New Old Time

Jim Nollman, founder of Interspecies.com and a musician with a history of sharing his music with the whales off Vancouver Island and other cetacean rich waters has released a new CD best described as a collection of experimental world fiddle tunes. Nollman has considered the fiddle traditions of several cultures and adapted them for mandolin. The tracks on his latest CD are approached with a spirit of experimentation, deconstructing the tunes using my jazz and techno sensibilities to see if it was possible to make these tunes my own without ruining them in the process. Looped phrases, track offsets, conversion of mandolin into midi files to mix with environmental sounds that blend the industrial tones of a vacuum cleaner with the songs of a humpback whale, were all intended to compose a music that shimmered. The CD adds to Nollman's repertoire of films, books, CDs, collaborations and activism projects at the edge of cultural production.