Vegas Blue came together near the end of one of our first sessions for our new CD Rainwater Wine. We were fishing around for ideas when Terry played back a rough drum and bass loop he'd been working on. Sean immediately played a beautiful piano element. We recorded his second take and Terry performed the rest of the instruments the next day. Sinatra used to describe the first morning light over Las Vegas, after the drinks had run out, the broads had disappeared, and the last of his pallies had headed for their hotels as 'Vegas Blue'. We hope we've captured that early morning melancholia.

Shadows Against Heaven
Composer: Terry Skaggs
Performer: Terry Skaggs - Sampled acoustic guitar (pitch-shifted and re-performed on MIDI controller), keyboards, drums, cymbals, gong.

Solo piece of Terry's recorded a few years ago for a local choreographer who was putting together a modern dance show. Three composers were given the word "birds" as a source of inspiration and told to work separately. The show never happened due to money problems involving the elaborate costumes required. One other composer finished his piece in contrasting analog electronic style. Terry says, "I see huge, dark birds riding thermals, circling over hot lands whenever I hear this piece."

Bio info by Terry:
Sean and I began working as Trecento in the summer of 1998. We met while working at ComedySportz in Rock Island, IL. ComedySportz is a national league of improvisational theater performers, a bit like "Who's Line Is It Anyway" but with attitude! Sean provided music for the improv games, while I did sound effects, additional music, and color commentary.

That summer, a number of long, improvisational jams were recorded for no other reason than to see what we were capable of. The results were good enough that we began considering the possibility of a musical collaboration. Forty minutes of those initial recordings would be edited and overdubbed into two pieces on At Variance, our first CD. Sean developed Mansion, another twenty-minute song, while I worked out the nine-minute ambient reflection, Sea of the Moon, which was centered around a poem I'd written lamenting the erosion of Polynesian culture.

Demos for our new project Rainwater Wine date back to February 1999. It promises to be a more well-rounded collection of songs, with a greater focus on drums and layered structures. It also features a twenty-three minute world-ambient audio environment (First Light) commissioned by regional artist B. Thomas Lytle for his installation Of The Earth.

Sean is one of those annoyingly talented guys who can listen to a song and play it right away. He possesses a great technical ability, and has no formal training. His musical life began as a kid wanting to play drums, but his folks gave him a keyboard instead. I have been experimenting with sound and textures for twenty years, but only recently have become comfortable playing the results for a wider audience. If Trecento were Yes, Sean would be Steve Howe to my Jon Anderson. I have all these great ideas, but nowhere near the technical ability of Sean. Many of my song ideas are presented to him this way: "Hey, Sean, play something like this but better!"

Sean's pride and joy is his Roland XV-88. All of my instrumentation comes from my simple slave keyboard plugged into my PC. Most of my patches are things I've found on the web or sampled and processed elements I've scrounged up from my music collection. I've been known to sample Sean and morph him into something of my choosing! My software includes, ACID 2.0, Vegas Pro 1.0, Sound Forge 5.0, Cakewalk 8, T-RackS 24, Native Instruments, and whatever cool effects I can dig up. Sean plays a Roland musical instuments exclusively.

I'm still trying to turn Sean into a Yes fan, but he counts Peter Gabriel, Jordan Rudess and Dream Theater, Keith Jarrett, Tori Amos and Rush as his greatest influences. I love Yes (of course) but also see Robert Fripp, David Sylvian, Tangerine Dream, the Orb, Jansen/Barbieri/Karn, Peter Gabriel, DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid, Brian Eno, Future Sound of London, and Underworld as huge influences on what I do and aspire to. Sean and I are extremely proud of having our music represented on Cyberian Khatru and hope you'll enjoy it. Our new collection Rainwater Wine featuring Vegas Blue and Shadows Against Heaven and six other pieces (including the 23-minute First Light) is available.

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[studio outtakes and alternate mixes]