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Mrs. Helen Marf, Master and Apprentice

by Jason Beers

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1.
Tenrics Part II 01:49
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2.
Circumenteric Nerve Ring 02:02
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3.
Round Dance 01:56
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4.
Massaging the Corpus Striatum 02:35
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5.
A Warning 02:31
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6.
Rebirth 02:18
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7.
Redeath 02:02
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8.
Necator Americanus 01:52
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9.
Muscular Hydrostat Exercise Program 02:02
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10.
An Axolotl's Dream 01:50
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about

When Mrs. Helen Marf was around 3 years old (then known as Helen Cleerson), she started taking tympani and percussion lessons from Okiboji, Iowa's premier tympanist at the time, Marie Henderson. By age 9, Helen had surpassed her teacher in technical virtuosity but she continued taking lessons from her master, even while being one of Quilt Records most successful artists. During this time, Mrs. Helen Marf morphed into the role as teacher, as she took a friend under her wing as a student. Lucille D'Miirankos, a childhood friend of Marf's who moved to Fresno, CA about the same time as Mrs. Helen Marf settled there, started taking interest in the timpani. Lucille underwent a bizarre and rigorous training path, the same one that Mrs. Helen Marf undertook with Marie Henderson. Intense 24-hour listening exercises, strenuous rudiment workouts, underwater playing, deck repair, etching select passages from The Iliad onto the heads of railroad spikes, endurance tests involving flames, blindfolded playing, and gardening. Also, a handmade piccoli timpani was constructed along the way, just like Marie Henderson had Mrs. Helen Marf complete. Lucille D’Miirankos joined the lineage who sets up their timpani in a strange amalgamation of the American and German styles of orientation.



It was only a matter of time before all three ladies would end up on an album, and here we are. Master and Apprentice. Teacher and Student. Mrs. Helen Marf is both of those things. Bringing both her teacher and her student into the studio, all three tympanists pounded out their combined knowledge and experience with an almost terrifying verve. Menacing compositions from all three women, as well as a couple of pieces from the most renowned tympani composer of the early 20th century - X Xanorthro X, are littered throughout the album.

We at Quilt Records dare you to turn out the lights, crank up the Hi-Fi, and sink into the world of these masters and apprentices as they create a sonic landscape of rhythmic despair, sensuous delight, and giddy excitement - often in the same tune!

credits

released March 25, 2021

Recorded, written, and played by Jason Beers. Mixed by Hank Tilbury. Artwork by Linda Henderson.

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Jason Beers Kansas City, Missouri

Jason Beers is a Kansas City, Kansas native. He's been playing for well over 35 years. Primarily a bass player, in acts such as The Brannock Device, Dead Voices, Scott Hrabko, The Ants, occasionally Freight Train Rabbit Killer, and many more, Jason Beers also plays solo clawhammer banjo gigs. ... more

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