Vapor Vesper CD Release Concert & Livestream at Green Kill
Green Kill Sessions is pleased the welcome back the critically-acclaimed Vapor Vespers for a concert and livestream promoting the release of their second long-player, Ghosts Before Breakfast. The duo’s latest includes a track recorded during their 2021 performance here. All attendees will receive either a CD or digital copy of the new album. Singer-songwriter Martin Foley will open the show.
Vapor Vespers is the brainchild of Hudson Valley-based multi-instrumentalist/producer Sal Cataldi (aka Spaghetti Eastern Music) and award-winning Alaska playwright, actor, slam poet and sometime standup comic Mark Muro. The pair’s musical and personal relationship dates back to their teen years in Queens, N.Y., where they bonded over their love of boundary-pushing musicians like Sun Ra and Frank Zappa and the recordings of writers and music-powered spoken word icons like Lord Buckley, William Burroughs, Charles Bukowski, The Last Poets and John Cooper Clarke.
Underground radio institution WFMU called the Vapor Vespers “a supremely cool fusion of spoken word and progressive sound,” while NYSMusic.com praised their “blend of spacey synths, spicy guitar, ethereal drones and deep lyrics, a mesmerizing blend of hazy electro-funk and searing, lyrical poetry that redefine what music can be.” NYC’s Good Times Magazine called the debut disc “a wild, indescribable sonic stew that mixes outrageous lyrics and storytelling with expert musicianship that recalls everyone from Steely Dan to Was (Not Was) to Frank Zappa.” Fresh Underground Podcast labeled it “stunning slam poetry and electro music originality in the tradition of Joe Frank.” Anchorage Daily News said “Cataldi’s music gives Muro’s narratives more urgency, veering between funk-jazz acid trip and graphic novel accompaniment, a collaboration that is something to behold.” Musicians for Musicians called it “colorful and inventive, a perfection of onomatopoeic expression.” Psychedelic Baby Magazine noted its “tripstastic slams of storytelling and genre-skipping sounds” while Radio Spiral called it “as imaginative as it is atmospheric.” Called “a sonic funhouse” by Tinnitist and “a cool combo of cool spoken workd and Dadist No Wave sound” by Last Day Leaf Blog. KMS Reviews might have said it best: “Push that play button and get ready to float in a sea of sound. It’s an album with a mystical glow that will keep listeners enchanted.” “A sonic funhouse, a deserving addition to your Bandcamp playlist” Tinnitist.com
The Vapor Vespers have been featured on more than 50 influential radio outlets globally including New York’s WFMU, Radio Free Brooklyn, WVKR/Vassar U, Radio Woodstock, WGXC-FM, SOMA FM, SiriusXM, Radio Spiral, The Fresh Underground Podcast Radio Spiral, Modul 303 and Radio Dark Tunnel (Germany), West Star Radio (UK), Krypton Radio (USA) and Brainvoyager (Netherlands).
A longtime denizen of the New York City and now Hudson Valley/Woodstock music scenes, guitarist/keyboardist Cataldi is most recently known for his solo project, Spaghetti Eastern Music. Here Cataldi fuses Eastern beats, Spaghetti Western film soundtrack ambience, Krautrock spaciness and psychedelic and funk/fusion flavored electric guitar instrumentals with gentle acoustic vocal songcraft, straight out of the John Martyn/Nick Drake songbook. Time Out New York writes: “Cataldi’s largely instrumental, Eastern-influenced jams are infused with some delicate guitar work and hauntingly moody atmosphere,” while The New York Times proclaims he has “a beat unmistakably his own.” Called “truly excellent” by The Village Voice, “a jazz virtuoso without the need to prove it” by Aquarian Weekly, “beautiful and unique” by WFUV’s Mixed Bag, “wonderfully melodic and off-center” by WFMU and “part Sergio Leone fever dream, part Ravi Shankar raga, a whirling dervish of musical creation” by Hudson Valley One, Cataldi keeps up a steady schedule of performances at leading venues in the Big Apple and the Hudson Valley.
Bronx-born Mark Muro has been a cultural force in Anchorage, Alaska since relocating in the mid-1980s. His short stories and poetry have been published in anthologies including North of Eden and The Anchorage Daily News and he has produced and performed in a series of one-man shows including The Bipolar Express, Indistinct Chatter and Not Marketable at theaters including Cyrano’s and Out North, and also at the annual Alaska One-Minute Play Festival. Muro has acted in numerous independent films and commercials, performed standup comedy, represented the state of Alaska in The National Poetry Slam. He also served as host of the PBS radio show, Stage Talk. His newest one-man show, Bug Boy: Curse of the Ant Queen, premiered in November 2019 at Anchorage’s Cyrano’s Theater.
Ghosts Before Breakfast was produced, engineered and mastered by Sal Cataldi about the studio aboard his houseboat in Port Washington, Long Island, Houseboat Garlic Knot Studios, and his Sonic Garden in West Saugerties, New York (1/4 mile from the legendary Big Pink house made famous by The Band).
The duo will be following up this event with three performances in NYC: May 3 at Shillelagh Tavern, May 23 at Silvana and May 25 at Pangea. For more, visit www.vaporvespers.bandcamp.com , Spotify and www.soundcloud.com/vapor-vespers.
