Anvil Creations was first conceived as an idea for an art project in 1971. A miniature anvil was used as a model to be enlarged at least 10 times its size in plaster. It was a study in physical structure; a visual sculpture if you will. Many years later, an idea was presented to Ken that caused him to think about selling his aural compositions on cassette tapes. He needed a name, and the plaster anvil chiseled in art class gave him the concept for a creative name. Beginning in 1980, Anvil Creations was the name on every cassette release that Ken dubbed in real-time for customers on a one-to-one basis. Because of his success with this process, he was put in charge of the Group Tape Project for the International Electronic Music Association [IEMA] founded by James Finch.
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"Tempus Fugit" was the first sound recording to be accepted by a distribution company on the west coast. It was followed by "To Come Into Being", and eventually fanzines in several countries published reviews written by serious promoters of this new genre called "electronic music". Anvil Creations also released some art rock, also referred to as progressive rock recordings written and performed by Ken Moore, who as a keyboardist, had to learn to play percussion as well in order to complete projects like "Frame of Reference" and "Sense of Recreation". Later, he completed albums called "In a Pound of Logic", "To No Avail", "Prism Eye Glass", and "The Chess Kingdom", the latter two which have not been digitized at this time.
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Ken only played a few live concerts back in 1980, but one in particular was memorable in that his friend, the late David Dillman, drew up a poster for this event, which was made into a cover for the very limited edition of "Friday the 13th" on the AC label. Mostly, he performed in his home studio for friends, and only recorded his creations for new releases that had limited distribution, albeit in many countries all over the world. All his music is instrumental [with one exception] and the titles attempt to convey what abstract ideas were in his head at any given time. Eventually, AC had an extensive mailing list, and about 24 titles were added to the catalog.
In 1981, Ken once again decided to put on a show at the local community college in Catonsville, Maryland. This time, he thought he would share the stage with a new-found local talent, Susan Dobrowolsky. Once again, the late Dave Dillman drew up a poster for the event, and they were posted all around the town. Ken played all his piano compositions, with added tape compositions interspersed throughout the program.
Aside from the titles already mentioned, there were also several "compilation" titles on the first AC catalog list: "Il n'y a pas de quoi", "For the Duration", and "Spontaneous Creations", which were an attempt at grouping similar types of music together as a sampler. There was a jazz/electronic fusion title from 1975 called ELIXIR, which was Ken on synth and organ, Larry Jeter on drums and Mark Chance on bass. "Our Own Universe" was also an early recording with Stuart Rosenzweig and Ken Moore which was all synthesizer, promoted as Rosenzweig & Moore. Another release followed five years later as a double cassette album entitled "Eccentric Projections" by the same duo.
Later, in the mid-eighties, after a three year stint with a group called Kameleon, the guitarist (Wayne) and keyboardist (Ken) decided to form their own rock duo, writing their own brand of progressive rock, but remaining instrumental for the most part. As Ken had communicated with Steve and Alan Freeman in Great Britain, they were able to get their attention with their first offering on cassette tape called "Reaching Beyond the Sphere". A year later, they completed another album, "Nine Days Wonder", but it wasn't picked up until the turn of the next century when both albums were finally released on CD by Auricle Music.
This three year experience with Wayne Myers as MOORE/MYERS was the culmination of Ken's "rock music" activity as a keyboardist, and the beginning of his love for percussion as his main instrument. Before Wayne and Ken parted ways, they had recorded material for a third album which was to be called "20/20". Most of the music created after the eighties was more focused on sound and the manipulation of sound as an art form, and although the works recorded in the late nineties and onward are "electronic" in genre, percussion became more and more dominate so that he re-named the style "abstract acoustic".
With the IEMA gone, Ken had to find another way to advertise his music, and Ron Wallace with his Computer Music Coalition seemed to be the group to join. He submitted a collection of new music he had recorded, using the Emax purchased for Moore/Myers, and putting it on cassette tape, used the name "Plaster Anvil" again. These recordings have not been put on CD, and are not yet available on his Bandcamp site. When the technology became available for burning CDs independently, Ken put a compilation together for the CMC, now called the Creative Musicians Coalition; a collection of abstract recordings taken from EMS #1, 2 and 4, which received an excellent review from Bill Binkelman in his Wind and Wire publication. This CD was imaginatively called, "Convictions From My Extraction", and appeared in Ron Wallace's AfterTouch #12 with Music Discoveries Network being the operative name. Copies are still available through Ron's Creative Center, which is the online store for the CMC. Bill's review is also included here:
http://www.creativecenters.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=M&Screen=PROD&Product_Code=MOORE101
This three year experience with Wayne Myers as MOORE/MYERS was the culmination of Ken's "rock music" activity as a keyboardist, and the beginning of his love for percussion as his main instrument. Before Wayne and Ken parted ways, they had recorded material for a third album which was to be called "20/20". Most of the music created after the eighties was more focused on sound and the manipulation of sound as an art form, and although the works recorded in the late nineties and onward are "electronic" in genre, percussion became more and more dominate so that he re-named the style "abstract acoustic".
With the IEMA gone, Ken had to find another way to advertise his music, and Ron Wallace with his Computer Music Coalition seemed to be the group to join. He submitted a collection of new music he had recorded, using the Emax purchased for Moore/Myers, and putting it on cassette tape, used the name "Plaster Anvil" again. These recordings have not been put on CD, and are not yet available on his Bandcamp site. When the technology became available for burning CDs independently, Ken put a compilation together for the CMC, now called the Creative Musicians Coalition; a collection of abstract recordings taken from EMS #1, 2 and 4, which received an excellent review from Bill Binkelman in his Wind and Wire publication. This CD was imaginatively called, "Convictions From My Extraction", and appeared in Ron Wallace's AfterTouch #12 with Music Discoveries Network being the operative name. Copies are still available through Ron's Creative Center, which is the online store for the CMC. Bill's review is also included here:
http://www.creativecenters.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=M&Screen=PROD&Product_Code=MOORE101
Between the year 1999 and 2001, Frank Ashley, Jr. and Ken Moore started meeting on a weekly basis to record improvised sessions direct to disc. The entire set-up filled two rooms with only two synthesizers (a Minimoog and an Emax by Emu Systems) and a lot of percussion. There were cymbals, gongs, bells, hand drums, triangles, a glockenspiel, bar chimes, hanging wind chimes, singing bowls and bowls that were made to sing. Frank played the keyboards for these recordings, creating short sequences on the Emax and leads on the Moog, while Ken moved about from table to table, playing whatever instruments were speaking to him at the time. They called themselves Elastic Collision, and their first album was completely live; it was titled "Listening at the Speed of Sleep". After that sold well to friends, Anvil Creations produced one other album called "Visitors Welcome". On this one, Ken added some percussion tracks to all the sessions, and played the bass guitar on some of them.
A few years later found Anvil Creations relocating from Baltimore, Maryland to near Cleveland, Ohio. It wasn't until then that the Anvil Creations' director discovered that the two Moore/Myers albums had been released on compact disc. They were also being distributed in the States by Mantis Music, and Alan [in England] suggested to Ken that he put the music up on Bandcamp.com so that they could be made available as digital downloads. This prompted ACS to re-release most of the original cassettes as digital downloads, and also to publish a few that had not seen the light of day, such as "Approaching Velocity", which was recorded in Baltimore, and "XpairAmendT", which was done on an Apple G4 laptop computer. The latter signifies the move from analog recordings to digital, and although some source tapes used are still from analog origins, most of the sounds Ken works with are stored on a Roland digital stereo recorder.
By this time, some of the old analog keyboards were not being used any longer, and the Minimoog and ARP synths were sold, but not before a classic Sonic Six was acquired. The Sonic Six was an interesting instrument because in order to get sounds, you did not have to play or trigger the keyboard. This was freedom from the conventional 12 tone scale that Ken had been trained to play, and when his interest in percussion moved to tam tams, he merged the two interests together and recorded "Morning Creations" during a vacation in 2012. As the "Gong Room" grew with the number of tam tams acquired, Ken promptly recorded compositions on each of the new instruments, and there is a series of solo tam tam works [Heavy Metal] also available on Bandcamp.com.
By this time, some of the old analog keyboards were not being used any longer, and the Minimoog and ARP synths were sold, but not before a classic Sonic Six was acquired. The Sonic Six was an interesting instrument because in order to get sounds, you did not have to play or trigger the keyboard. This was freedom from the conventional 12 tone scale that Ken had been trained to play, and when his interest in percussion moved to tam tams, he merged the two interests together and recorded "Morning Creations" during a vacation in 2012. As the "Gong Room" grew with the number of tam tams acquired, Ken promptly recorded compositions on each of the new instruments, and there is a series of solo tam tam works [Heavy Metal] also available on Bandcamp.com.
With Ken's activity growing on social media, he was soon in touch with some of the former IEMA members from the 1980s, including one Dave Vosh, who had collaborated with Ken and Chris Meyer for a voice composition arranged by John Wiggins for Group Tape #3. Dave began sending Ken his video recordings from live performances, which included some with former-collaborator, Stuart Rosenzweig, and eventually it was decided that during Ken's visits to Maryland, he and Dave could perform as a duo, calling themselves Safe Creations. Their first concert was a benefit for An Die Musik, which hired national acts in the classical and jazz field to perform there. This being a success, the following year [2013] found them doing two shows, one in Baltimore and one in Washington D.C., which had a growing interest in electronic music. With an Advance CD having been distributed at their first concert, Ken decided that Safe Creations should have a studio album, so he went to work on the first official release on Bandcamp, "Unconscious Power".
Since the shows with Safe Creations were few and far between, Ken kept active locally with the guitarist/leader of the worship group at Grace Summit Community Church, Dick Cooper, performing non-original music from the '60s, '70s, '80s and some even earlier, as Doerr & Drumm. Usually once a month, and sometimes more often, Dick and Ken would play conventional music at small venues and do seasonal outdoor events and promotions for private parties, coffeehouses, or community gatherings whenever the occasion arises. They continued to do this for ten years.
Nearly ten years ago, Dick Cooper started playing his guitar at a local sub shop, and on his second night, was joined by Ken with a few hand drums to enhance the performance. On each outing, Ken would add more drums or cymbals, try different kinds of percussion, and wound up arranging a set of hand drums that did resemble a trap set. Since the weather in Ohio was not the best place to maintain animal skin drum heads, Ken eventually sold the hand drums and was using a more traditional drum kit, either metal or wood, depending on the situation. Since 2015, Ken has taken a rest from Doerr & Drumm and Dick Cooper is continuing to perform with his guitar as COOP. They re-united in December of 2016 to do a Christmas set at the Cuyahoga Falls Public Library for one night.
A few years ago, Ken had put together another collection of music, this time pulling pieces from throughout his 40 years of compositional experience, going all the way back to his first piano solo, and showing a gradual transition to synthesizers. "Dancing With..." (a track on the CD) highlights some of Ken's favorite achievements in multi-track recording, and is a deviation from his more recent works, which continue to appear on the Bandcamp site.
This new collection is not currently available online, but if you would like a copy, please contact Ken Moore using one of the email addresses in the Contact section of this site. Anvil Creations Studio will continue to emphasize the experimental aspect of recorded sound, but will also strive to make the more "conventional" music available online for those who remember his early days of recording, or just want to try something a little different.
This new collection is not currently available online, but if you would like a copy, please contact Ken Moore using one of the email addresses in the Contact section of this site. Anvil Creations Studio will continue to emphasize the experimental aspect of recorded sound, but will also strive to make the more "conventional" music available online for those who remember his early days of recording, or just want to try something a little different.
In the experimental sound series, Ken elected to keep all the original sounds from the tam tam collection pure for the "Heavy Metal" releases, not modifying or changing the actual vibrations and resonances, but leaving everything just the way it was played live in the studio. However, there is an album entitled "PastTime" that makes use of the analog tape manipulation tricks used on earlier recordings from the seventies.
These, along with some new releases by Safe Creations, will make use of a more explorative quality of the over-sized cymbals known commonly as gongs.
It is ACS's wish to promote and advance the appreciation of sound as "music", experimental music as art, and hopefully open the minds and ears of potential fans of alternative forms of Music as Ken continues to discover areas seldom explored by musicians and rarely encountered by the average listener.
These, along with some new releases by Safe Creations, will make use of a more explorative quality of the over-sized cymbals known commonly as gongs.
It is ACS's wish to promote and advance the appreciation of sound as "music", experimental music as art, and hopefully open the minds and ears of potential fans of alternative forms of Music as Ken continues to discover areas seldom explored by musicians and rarely encountered by the average listener.
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There is also a CD of some singing bowls and gongs that have not been officially released. Again, contact the artist if you are interested in a copy.
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Recently, Ken has made his solo debut in Cleveland, Ohio, where he and Anvil Creations Studio now reside. The event was spawned by Lisa Miralia's Ohio Noise Group, which does a Noise Lunch Series every month at a small venue in Lakewood called Now That's Class. The theme for the April Noise Lunch [2017] was Approaching Silence, an idea suggested by Adam Holquist [of embral] which prompted Ken to jump onboard at the last week.
Also in recent years, Ken has tried to represent the remainder of the original Anvil Creations cassette catalog, on the name-year-price site using Bandcamp. Visit anvilcreations.bandcamp.com to see a continuing collection of downloads from other people too. Here are some of the older tapes now digitized.
