David Kraus: News & More

News & Announcements

New CD Project:
Compositions for solo guitar

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Coming September 2010

          "Between Silence"
            poems for solo guitar
      Original Contemporary Pieces
           for the nylon string guitar

The recording of my new solo guitar CD entitled "Between Silence" is completed. All of the eight pieces were recorded by Bob DeMarco at Otter Creek Productions in Pittsford, Vermont, over the last seven months. The production and mastering was just recently finished (as of 5/7/10) by the incomparable producer Peter B. Wilder at ERGO Comm. Studios. With the cover art by Karen Brooks nearing completion, the graphics and packaging is being designed by Brian Prendergast making for a hopeful Sept. 2010 release. It's been a long time in the making, but I am smiling now:) To hear the finished pieces in full just click this link:

New CD Project:
Some Sort of Angel revisited

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Beginning in October 2010

            "Some Sort of Angel"
A Pancultural Acoustic Ensemble
                  The Next Incarnation

David Kraus ~ nylon & steel string acoustic guitars
John LaRouche ~ chromatic harmonica & wooden flutes
Mark vanGulden ~ vibraphone & percussion
As yet un-named ~ electric bass
As yet un-named ~ full percussion (minus trap set)

A new music project with a full group line up is coming together with myself on guitars, John LaRouche replacing the saxophone with his amazing playing on chromatic harmonica and wooden flutes, the very welcome return of the gifted Mark vanGulden on vibraphone and percussion, and a yet to be found bass player who it has been agreed will play electric bass, which is a departure from the first Some Sort of Angel CD which you can hear through this link. The mandolin of Jamie Masefield will also not be heard this time around as we are going for a different color. The sonic mainstays held over from the last CD are the acoustic nylon and steel string guitars, the vibraphone, and the bass, though because of pursuing an electric fretless and fretted sound will allow for completely new textures and more orchestration, especially since the electric can be more easily a harmonic and melodic player within the mix and not only on the "bottom" end of the tonal spectrum. There is a possibility of adding a full percussionist but without trap drums which is one of the hallmarks of the first CD. This way we could add all sorts of percussion sounds without taking away from Mark's vibraphone playing in a live setting. We are all very excited about this project as it has been a long time coming...too long actually. Stay tuned. More info will be available as we progress.

Website facelift
adding/editing/changing

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Work in Progress

Beginning in January of 2010, I will be doing some redesigning of my website with lots of changes and additions which I've wanted to do for a while now. It will take through the Summer because my schedule only allows a few hours a week to work on it. But my site will stay up and running. The basic structure, the look, and the feel will remain. But there are new pages I've been able to add without clogging up the Navigation bar with an overabundance of headings. Though there are just twelve headings on the Navigation bar, the site actually contains at present about sixty pages, with more coming as new projects and information are added. Most of this is occurring through The Listening Room page through which all music projects are accessed. Clicking on any project heading/icon takes you into a "world" just for that music project. A page opens which has all of the relevant music clips interspersed with reviews. You can either just listen to the clips on the page while perusing the reviews and then move on, or by pressing on the title of any particular tune open onto a page that contains pertinent information just for that song which you can read while listening to the piece. Each of these individual song pages have icon/text links available for easy return to the main page. There is also a link to complete Music Notes (like album notes) available at the bottom of each project's page where more info can be found. In addition, there are now links being introduced to make it easier to purchase the music in CD or MP3's from almost anywhere on the site.

So for example, the CD Some Sort of Angel has one "main" page with its eight music pieces plus its reviews and awards. But with the additional link to the Music Notes page, and with each tune title being a link to its own individual page, there is a total of ten pages of music and info available if you're in the mood to peruse them, yet the Navigation bar has just one heading called The Listening Room from which all music is initially accessed, keeping the site clean and uncluttered. All of the extra info/music pages are only seen if you choose to go to them. The viewer decides how much they want to take in, and you're never trapped into any place on the site. You can easily move on whenever you decide. The Contact page has a cleaner look because there is a link which opens up to the actual contact form, keeping the initial page clean. This is also true for The Photo Gallery; when you click on the icon/text link, the photos open up, and by clicking on any picture they become a slide show so clicking each photo separately is no longer necessary. What you see now on the twelve page Navigation bar will remain the overall look and feel of the site, while many more pages and info can be added through the use of links without the clutter that many sites seem to accumulate by having headings for every page. It makes for a more user friendly site. Afterall, I am hoping you'll return when you have a few minutes and enjoy taking in whatever you'd like. Keep checking back:)

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