This record took 40 years to complete.

It has its roots in 1982 when multidisciplinary artist Benjamin Kaplan and saxophonist and musicologist Rick Deja met at the age of 11. Both were studying at the Interlochen Arts Camp and struck up a friendship.

And you know how it is, everyone grows older and goes their separate directions: college, jobs…life. Until Rick lands in St. Louis for a post-doctoral year teaching at Washington University. The two old friends got to making some experimental music under the moniker Hasty Drinks the Tiger’s Heart. Their first release, La suprématie de l'amour was an interpretation of John Coltrane’s Love Supreme.

Their second, and most recent, recording saw the ensemble grow to include drummer Danny Hommes, guitarist John Horton, and bassist Darius Savage.

Rick left the group to take a teaching job in Cape Town, but before he moved “Hasty” went into the studio with Patrick Skinner to commit this quicksilver of this ensemble.

The group created an eight-track, largely improvised set of tracks entitled “Beatification,” which recalls the work of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Aphex Twin, DJ Spooky, Alice Coltrane, Modeski, Martin and Wood, and the Bad Plus.

All songs were spontaneously composed until they weren’t.

Rick Deja
Saxophone and Flute

Danny Hommes
Drums

John Horton
guitar

Darius Savage
Bass

Benjamin Kaplan
Keyboards, Bass, Sonics, Drum programming

Recorded by Patrick Skinner at Smith Lee Productions, St. Louis, MO.

Edited by Danny Hommes and Benjamin Kaplan
Produced and Mixed by Benjamin Kaplan
Mastered by Jack Petracek at Rolltop Studios
Art Direction by Benjamin Kaplan

During quarantine, my then 14-year-old, non-binary child/person Josephine decided they wanted to write songs. They had written poetry in the past but had never turned those musings into songs, until now. I agreed of course, because what father is going to pass on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make something essential with their kid.

So we started where most important things do—at the dining room table— with a verse and half a chorus, and turned that into the three-song EP linked below. It’s raw, energetic, and poppy with smart, visual lyrics, much like the bands Josephine loves: Bikini Kill, Mommy Long Legs, Green Day, Crawlers, Wet Leg.

We gathered some friends (and Josephine’s youngest sister Zazie) to adorn the music with lead guitar parts and backing vocals: John Horton from Son Volt, Marc Chechik of Melody Den, and Melissa Powers of Sisser. The result, ‘Weapons,’ is not only a heartfelt document of where Josephine was emotionally at the time, struggling through the isolation of quarantine but also a record of how we found a way to transcend that experience together and transform it into art.

In the early 1950s Judith Sklar, aged 10, performed Clementi's Sonatina No. 3, Op 36 on the University of Michigan's public radio show, 'Young Artists of the Week.' She was the youngest performer to appear on the show and at that point, had only been playing for three years. Sklar pursued music well into her collegiate career but gave up the dream of being a professional pianist to pursue teaching. 

Many years later she would give birth to a boy named Benjamin who would function as her page-turner, sheet music disorganizer, and plinker of plaintive melodies while procrastinating math homework. The air of Bach floating through the family home settled upon him and inspired this suite, 'The Falcon in Prussian Blue.'

Credits
Benjamin Kaplan
Piano and MIDI Programming

© 2019, The Odessa Steps, ASCAP. All Rights Reserved).

La suprématie de l'amour is the debut collaboration between multi-instrumentalist Rick Deja and multi-disciplinary artist Benjamin Kaplan, AKA Hasty Drinks the Tiger's Heart.

This inaugural release is an homage to and remix of Love Supreme, John Coltrane's sacred rumination on love and gratitude.

Credits
Rick Deja - Sax, Flute, Melodica
Benjamin Kaplan - Electronics

Produced and recorded by Benjamin Kaplan
Mixed by Rick Deja and Benjamin Kaplan

released April 15, 2018

The Odessa Steps, ASCAP. All Rights Reserved).

license

© 2018. The Odessa Steps, ASCAP. All rights reserved

In December of 2015, I gathered 10 people in a South-St. Louis recording studio to attempt an impossible feat, to rethink, reframe, remix all of Beethoven’s nine symphonies by stacking the movements and refining that chaos into order. In this age of appropriation and mashups, this group of 10 recast the composer’s work for a new age, becoming a different kind of orchestra for a new age. Liberating the masterworks from the master. 

The result is a collection of symphonic sound collages that sound familiar, yet entirely new. Surprising harmonies and rhythms were discovered lying dormant in these 200-year-old works.

Credits
Conceived and Orchestrated by Benjamin Kaplan

Mixed by
Heather Bennett
Marc Chechik
Julie Heller
Danny Hommes
Nicole Hudson
Benjamin Kaplan
Jason McEntire
Julie Sheehan
Scott Smith
Grover Stewart

Recorded by Jason McEntire at Sawhorse Studios, St. Louis, MO
Edited and Mastered by Benjamin Kaplan

Liner notes written by Rebecca Kinzie Bastian

© 2015. The Odessa Steps, ASCAP. All rights reserved

Kissing the Sea on the Lips is the debut recording from multi-disciplinary artist and producer Benjamin Kaplan’s recording project, The Vaad.

Kissing the Sea is an album of cinematic richness defined by its marriage of stunning sonic architecture and literate, layered, and poetic storytelling.

Recorded and engineered over a period of seven years by Kaplan, Tim Breon, and Jack Petracek at a variety of studios, spare bedrooms, and one laptop in a garage in Central Pennsylvania, the album was mixed and mastered by Jack Petracek at Eagle Rare Studios in St. Louis.

THE VAAD is:

Benjamin Kaplan - lead and harmony vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards, piano, synthesizer, percussion, and drum programming

with help from:

Tim Breon - electric and acoustic basses
Billy Matlack, Jr. - drums
Jack Petracek - drums
Easy Mark Tomeo - pedal steel and dobro
John Horton - bass and guitars
Stacey Cox - harmony vocals
Mary Alice Wood - harmony vocals
Eric Ratinoff - harmony vocalsJay Sand - harmony vocals
Jeff Shaw - harmony vocals

All songs written by Benjamin Kaplan (© 2012, The Odessa Steps, ASCAP. All Rights Reserved), except Roller Coaster Temple, words by Tim Nudd and music by Benjamin Kaplan (© 2012, The Odessa Steps, ASCAP. All Rights Reserved) and Christopher Street, words by Benjamin Kaplan and Mary Alice Wood, music by Benjamin Kaplan (© 2012, The Odessa Steps, ASCAP. All Rights Reserved).

RIYL : Byrne/Eno, The Sixths, Matthew Ryan, Mark Lanegan, Mitchell Froom, Death Cab for Cutie

© 2012, The Odessa Steps, ASCAP. All Rights Reserved

Every year, more than 5,000 steel guitar devotees descend on St. Louis from destinations the world over for Scotty’s International Steel Guitar Convention. In the basement of the Millennium Hotel, along the banks of the Mississippi River, they revel in the minutae of finger pick options, gawk at space-age tone bars, debate the merits of alternate tunings, and rub elbows with the very legends who have defined the instrument.

This audio documentary, produced for St. Louis Public Radio, helps to explain why the sweet sound of a steel bar on guitar strings is the inspiration for an annual pilgrimage.

Completed in 2006

“38.627,-90.194” is a collection of multi-genre compositions by some of St. Louis’ best musicians, inspired by the individual sculptures found in one of downtown St. Louis’ most popular destinations, Citygarden. The collection includes musical styles ranging from ambient to sound collage to Americana to klezmer to electronica to straight ahead rock-n-roll. The collection includes contributions from the groups Magnolia Summer, RAC, The Vaad and Brothers Lazaroff as well as from individual artists Kevin Buckley, Rick Deja and Chris Grabau.

Commonwealth is an approach to making art that comes in response to our surroundings. St. Louis is a city of neighborhoods, both geographically and psychologically. We live in our neighborhoods. We know the people we know. We frequent the businesses we know. We go from one building to the next building to the car to the next building. And we see Commonwealth as a way to expand that neighborhood.

© 2014. All Rights Rederved.

In 2010, singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Chris Grabau presented me some stems of a song we had recorded and released with his Americana ensemble, Magnolia Summer. Planned Obsolescence is a wholly Grabau composition, a contemplative acoustic ballad

While many remix strategies rest on adding electronic drums and synths, The Vaad Remix doubles down on Grabau’s inventions by creating a textured. chamber country arrangement.

Harmony vocals provided by Tegan Bukowski.

Completed 2010

Scott Smith is a gifted image-maker and entrepreneur. A professional photographer with a broad range and deep scope.

To celebrate his gifts and promote his talents, the design firm act3 redesigned his website into an 8-bit video game where players had to naviagte the challenges and successes of being Scott. Players balanced budgets, worked with producers, took meetings, and ultimately photographed models and sent images to the clients.

To support the groundbreaking game, I composed an 8-bit-inspired score in five short movements. The music drives the action and places the players in a nostalgic emotional space while adding an additional layer of fun and amusement to the game.

© 2006, The Odessa Steps, ASCAP. All Rights Reserved