Russ Lossing - Alternate Side Parking Music (2023)

‘Honk’: This piece was inspired by the cacophony of honking with so many layers of rhythms. I captured the spirit of it by composing bass lines that occur without relation to the melody, a compositional concept that I call “Transparent Composition”.
‘Cloned’: This composition refers to the parking enforcement officers, who put in mind clones; expressionless robots dressed all in brown. I re-animated one little melodic “clone” from a Schoenberg piano piece in the creation of this piece.
‘Next 3 km’: Another example of “Transparent Composition”. Bass lines are moving in various tempi while the melody lines move independently. All tempos are flexible and the players have freedom to make individual choices.
‘Move it Over’ is inspired by the moment when all of the double-parked cars move over to the other side of the street as the street cleaning machine passes; a funny little rhythmic dance.
‘Parallel Park’ reflects the intricacies of squeezing into a spot with two inches in front and two inches in back of your car. An art that all “seasoned street parkers” possess. This piece is just nine measures long, but it’s a tricky rhythm.
‘Double Park’ was inspired by the boredom involved in sitting in your car for an hour and a half. One must adopt a zen-like attitude and get into a groove to endure it.
‘Rainy Ramadan’: One day I went down to the street to move my car and no one had moved over. I found out that it was Ramadan and alternate-side parking was suspended. This is always a happy discovery so I went up to my apartment and composed this little piece. It was raining.
‘Meter Maid’ is an intricate multi-metered rhythmic dance played in unison. Later, the bass takes up a 70s era-inspired funk groove. But everything is optional. Each player is free to choose what and when to play and all tempos are flexible.
‘Cloned Again’ is ‘Cloned’, again. This is another take of Cloned. I composed the music for this album without any set arrangements to give the players full autonomy. I like to let the band members decide what to do and when to do it so their creative imaginations are unfettered. Therefore, this version of ’Cloned’ is quite different from the previous take.
‘Turn’ is the very first song that I wrote in my car on the street in front of my Manhattan apartment. It’s a rhythmic puzzle consisting of an expanding form: a 13- beat cycle which adds two beats with each repeat: 13, 15, 17 and 19 beats.

- Russ Lossing