Mark Rushton and Jon Harnish - Ornate Culmination album cover

Here's the cover for the new Mark Rushton and Jon Harnish album, Ornate Culmination:



Track listing is:

1. The Church Of Calm (7:11)
2. Ornate Culmination (9:10)
3. Along Third Street (8:48)
4. Buzz And Howl (4:41)
5. Buzz And Howl (part two) (1:14)
6. Vitame Vas U Nas (7:11)
7. Tactile Music (3:57)
   

Recorded at Weather Excuse Studio in the New Bohemia part of Cedar Rapids during March 2008. Edited at The Bunker in Iowa City.

Mark Rushton - xiosynth, buddha machine, acid pro, ableton live, zoom h2
Jon Harnish - bass guitar, effects box, feedback, nuendo, groove agent

These are the last recordings made by Mark Rushton and Jon Harnish at Jon's Weather Excuse Studio. In June of 2008, Weather Excuse destroyed by the worst flooding ever along the Cedar River in Iowa, as was the New Bohemian arts district, the nearby Czech Village area, almost all of downtown Cedar Rapids, as well as the Time Check neighborhood. Jon's house had 10 feet of water inside it. While Jon had a small amount of time to evacuate things like his computers and his bass guitar, many things were left behind because it was believed the water would only be a few feet deep. Everything left behind was ruined. The Matyk Building, located near Jon's house and where we have recorded many times since 2005, was also significantly damaged.

Here's the projected timeline on the rollout:

Late August - Lightscribe CD via CDBaby (worldwide)
Late August - DRM-free MP3 files via CDBaby (worldwide)
Early September - AmazonMP3 (US only)
Mid-September - iTunes (worldwide)
Late September or October - other worldwide digital distributors and subscription services

Jon and I have a lot more music to be released in the coming months. Probably another four or five album's worth.

Bound Off Short Story Podcast #31 (August 2008)

Bound Off Short Story Podcast: Issue 31
Released August 15, 2008
(43 minutes. File size: 40MB. 128kb-encoded MP3.)

• "The Poet's Head Is In My Lap" written by Elizabeth Ellen. Read by Ann Rushton (8 minutes long, starts at 1:36).
  
  
• "Sue Ray" written by Brenda C. Wilson. Read by Kelly Shriver (13 minutes long, starts at 9:33).
  
  
• "Mother Country" written by Nick Antosca. Read by Mark Rushton (2 minutes long, starts at 22:49).
  
  
• "Broomstick Limbo" written and read by Craig Terlson. (5 minutes long, starts at 25:06).
  
  
• "Apocalypse" written and read by Tomi Shaw. (2 minutes long, starts at 30:10).
  
  
• "Breaking it Down" written by Beverly C. Lucey. Read by Mark Rushton (6.5 minutes long, starts at 32:07).
  
  
• "Love, Mortar" written by Amelia Gray. Read by Dave Robinson (3.75 minutes long, starts at 38:45).

Bound Off always goes "on holiday" in August, so this is a rebroadcast of stories from 2006.

Katydid and Fireworks, a free field recording MP3

Mark Rushton - Katydid and Fireworks
(2:45), 192kb-encoded MP3, 4MB

A recording of katydids and crickets in my backyard, punctuated with the sounds of distant fireworks exploding 13 miles away in North Liberty for the RAGBRAI bicyclers who were spending the night there. I like how the katydids take a break during the booming and then resume several seconds after it stops.

Visit Mark Rushton's Free MP3 page.

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Bound Off Short Story Podcast #30 (July 2008)

Bound Off Short Story Podcast: Issue 30
Released July 15, 2008
(16 minutes. File size: 15MB. 128kb-encoded MP3.)

• "Not Even a Murmur" written by Terry Collett. Read by Kelly Shriver (2.5 minutes long, starts at 1:15). Terry Collett is a 60-year-old poet who has been writing since 1972. He has had two slim volumes of poems published, in 1974 and 1978. Since that time he has had poems and short stories printed in anthologies, magazines and newspapers. He is married with eight children and eight grandchildren.
  
  
• "The Bathchair" written by Maureen Wilkinson. Read by Mark Rushton (11 minutes long, starts at 4:23). Maureen Wilkinson lives in the United Kingdom. She has been told she has a warped sense of humour. It is when walking her German shepherd her mind travels its own strange paths.

Visit the Boundoff web site.

Podcast #30 - "Yacht Club" featuring Mark Rushton, Jon Harnish, Craig Erickson, Pacific Before Tiger, and Eric Hall

Mark Rushton Podcast #30 - "Yacht Club"
Released July 13, 2008
36 minutes and 49 seconds
192kb-encoded MP3
50MB

An interview with Jon Harnish and Craig Erickson about the floods in Cedar Rapids. Two pieces of music (music starts at 4:30 and 13:30 into the podcast) featuring Mark Rushton, bassist Jon Harnish, and guitarist Craig Erickson at the Yacht Club in Iowa City on Sunday, July 6, 2008. Also playing on the same bill that night was Pacific Before Tiger and Eric Hall. Following our music in the podcast, I have a track by Pacific Before Tiger from his album Anchors called "In Gold" (music starts at 25:30 into the podcast). After that, I have a portion of Eric Hall's set at the Yacht Club (music starts 30:50 into the podcast). Check out the entire podcast!

Eric Hall:


Pacific Before Tiger (Andrew Weathers):


Jon Harnish:

The Relaunch of BeautifulAmbientArt.com

I am creating original paintings and prints in a couple of different ways:

• Small original paintings, available as prints
  
  Acrylic on synthetic paper (spun-bonded olefin). These images are scanned and made into paper prints or giclee (ink on canvas) in a variety of sizes and format through Imagekind.com. This is for the worldwide market via the internet.
  

• Larger original paintings
  
  Acrylic on canvas mounted on a stretcher frame.
  
  These paintings will be finished with a simple natural wood frame.
  
  This is for the local market (Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, etc).

Visit my gallery: BeautifulAmbientArt.com

Iowa City Press-Citizen Story On Jon Harnish And Our Upcoming Gig At The Yacht Club

Here's the story on Jon Harnish in the Iowa City Press-Citizen.

We also got a mention in Jim Musser's Music Beat column.

Mark Rushton, Jon Harnish, and Craig Erickson at the Iowa City Yacht Club on July 6th

Jon Harnish and I will be opening for Pacific Before Tiger and Eric Hall at the Iowa City Yacht Club on July 6th. Sounds start around 9pm. Tickets are $5 at the door.

Jon and I will also have guitarist Craig Erickson playing with us. Jon and Craig played together in the 1980s. The three of us had been planning to get together to do en plein air electro-ambient recording in Cedar Rapids in the coming weeks, but we decided to move things up. Jon tells me that Craig will be bringing his Echoplex and other sound processors.

There will be a story in the Thursday, July 2nd edition of the Iowa City Press-Citizen about the show. I'll have another announcement once the link appears.

Mark Rushton and Jon Harnish, Live at Legion Arts (March 22, 2008)

Here's some video of our performance at LegionArts.org in Cedar Rapids on March 22, 2008.

Mark Rushton Podcast #29 - "Mandatory"

Mark Rushton Podcast #29 - "Mandatory"
Released June 11, 2008
13 minutes and 45 seconds
192kb-encoded MP3
20MB

Jon and I were expecting to get together tonight at his Weather Excuse studio in Cedar Rapids to make music, but instead a mandatory evacuation of Jon's neighborhood due to a possible flood occurred. In this podcast are three tracks from the Mark Rushton and Jon Harnish album: "New Bohemia" (excerpt), "Advisory", and "River Bend".

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Mark Rushton - June 8, 2008 - Field Recording Of A Rain Storm

Mark Rushton - June 8, 2008 - Field Recording Of A Rain Storm
(14:00), 192kb-encoded MP3, 20MB

More storms coming through Iowa City tonight. We have flooding down by the University of Iowa and nearby Coralville Lake is about to flow over the spillway. This was recorded from my kitchen window using the Zoom H2 and edited on the ends.

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Field Recording Of A Thunderstorm

Mark Rushton - May 29, 2008 Field Recording (Thunderstorm)
(3:50), 192kb-encoded MP3, 5.4MB

A thunderstorm passed through Iowa City on Thursday, May 29, 2008. The recording ends right as the worst of the lightning and thunder happen overhead. I was recording the storm using the highest microphone gain using my Zoom H2 and those sounds were too over-modulated to use. What happens before it is quite lovely, though.

Stay In Touch:

Keep the free MP3s coming by subscribing to my feed or getting an email when this page updates.

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Or if you want an email everytime I add a new free MP3, sign up here. It's really easy. You'll only get an email when I add something.

Visit MarkRushton.com