Chris Pitsiokos

Doing Something, Doing Nothing deals with forms that move slowly or not at all, or that change only by adding and taking away elements, a deliberate step away from tension and release and from motivic development. It is also the first album in about six years in which Chris Pitsiokos uses an instrumentation associated with jazz.

The idea goes back more than three years, to plans for a very slow, almost ambient music drawn from late 1960s and early 1970s Miles Davis and from Morton Feldman: the starting image was something like In a Silent Way meeting Rothko Chapel. Fence Conspiracy rearranges a piece he wrote for Katharina Huber's film Ein Schöner Ort, and Huber designed the album. Michael Henderson, with guests Dan Peter Sundland on electric bass and Rick Eye on guitar, is the track that departs most from the plan.

The core ensemble is Pitsiokos on alto saxophone and harmonica, Tizia Zimmermann on accordion, Quentin Tolimieri on synthesizer and melodica, Antti Virtaranta on bass and Luca Marini on drums and percussion. Recorded by Adam Asnan in March 2025, with overdubs through the year, and mastered by Carlos Quebrada.

Limited edition CD on Eleatic Records.