Here is the latest update with the band and with Vonorn.....
October Newsletter
Breaking Announcement:
Paul Sears of the Muffins to play with The Red Masque on November 4
Plus The Red Masque’s Vonorn has major breakthrough in his recovery!
For those of you following the news about The Red Masque’s drummer/keys/multi-instrumentalist Brian “Vonorn” Van Korn’s illness, we have some very good news to report. He has started walking again last week, aided by a walker, and continues to improve in his strength and abilities. We expect to see him back to his old self in the weeks to come. Click
http://www.theredmasque.com/images/092406.gif to see a picture of Vonorn standing up with TRM’s Brandon Ross (bassist) and Kiarash Emami (former TRM guitarist). Brian Schenkenberger (aka "VAXman") from the Aural Moon (
www.auralmoon.com) website took a few pictures and a couple of videos of Vonorn playing the piano in the children's section of the hospital and posted them online here:
http://www.gigsofpixofgigs.com/Vonorn/. Vonorn was diagnosed with Transverse Myelitis (see
http://www.myelitis.org/tm.htm) this past June and has been hospitalized since at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ. For those of you who missed the newsletter announcing this, please visit
www.theredmasque.com/news.html to see the full report.
The Red Masque has an upcoming gig on November 4 as part of the New Jersey Proghouse series. Vonorn is working on a hospital release by this date (he should have been release weeks ago, but has been mired down in hospital red tape), but in the meantime, we are bringing in drummer Paul Sears (of The Muffins and Thee Maximalists fame) to play with the band for this performance.
Paul, who is also a producer as well as a drummer, has played with a really wide variety of folks ranging from Fred Frith, John Greaves, Peter Blegvad, The Muffins, Daevid Allen, Pepe Gonzalez with Magick Theatre, Thee Maximalists (with Keith Macksoud (of Present), Mark Stanley (of Farquar), Yanni Papadopoulus (of Stinking Lizaveta), Werbinox, Jim Rezek , Cyndee Lee Rule, Henry Kaiser, Bill Laswell - way before he was a producer) several ex MAGMA members, PRESENT, Clearlight, Marshall Allen from the Sun RA Arkestra, to festival jams with guitarists Mike Keneally and Glenn Phillips in 2005, and, in ancient history Bob E Rock & Steve Stills long ago in nightclubs in Washington DC and a zillion others.
Most recently, Paul with The Muffins played a spellbinding performance at the sold-out 2005 Northeast Art Rock Festival (NEARFest) in Bethlehem, PA, as well as appearing at various Prog Day festivals in North Carolina (read about the Muffins at
http://www.paulsears.net/muffins/), and is currently gigging with Thee Maximalists. The Muffins are also working on a new CD. Read more about Paul here:
http://www.paulsears.net. If Vonorn is released he’ll be joining us for the show as well.
For information on the November 4, including advance ticket information, please go to
www.njproghouse.com or
http://www.njproghouse.com/upcoming.html. The show will take place at the Old Franklin Schoolhouse in Metuchen, NJ. See
http://www.njproghouse.com/venue/oldfranklin.html. The Red Masque plans on performing songs off their forthcoming album, as well as some improvisations, and older material. Tickets are $20 for online orders (via Paypal) and $25 at the door, and the venue has a limited seating capacity so advance ticket sales are recommended.
Opening for The Red Masque will be the New York band Skeleton Breath. According to the band’s bio: “Not just your average Middle Eastern-disco-prog-metal-meets-noise-surf-Klezmer-bass-drum-violin-trio, skeletonbreath also has a modest repertoire of Patsy Cline covers.” See their website at
http://www.skeletonbreath.com for more info.
The Red Masque will finish up their latest CD “Fossil Eyes” as soon as Vonorn is released from the hospital. In the meantime, you can hear a three minute clip of the song “Carbon 14” on the band’s Myspace page at
www.myspace.com/myredmasque.
We hope to see you soon,
Lynnette Shelley, Brandon Lord Ross, Vonorn, Andrew Kowal
The Red Masque
www.theredmasque.com
www.myspace.com/myredmasque
theredmasque@theredmasque.com