Unless you are part of a major touring act, life as a musician can be difficult (it can be even when you are part of a major touring act too). It’s actually rather common for musicians to play for several groups to make ends meet in addition to working day jobs.

Take for example musical virtuoso Mike Effenberger . As a childhood piano prodigy, Effenberger was exposed to a wide variety of music that is clearly reflected in his work across various genres today.

Interestingly, this crosses not only genres, but also various instrumentations with Effenberger demonstrating skills on instruments as broad as piano, keyboards, farfisa organ and moog synthesizers to brass such as tuba and trombone as well as the bass.

The music these days ranges from more traditional acoustic jazz which can be heard in the Masahiro Yamamoto Quartet pieces he composed and arranged (he won the 2004 Young Beacons in Jazz Award), or the many member northeast group Amorphous Band to electroacoustical styling with experimental group Elliptical Ferns and ambient as heard on the self-released album “inverse regioneering” (released under the name f).

On “quilt” which he wrote for the Masahiro Yamamoto Quartet, you hear what could be considered a more traditional jazz piece. A saxophone feature that is often adventurous with bass and drum parts that standout; diverging from each other without losing focus on the main “feel” of the song and coming back together beautifully. It builds itself up gradually and surprisingly before slowing things back down at the end.

With Elliptical Ferns, you can see that Effenberger’s skill is at times even bolder on synthesizers. “Bud”, a classic dub track, is a standout. The drums and bass provide your steady backbeat with Effenberger’s synthesizers giving the song its identity.

On his ambient solo release, you find an artist at his best. This is high praise since (at least in my opinion) a lot of contemporary ambient music can at best be categorized as boring or uninventive. Experimenting with everything and finding inspiration with sounds you wouldn’t expect is par for the course. Peeling back the layers and listening for particular sounds is just part of the fun. On “blue and electric” for example, you clearly hear the ripping of paper towards the end, just underneath the rich piano, farfisa organ and what is either a guiro or, perhaps, chalk on a blackboard. Interestingly you can hear parts of the other bands Effenberger belongs to in the album’s music. The rich jazz piano, occasional traces of dub and interesting instrumental arrangements such as the percussion on “indoor neon sky” (Do I detect a smidgeon of NIN?) show diversity on the album.

All and all an artist worth checking out. And seeing as how he is only in his early twenties, people will have a lot to look forward to in the future.

Download the album "inverse regioneering" for free here.

Masahiro Yamamoto Qaurtet - Quilt  (Effenberger)

Elliptical Ferns - Bud (Effenberger)

f - Blue and Electric (Effenberger)

f - indoor neon sky (Effenberger)