All music below appears on Kathryn’s second solo album, “Masked”. The music featured on this album was created spontaneously in the moment for this recording. Each piece was improvised without a plan and is meant to represent a live performance experience of Kathryn’s music. None of these tracks have been edited in any way in order to create as authentic a recording as possible. The concept of this album is largely based on Kathryn Ladano’s PhD thesis, “The Improvising Musician’s Mask: Using Musical Instruments to Build Self-Confidence and Social Skills in Collective Free Improvisation”. The results of that research significantly influenced this project. Our instruments are our masks; they allow us to express our true selves.
Flow
“Flow” is the first track on my album “Masked”. While the piece does utilize pauses and breaks, I see it largely as representing forward momentum. It includes both the familiar and the new with subtle changes that take the listener in new directions.
Wings
“Wings” is the third track on “Masked” and was based on a concept that I originally performed back in 2013. The original piece represented a cathartic expression of grief due to recent loss of a dear friend. This track is a reimagining of that same inspiration and is dedicated to my friend’s memory.
Outcry
As the second track on my album “Masked”, “Outcry” is an aggressive piece that utilizes a series of multiphonics which are based around low fundamentals on the bass clarinet.
Contentious
As the fourth track on “Masked”, “Contentious” represents an all-out expression of repressed thoughts and feelings. This is a place that I rarely go in live performance, but I wanted to include a representation of more raw and unbridled solo playing – and “Contenious” is that.