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Discography
VOLTAIRE Oooky Spooky 2007
ANDREW VIOLETTE Rave 2007
 Rave was composed in 2001 through 2005, immediately after Sonata 7 (available on Innova Recordings 587).
Like Sonata 7, Rave is an expression of the composer's deep interest in how time is perceived in music. Unlike its earlier cousin, Rave achieves its radical redefinition of time's perception not through a vast, contemplative timescape, but rather via a stunningly complex and electric progression of shorter movements. In fact, Rave is Mr. VioletteÕs most complex work to date.
Those who are familiar with other compositions by Mr. Violette understand how complex even his simplest works are. Rave occupies new territory. It sits at the outer edge of what is possible for an ensemble today to perform. Yet, in Rave, musical and technical difficulties go hand in hand. No gesture is arbitrarily difficult for its own sake. Each gesture is as difficult as it has to be to convey the intended thought or pattern. Over the course of 75 minutes, Rave spins out an ever-changing tapestry of gradually evolving music describing a great arc that returns us close to, and then beyond, the piece's opening.
Songs From a Random House gListen 2004 (BRN-CD-156)
"Five years after their debut album 'Random Numbers' (Sargasso SCD28031) the New York-based ukelele songsters return with a new selection of mysterious avant-pop songs.
Lead singer/songwriter Steven Swartz, whose PhD in music allowed him to study with Morton Feldman, developed a unique blend of psychedelic folk-jazz groove music where the often neglected ukelele has the spotlight.
 The band recently featured in a new US documentary 'Rock That Uke' by William Preston Robertson and Sean Anderson narrated by Holly Hunter focussing on the growing number of alternative musicians who incorporate the uke in their work, attracted by the 'underdog' qualities of the instrument.
Swartz's intricate lyrics are a bittersweet exploration of the mundane. Often humorous, but always set in a hazy magic-realist universe. The album ends with an unlikely rendition of Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love'. Has to be heard to be believed..."
VOLTAIRE Then and Again 2004
VOLTAIRE Boo Hoo 2002
VOLTAIRE Almost Human 2000
Voltaire was really looking forward to working on new material. It is an opportunity to try new things and venture into new musical territory.
Some of these songs aren't so new in actuality. There are songs on Almost Human that I wrote BEFORE any of the songs on Bris, that for one reason or another I wasn't able to or chose not to put on Bris that are now "right" for Almost Human.
One such song is "Underground" which was on our original demo (circa 1995!). People who frequented our shows back then would come up and ask me "Why the HELL isn't "Underground" on The Devil's Bris?!!! It's my favorite song on your demo!" Well, now everyone will get to hear it!
Songs From a Random House Random Numbers 1997 (SCD28031)
"This exciting new 13-Song CD is the groups first full-length release. For those who tire of main-stream popular music, SONGS FROM A RANDOM HOUSE will provide a welcome and refreshing relief. Typically, they match offbeat subject matter with unusual instrumentation: Ukeleles (soprano and baritone), mandolanjo, lap steel guitar, old plastic chord organs, violas and ethnic instruments are all employed to produce a collection of unique musical miniatures. The subject matter is by turns domestic and intimate, passionate and ironic, mysterious and witty, their songs present us with succinct slices of life that are almost always surreal.
The name SONGS FROM A RANDOM HOUSE implies that events portrayed in the groups songs could happen in anyones life, in a house chosen at random. Many of the songs explore the moment when the familiar becomes strange, and the strange becomes familiar. A good example can be found in Water, in which the mundane activity of washing dishes becomes oddly unsettling: 'Now you are awake. You've been sleeping for a long time, many hours. You run some water into the dishes in your sink. Water.'
GAWK Iron Mushroom on Invisible Records 1996
The IRON MUSHROOM Cd added the lysergic support of sampler Alexander Smith and the demonic virtuosity of Gregor Kitzis on violin for a most intense live to digital.
Punkadelic orgy of sonicstones physical. King-hell rhythm section with ornamental chaos, structural electronic grid work laced with organic/optic nerve textures; Art rock w/ ambient electronic virtuosity; An electro-plasma farm tractor plowing The Who/early King Crimson.
A psylocybic turbine; full range Bass Guitar Landscape, Violin Counter Art Mad Cat and Complex Primal Drum screaming.
GAWK Scratch on Invisible Records
Organic music for king-hell rhythm section, ornamental chaos, structural electronic grid work and optic nerve textures. GAWK sound structure: dense colour, rendering cinemagraphik textural organics, industrial cathedrals, bio electro-mechanics and form motifs of bucolic surrounding. Within the recordings are psychotropic chemicals, barometric changes in climate effecting the viscocity of air.
ROGER DAVIDSON Mango Tango Rainbow Collection 1995 on Invisible Records
ELLIOTT SHARP Abstract Repressionism April 1992
An atonal and very rhytmic chamber "orchestral" suite Abstract Repressionism - 1990-99 for guitar, string quartet and percussion, something halfway between Anthony Braxton, Iannis Xenakis and Glenn Branca; the electroacoustic piece Intifada (composed in 1992) with Sharp processing (via real-time MIDI control) the sound of his own guitar and clarinet and of a string quartet including Gregor Kitzis.
DAVID BOWIE Compilation
Revue Noir's rendition of "Rock n Roll Suicide" will be featured on a David Bowie Compilation that will be released by Failure to Communicate Records.
Gregor Kitzis, who is featured as first violin on David Bowie's, "Heathen", is now a member of Revue Noir & plays a brilliant violin part on our "Rock n Roll Suicide" cover.
Gregor is completely sick in the head & unbelievably talented - truly a winning combination!
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