped within experimental and improvisational factors. Over the years, the musicians have investigated numerous slants, comprising the acoustic-electric element amid heavy-duty and, wily percussion jaunts, evidenced on their exploratory 2009 LP, Turbulent Flesh. Yet free-expressionism rules the roost within the musicians' core methodology. And they interject moments of humor to complement feisty sojourns into sizzling, hyper-mode free-jazz persuasions.

Featuring Scott Hamill's torrid and squealing, avant-rock electric guitar ...

Random Touch: A Box And A Word

by Glenn Astarita
October 13, 2008

With its tenth release, Random Touch fires phasers and spews electronic sounds into the cosmos.  It’s as if they’re zooming into the outreaches of space via jagged angles, while all notions of physics are completely disregarded.  Nonetheless, the musicians embark upon a free-form, genre-bashing sequence of events.  On the opener, "Floating in a Spiral," they execute a broad, ambient soundscape that segues into avant jazz-rock amid bizarre movements constructed upon wily EFX-based maneuvers.

Random Touch’s "Flock" Concludes Their Career With A Bang

Source: Glass Onyon PR - William James
July 11, 2012

Asheville, NC - Thirty-three years of collaboration and sixteen releases culminates in the masterpiece Flock, Random Touch’s final album. The ten tracks range from the bigger-than-life “Arena” to the uninhibited joy of “Dance of the Elementals” to the psychedelic final track, “She Wore Sheepskin”. In-between is found all manner of genre bending complexity and unnerving cinematic suspense. Scott Hamill’s mastery of the bass guitar is notable on the album. Its pervasiveness recreates the traditional jazz trio, and yet jazz could ...
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Random Touch's "Tributary" Asks: Are Your Ready To Explore Beyond The Main Stream?

Source: Glass Onyon PR - William James
July 25, 2011

Asheville, NC—The tributary is where fish and amphibians go to spawn. It is the hatchery for all that dwells in the river. Random Touch's unique and fertile imagination presents Tributary, a rousing expression of music as emotional journey. Relentless and demanding, this is music without compromise. This is pure art, made for its own sake, and accountable only to itself. Tributary is a double CD, the group's 15th release, for a total of 19 discs in the public domain. Serendipity ...
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String Theory in Action with Random Touch's "Reverberating Apparatus"

Source: Glass Onyon PR - William James
October 4, 2010

Algonquin, IL—Reverberating Apparatus, the groups' fourteenth release, is dominated by a revisit to the fusion of their teenage years, heard through the lens of four decades of musical exploration. String Theory suggests a universe comprised of music, of vibration itself. And serendipity seems a natural outcome of quantum mechanics. If there are eleven dimensions as M Theory proposes, then four or more of them play a role in the uncompromising and naked improvisation of this remarkable and serendipitous group. “To ...
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The Music Shines Brightly: Through the Lens of the Other Dimension, Random Touchs 13th Release

Source: Glass Onyon PR - William James
April 1, 2010

Algonquin, IL - Through the Lens of the Other Dimension is an evocative work, highly cinematic, heart-felt and softer than more recent works by eclectic music ensemble Random Touch. 2007s Alchemy is the previous release it most strongly resembles. The sixteen succinct pieces are like poetic soundtracks for various films. Titles such as Burglars on Tiptoe and Morning Rain are typical and lend an air of the visual and the contemplative to the sound and arc of the individual tracks. ...
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Iconoclasts Random Touch Find "A Way from the Heard" with New CD Release

Source: Glass Onyon PR - William James
July 28, 2009

Algonquin, IL - Random Touch's Scott Hamill (guitars), James Day (keyboards) and Christopher Brown (drums/vocals) first collaborated in the 1970's. Pure improvisation was one among many sound experiments. Over time it became the preferred mode for music making. With the music of A Way From the Heard (Token Boy Records, 2009) Random Touch has arrived at a new level of expression. Rock and symphonic music are more fully merged on much of the album, and their long developed technique of ...
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Random Touch's "Turbulent Flesh"

Source: Glass Onyon PR - William James
April 9, 2009

Algonquin, IL - What really matters when it comes to Random Touch is not their 38 years of collaboration, or their love of pure improvisation or their disinterest in trading music for dollars. What really matters is that they give birth to music that lies beyond ego/mind/thought. Music such as theirs cannot be made when utilizing the mind. Random Touch describe the creative process as riding a wave. The wave itself lies beyond what thought can understand, or the ability ...
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Prolific Collective Random Touch Release Two New CDs

Source: Glass Onyon PR - William James
May 23, 2008

5/23/08 - Algonquin, IL - 'A Box and a Word' and 'Duologue' bring the number of CD releases in the past year to four, as Random Touch continue in their quest to take improvisation to new levels. Relying as always on the magic of invitation and serendipity, they use beauty, tension and darkness to create cinematic music that touches and transcends the worlds of rock, jazz and 20th century classical music. “One consequence of our prolific output is that you ...
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Further Than You've Gone Before - Explore the Outer Realms of Music with Random Touch

Source: Glass Onyon PR - William James
October 14, 2007

Experimental Music Troupe Random Touch Release A True Conductor Wears A Man Algonquin, IL - Last year's pioneering effort from American experimental ensemble Random Touch, aptly titled Alchemy, was a journey inward to that place where the music controls the artist. Now Random Touch has gone further than they've gone before with the release of A True Conductor Wears A Man - a comprehensive study in improvisational composition and arrangement. Once again, the music controls the conductor. “We start off ...
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New Music for the Mind by Experimental Group Random Touch

Source: Glass Onyon PR - William James
March 14, 2007

New Music For The Mind By Experimental Group Random Touch

Algonquin, IL - “When we play, it's like entering a trance. Visual elements and even drama materialize of their own accord, as if I've fallen into a waking dream. At times I have no conscious awareness that we are making music," says Christopher Brown of the experimental music troupe Random Touch. The band are preparing for the release of their innovative new CD/DVD package entitled Alchemy.

Everyone finds comfort in ...
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