Scott Burland and Frank Schultz are Atlanta experimental-music lifers whose comradeship dates back to the early 1990s, and they began Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel in 2006. In the decade-and-a-half since, the pair has issued immersive, cinematic, often unsettling soundscapes at a prolific rate that combine the esoteric instruments in ways greater than the sum of their parts. No less than 44 live and studio recordings of Duet — on its own, and with other improvisers from around the region including Chattanooga’s Shaking Ray Levis and fellow Atlantan Klimchak — can be heard on its Bandcamp profile, many of them available for download on a pay-what-you-can basis.
But Schultz and Burland’s work is best experienced live, which you can do Saturday when Duet plays Darkhorse Theater as part of a five-day tour. The show is FMRL booker and left-of-center music mensch Chris Davis’s third event of the post-quarantine era of this infernal pandemic. Local ambient great Kim Rueger, alias Belly Full of Stars — whose recent EP Aura ranks among the year’s best of its ilk — is also on the bill. In advance of the performance, the Scene got on a conference call with Burland and Schultz and got the lowdown on the project’s origin story, its celestially-inspired new full-length ‘Oumuamua (embedded below), and making weird music in the South for 30-plus years.
How did Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel come to be?
Scott Burland, theremin: Frank and I both played in bands in the ’90s that rehearsed in different parts of this monstrous industrial space. We’d run into each other there and at shows, and he’d invite me to parties at his house, but we were mostly acquaintances until we were in a band together called Disk that had a revolving-door cast before it eventually dissolved. Then, in 2005, at [Atlanta performance space] Eyedrum, which still exists, there was a large group improv with 15 people, maybe more, crammed onto a tiny stage. I had my theremin, he had his lap steel, and we couldn’t hear each other at all — it was a mess — but a few months later Frank called me and asked if I’d want to try doing a theremin-lap steel duo. We started rehearsing in early 2006 and just went from there. It developed on its own, without too much discussion.
Frank Schultz, lap steel: We kind of learned our instruments together, which helped form what we do today. I wouldn’t call it quiet, but it isn’t a fast-moving type of improv like, say, free jazz.
I don’t know if it was always there or if it’s particularly robust now, but the network of improv and experimental musicians across the South seems very tight-knit.
SB: It’s incredible, really. From Chattanooga to Knoxville, Memphis, Louisville and Atlanta, everyone’s very accommodating and supportive.
I imagine y’all are Big Ears Festival regulars.
FS: Oh yeah, we go every year. Just got our tickets for 2022.
SB: We played in 2018, a live improv at [Richard Jolley’s] glass-blowing studio Pretentious Glass, with a limited attendance of 75. It was in the dark — the only illumination was the orange glow from the ovens — and this is March, so it was still pretty chilly outside … just a great experience.
As musicians who write pieces more so than conventional songs, what’s your process of going into making a new record?
FS: Half the time we’ll be like “Let’s get together and record all weekend, and see what we come up with.” [The 2016 LP] 10 was one where we sat down and did that. The other half, we’ll take six, eight, 12 months’ worth of recordings, and when it feels like time to put something out we comb through it and piece something together. No title, no theme, no concept [until] after we listen to the music and look at whatever’s influencing us, piquing our interest. Halocline was about water phenomena; ‘Oumuamua is all comets and asteroids.
Duet’s Bandcamp page contains a staggering amount of material. Do physical releases exist of most of what’s up there, or is a lot of it online-exclusive?
SB: I’d say the majority are Bandcamp-exclusive. We record a lot of our shows.
FS: The live performances, we put out for free. We’ve got five physical releases: Live, Collaborations, 10, Halocline and ‘Oumuamua. With those, we might initially charge for downloads, but they eventually become free as well.
What’s the meaning of ‘Oumuamua?
FS: It’s a Hawaiian word, meaning “a messenger from afar, arriving first.” In 2017, an interstellar object was viewed over Hawaii. It was the first to enter our atmosphere — our solar system — I think.
Has Duet ever played a planetarium?
SB: No, but kind of a no-brainer, right? [laughs] Atlanta has one at the Fernbank Science Center, another at Agnes Scott College, and others in the metro I’m sure.
Is there a visual component to the shows on this tour?
SB: Yes, by a local Atlanta filmmaker named Robbie Land, who shoots primarily on 16mm film.
FS: When we go on tour he’ll make us a DVD of his work, for us to project when we play out.
SB: But the visual is projected in back of us — we never actually see it — so it’s nice when, after the show, someone tells us how it lined up perfectly.
Scott, what was your first exposure to the theremin?
SB: I’m a pharmacist, and back in the ’90s I was talking music with a customer. He asked if I’d ever played a theremin, and I hadn’t. I had a friend in Pittsburgh who had one and let me mess around with it in his garage when I’d visit, so I became aware of it, but still wasn’t that interested [until] in 2004, when I was in Asheville for a concert.
On my way back, I stopped at the Moog synthesizer factory outside of town. The office manager gave me a tour, and at the end I asked if they had any theremins for sale. Turned out they did, so I bought one. I thought it was fun, but also that I’d never truly learn how to play it, so it stayed mostly in the corner until I got together with Frank. That was the turning point, when I realized how much fun it was to play, and how nuanced it could be with effects. It’s been all theremin since then, for the last 15 years. [laughs]
Frank, what do you get up to when not doing music?
FS: I sweep up cigarette butts. [laughs] No, I work for an events facility, as a landscaper. I did a corporate job for 17 years and I’d just had enough. We’re old. [laughs]
Before we part ways, is there anything we didn’t touch on about Duet or ‘Oumuamua that you feel is important to know?
FS: The only thing I would add is that you guys are so fortunate to have Chris Davis doing what he’s doing there. Everybody needs to go out and show him a little love, not necessarily for our show, but just make sure you keep him supported. You’ll be sorry if that doesn’t happen anymore.
