I’ve recorded with Doug Appling, also known as Emancipator, on the most recent four of his five albums: Safe in the Steep Cliffs (2010); Dusk to Dawn (2013); Seven Seas (2015); Baralku (2017). Plus many Emancipator remixes include my work.
I was the first live performer to tour with Emancipator, performing with him in San Francisco, Denver and Portland, with acts like Bonobo, Amon Tobin and Pretty Lights.
Released in November 2017, “Baralku” by Emancipator shot immediately to the top of the iTunes Electronic album charts. I play the lead hook on the title track and a blues solo on the album’s first single, “Goodness.”
Billboard’s review notes that the violin “consumes a large amount of the album’s melodic space — with surprising flexibility.” That’s certainly a tribute to Doug’s crafty production work, which is always leavened with strings, and the work of Ilya Goldberg, aka Lapa, the strings player in Emancipator Ensemble.
Pick up a copy of the album here:
Emancipator’s “Seven Seas” hit #2 on the iTunes electronic music chart upon its release in late September 2015. I play on four of the twelve songs on the album:
1993 (violin); Vision Quest (mandocaster); Delta Trance (violin, mandocaster, viola); and Honey (mandocaster). Of those, my favorites are 1993, in which I play the hook, and Delta Trance, on which I play slide on Fender Mandocaster.
Here are 1993 and Delta Trance:
In Summer of 2015 Emancipator released a remix album of Dusk to Dawn. My strings parts are woven into the Tor remix of “The Way,” which I like a lot, and the Frameworks remix of the title track “Dusk to Dawn.” It’s a trip to hear the already heavily processed original parts reimagined by two entirely new artists.
Here are the two original tracks from his 2013 album, “Dusk to Dawn”:
Here are a couple of tracks from his 2010 release “Safe in the Steep Cliffs”:
My musical relationship with Doug/Emancipator has been defined by the many times we’ve “jammed,” and he’s recorded quite a few tracks with me playing strings, only some of which he’s released. The rest are in the Emancipator “vault,” as he once called it.
Here are four tracks which are to the best of my knowledge unreleased:
Writing in the Flat Keys: Thacher Schmid's Portfolio 