LAURENCE MILLER
Standard Guitar, Uniquely High-Strung Guitar, Electric Wholetone 4-stringed Mandolin, Bb Clarinet,
Vocals, Watercolor Video Projection, and Prerecorded Soundscapes
BENJAMIN MILLER
Baritone Guitar, 12-string Guitar (tuned individually), C Tenor Saxophone, Electronics, and Prerecorded Soundscapes
_______________________________________________________________________________________
twin brothers explore an interactive art-psych improvisation bordering pure chaos as it builds and fades in & out of itself
with little regard for common tonality and rhythm. Found sound, word salad poetry, and video projection
rounds out their cerebral dada approach to music making."
(1/4" reel to reel tape machine as soundtracks) to accompany free-form improvisation. Though there were ‘songs’ written,
most of the material back then was instrumental and conceptual, absent of tonal center or conventional rhythmic meter.
the mix and the rest is history. Empool kicked about from time to time in the early part of 1978 with one last blast
studio reunion project in 1994, released in 2018 as a CD Single.
Laurence and Benjamin have resurrected the essential elements, digitized the old soundtracks as well as creating new ones, and
do their best to maintain the original sound of the group, as well as write fresh new material.
EMPOOL "Live" at Detroit's MOTOR CITY MUSCLE MUSIC FESTIVAL August 17th 2018
Photography by Brett Kenneth Moyer
(2018 / 2021)
2020 CONCERT SCHEDULE
Sadly, their string of gigs for the year were cancelled due to restrictive 'pandemic' mandates.
Rehearsals then came to a full stop and that was the end of EMPOOL. Hopes are still high
that their 2019 LP Collection 'CONTEXT VS. ASSOCIATION' will indeed be picked up
someday by an independent record label and released into the world at large.
2019 CONCERT SCHEDULE
APRIL - AUGUST
Recording their new LP in the studio
OCTOBER
Friday October 18th @ Dreamland Theater
26 N. Washington, Ypsilanti MI 48197
Double-billed w/Frank Pahl & Terri Sarris
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
$10.00 Admission
NOVEMBER
Thursday November 14th @ Outer Limits Lounge
5507 Caniff St, Hamtramck, MI 48212
Double-billed w/Chatoyant
8:00 pm - 11:00 pm
$7.00 Admission
2018 CONCERT SCHEDULE
JUNE
Friday June 1st @ Radio Interview w/Sean Westergaard
WCBN FM 88.3 Ann Arbor
Friday June 8th @ Dreamland Theater
26 N. Washington, Ypsilanti MI 48197
Debut Concert celebrating the release of their 1st LP on Feeding Tube Records
"Empool Does; Do, Did, Done"
8:00 pm - 8:45 pm
$10.00 Admission
JULY
Monday July 16th Ann Arbor Cable Television Network
4-song music video production
AUGUST
Saturday August 11th @ Book Beat
26010 Greenfield Rd, Oak Park, MI 48237
9:00 pm - 9:45 pm
FREE
August 17th @ Motor City Muscle Music Festival
The Underground Stage @ Hart Plaza
7:00 pm - 7:45 pm
FREE
SEPTEMBER
Rehearsing new material...
OCTOBER
Thursday October 11th @ Mexicains Sans Frontieres w/Matt Weston
1230 Division Ave S, Apt 226 Grand Rapids, MI
All Ages / Doors @ 8:00pm
Saturday October 27th @ Entropy Studios w/Jimbo Easter & Devotional
25908 West Six Mile Redford, MI 48240
Doors @ 8:00pm / Music @ 9:00pm
$10.00 Admission
NOVEMBER
Friday November 9th 2018 @ Outer Limits Lounge w/Devotional
5507 Caniff St, Hamtramck, MI 48212
Friday November 30th @ Zal Gaz Grotto Club w/Porcelain Hammer
2070 W. Stadium Blvd, Ann Arbor, MI 48103
7:00pm - 10:00pm
$10.00 Admission
Ron Asheton: The Stooges, Destroy All Monsters & Beyond
John Wombat Blog "From EMPOOL to D.A.M. to EMPOOL" Ben & Laurence Miller
Part One: 17th March 2019
Part Two: 19th March 2019
Part Three: 20th March 2019
MERCHANDISE
EMPOOL DOES "Do, Did, Done"
(5-song 12" LP $15.00 plus P&H)
Recorded 1977 / Released July 2018
SOLD OUT on Feeding Tube Records
Feeding Tube Records Press Release July 27th 2018 EMPOOL DOES do did done
Finally, what the world has been eagerly anticipating for the last four decades - an LP by EMPOOL! Empool was a whacked-out, Detroit-based prog-noise combo that would eventually merge into the rock-band era DESTROY ALL MONSTERS. Guitarist Laurence Miller was a constant throughout.
Organist Andre Cynkin was generally on hand as well. Laurence's
brothers, Ben and Roger, showed up now and then,
as did pianist Rick Scott.
EMPOOL only played three live shows but they recorded everything,
and their use of pre-recorded tapes as a live sound sourcemay have informed Roger's decision to do the same
when he formed MISSION OF BURMA.
The tracks on this album were recorded in 1977 and they're
pretty amazing. Structurally, the stuff is far away from No Wave,
but it has a lot of the same rough structural textures and jumbled
sonics, although there's also crazy tape noise (some of it resembling gushing synth sequencing) and stun guitar stirred into the mix.
The fact that it's mostly instrumental gives things a certain prog/experimental thrust that feels a bit parallel to the bands
on the Random Radar Label but it runs wilderly against the
grain of anything else you'd hear in that era. With an insert
containing Laurence's memories of the project, and album art
guaranteed to lull prog heads into submission, EMPOOL
DOES Do Did Done is a magnificent head scratcher.Can be filed neatly between SPROTON LAYER
and DESTROY ALL MONSTERS.
Organist Andre Cynkin was generally on hand as well. Laurence's
brothers, Ben and Roger, showed up now and then,
as did pianist Rick Scott.
EMPOOL only played three live shows but they recorded everything,
and their use of pre-recorded tapes as a live sound source
when he formed MISSION OF BURMA.
pretty amazing. Structurally, the stuff is far away from No Wave,
but it has a lot of the same rough structural textures and jumbled
sonics, although there's also crazy tape noise (some of it resembling gushing synth sequencing) and stun guitar stirred into the mix.
The fact that it's mostly instrumental gives things a certain prog/experimental thrust that feels a bit parallel to the bands
on the Random Radar Label but it runs wilderly against the
grain of anything else you'd hear in that era. With an insert
containing Laurence's memories of the project, and album art
guaranteed to lull prog heads into submission, EMPOOL
DOES Do Did Done is a magnificent head scratcher.
and DESTROY ALL MONSTERS.
THE TRADITION
(2-song CD Single $5.00 plus P&H)
Recorded 1994 / Released July 2018
FarFetched Records/Bond Voyage Music
$10.00 White / $15.00 Gray ~ plus P&H)
FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOOD, AND RURAL AFFAIRS: is satisfied that Wessex Water Services Ltd "the Company" is
supplying water from the Empool water treatment works which may be at risk of exceeding the standard for
the prescribed concentration of nitrate. This means that the Company is likely to contravene its duty in
respect of supplying water which meets the Regulations under Section 68(1)(a) of the
Water Industry Act 1991and meets the requirement set in regulation 4(2)(c)