davidkrausguitarist.com - David Kraus - News & More

News & Announcements

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

New CD Project:
Compositions for solo guitar
May 7, 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 Aug. 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:

"Between Silence"
Poems for Solo Guitar

Release Date: August 2010

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

New CD Project:
Some Sort of Angel revisited
March 15, 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.

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Website facelift in progress
adding/editing/changing
December 12, 2009

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 time schedule only allows a few hours work at a sitting. But my site will stay up and running. The basic structure and look will remain with the blue sky banner at the top of all of the pages, the background parchment of each page, and the overall feel. 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 on The Listening Room page where all the music projects appear. When you click on any project heading or icon, you enter a "world" just for that music project. A page opens which has all of the music clips. You can either listen to the clips on that page and move on, or by pressing the title of any tune you will open a page where there is information about that tune which you can read while listening to it. They're are icons and text links to make it easy to go back to the main page of that project (which in addition to the music also has a Reviews and Awards page link and a complete Music Notes Page) and purchase the album in CD or MP3's from any page. So for example, Some Sort of Angel contains a "main" page with its eight music pieces, a Reviews and Awards page, and a Music Notes page for a total of eleven pages, although the Navigation bar has just one heading for The Listening Room (which is the main page for accessing all music on the site) and there is just one icon/text link to any project, keeping the site clean and uncluttered. Also, the viewer decides how much they want to look at so 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 the actual contact form is accessed by a link which opens the form page keeping the initial page clean. The same is 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, which is what I am going for. Afterall, I am hoping you'll return when you have a few minutes and enjoy taking in whatever you'd like. Keep checking back:)

Return to The Listening Room

"Human salvation lies in the hands
of the creatively maladjusted."

~ Martin Luther King Jr.