Sean Luciw

Based in Kamloops, B.C., Canada, Sean Luciw spreads his creativity all over the map via various instruments including bass, keys, drums and computerized sculpting, but the guitar is still his number one favourite instrument of expression. All styles make their way into the mix, including jazz, classical, metal, rock, electronic and ambient and more. A humanistic mixture of discipline and abandon prevails. Other areas of interest include audio production at his home studio, radio dj'ing at The X 92.5FM, visual art, poetry, and writing the book "Chaos In Boxes: twisted adventures in music theory." Although he loves to play live - especially at warm friendly little places like The Grind Coffee House - Sean spends most of his musical time in the studio. His most current project is Guppy Tyke, a collaborative mixture of many colourful talents; a gargantuous array of sounds appear in Guppy Tyke - the standard rock stuff like guitars, basses, keyboards, and drums, as well as sitars, didgeridoos, violins, flutes, sax, trumpet, harmonica, imbira, marimba, hand percussion, homemade loops, vocals, budbusters, dog barks, hiccups, laughter, bicycle spokes, specialized tonalities such as the ancient Solfeggio healing tones, brass meditation bowls, metal pots half-filled with water, and roman candles exploding.

Sean's various project memberships from the past include the aforementioned Guppy Tyke (spacy fusion), Life On Io (classic pop), Sadistic Humor (thrash metal), Structure (industrial), Squeeky Leek (jazz-rock fusion), Naked Wavelength (dark ambient), Motherland (heavy rock), Cozy Gelpod (pop metal), Tragedy Hashbrown (extreme uncontrivance), Bum Gravy (stinky improv), Cougar Bait (primal noise) and the ongoing alter-ego electronic project Lex Plexus.

A list of Sean's musical influences could never be complete, but includes Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Chris Poland & Ohm, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return To Forever, Allan Holdsworth, Shawn Lane, Jonas Hellborg, Frank Gambale, Jean-Paul Bourelly, Marc Ducret, Miles Davis, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Pink Floyd, The Orb, Orbital, The Beatles, Abba, Strunz and Farah, Andres Segovia, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Metallica, Suicidal Tendencies, Behold... The Arctopus, D.R.I., Imogen Heap, Jeff Beck, Bjork, and more...

radio show:
"Vertex Vortex" on The X 92.5 FM Saturdays 6-8pm http://thex.ca

production:
http://myspace.com/lifeonio
http://newmusiccanada.com/genres/artist.cfm?Band_Id=18732
http://music.download.com/davemclean
http://music.download.com/getawaymachine

original music:
http://music.download.com/seanluciw
http://myspace.com/lexplexus
http://music.download.com/lexplexus
http://newmusiccanada.com/genres/artist.cfm?Band_Id=10742
http://music.download.com/guppytyke
http://music.download.com/squeekyleek

author:
upcoming book "Chaos In Boxes: twisted adventures in music theory"

Sean Luciw's Tunes

Red Eye Carousel
This is my first official jazz chart. I followed conservative composition rules when I wrote this tune, and emulated the classic fakebook/realbook visual style in the transcription. However, the recorded performance somehow attained a twisted, carnival-esque vibe reminiscent of "Something Wicked This Way Comes" by Ray Bradbury.

High-bitrate mp3 is available at download.com/seanluciw.

Honeycombs and Snowflakes
Two main objectives guided the development of this piece of music: 1) the useage of polyrhythmic melodies such as 5:4, 7:4, 3:2 and 9:8 over a 4/4 swing backbeat; and 2) a system of harmonic progression which I call the "Tonal Mirror" or "Modal Mirror" which can basically be described as 'following a mode with its upside-down spelling' (eg. C Ionian immediately followed by C Phrygian, diatonicaly re-rooted to become B-flat Dorian). The "Tonal Mirror" is an inherent symmetry of the 7 modes of Ionian which becomes beautifully self-evident when the modes are plotted around the outside of a circle and lines drawn between the inversions, and is a topic of my upcoming book "Chaos In Boxes: twisted adventures in music theory". I had originally intended to include some improvised lines but instead opted for a very simple delivery of the melody.

High-bitrate mp3 is available at download.com/seanluciw.
Video is available at YouTube.

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