Time-traveling Sergio Armaroli takes advantage of this openness. He has previously worked with Downtown legend Elliott Sharp and Steve Piccolo of Lounge Lizards fame. This session also adds two giants of the UK free improvisation scene, bassist John Edwards and drummer Mark Sanders … Like Patchen’s script for “The Voice” in The City Wears a Slouch Hat, Piccolo’s utterances describe people, objects, places, and actions such as “iron scaffolding shaking in the wind,” “chewing on crackers,” and “scraping frosted windshield.”

Piccolo’s verses which are the counterpart to Armaroli’s Figure(s), could just as easily have been uttered in Chicago 1942. Both cue the assembled musicians to illustrate the pages of this phantasmagorical graphic novel for the listener.

Mark Corroto

1 Intro 7:19

2 Pigs Grunting 8:53

3 The Train 7:38

4 Chewing On Crackers 5:35

5 BluBottle Fly 6:11

6 Rubber Boots 4:04

7 Iron Scaffolding 5:06

8 20 Scratchin Pencils 5:22

9 Scraping Frost Windshield 4:32

10 Wheezing Lungs 6:10

11 Small Scissors 2:48

12 Low Groan 5:11

Recorded at Blackstar Recording Studio, Milan, Italy,

on September 15-16, 2023 by Raffaele Stefani;

Mixing and PRE-mastering by Elliott Sharp; Final

mastering by Michael Brändli, Hardstudios AG; Cover

photo by Hans Hagen Stockhausen; Liner notes by

Mark Corroto; graphic concept by fuhrer vienna;

Associate producer: Christian C. Dalucas; Executive

producer: Werner X. Uehlinger.

Honorary producer: Bernhard “Benne” Vischer