Tracks 1 through 5 of this retrospective CD were originally released as Volaré's self-titled debut cassette in July 1996. Along with "The Hive" and "Memoirs of a Misshapen Man," these five songs were the backbone of that summer's Volaré live set: Pat's Hatfield-inspired "North by Northwest" and epic "The Odessa Steps Sequence" (a year in the making – and almost entitled "Thumper's Hideaway!"); Steve's "Eighth Direction" and melancholy "3 O'Clock" (used to set the mood as an intro before our last gig, August '97), and their collaboration "The Broken Waltz" – the first of exactly two true Pat/Steve co-compositions (the other being ˆThe Uncertainty Principle'sˆ "Caught in a Combine").

With our first big out-of-state show rapidly approaching, we had little time and NO money to record our tunes before Louisville's Eclectic Electric Event of July '96. Thanks to the hard work of our friend Ryan Blaine and Volaré's own Richard M. Kesler ("Marc"), we were able to pull it off, using only a PA system and four-track tape machine!

These tracks were recorded live as a quartet, with only cello, saxophone, and a few other assorted bits overdubbed later. Immediately after the release of the cassette, Volaré was reduced to a more comfortable four-piece and we began assembling material for our next project – the full-length CD ˆThe Uncertainty Principleˆ for the Laser's Edge label, recorded in March 1997.

Memoirs of a Misshapen Man – Steve Hatch
So far as I can remember, I came up with all of the various sections to this piece, except for the brief Moog melody just before the whole-tones-falling-down-stairs section. But as usual, the final arrangement was a group effort: Brian thought up the breath pause, the improv bit going into 17 notes was a group fluke, etc. Early versions of the tune included some drawn out trade-offs. These were dumped in favor of a more streamlined arrangement thanks largely to Cello Rob's complaints. Granted, there's plenty of room for criticism (where the hell's the melody?) but it's damn fun to play. That fact alone kept it in the set list through spring of '97 – a long time considering it was the second thing I'd written for the group. I think we'd all agree it represents the best of the "Frankenstein parts" system. Heavy classic Volaré ostinato riffage. This version is as good as any we ever did – a good way to kick off the Orion Studios gig that eventually got us the Laser's Edge Deal.

Oxford Don – Brian Donohoe
We filled in a few spare moments of recording The Uncertainty Principle albuym with this improvised live track, NOT named after our former cellist/Rhodes scholar, but for a rigged race horse on that morning's "Banacek" re-run on TV. Even though every day of our week long March '97 recording session began with vintage television shows (made possible by our delicious host Jason "Fatz" Shannon and his family), we somehow managed to overcome the temptation to name the album after the "Satanic cult" episode of "McMillan & Wife"....

Anyway, this song is typical of the occasional Volaré improvs one might have heard at our live shows, often in lieu of soundcheck. "Oxford Don" is notable for the restating of the theme from Steve's "One Minute of Thought in Two Seconds of Time (Incomplete, Broken and Abstract)" trilogy, which in that case I guess isn't a trilogy anymore....Prologue or Epilogue? You decide.

The Hive – Pat Strawser
The Hive is an example of the typical Volarian approach to song writing: throw together a bunch of cool sounding riffs and chord changes and you have a tune. It was a favorite of ours to play live, although few good copies of it exist anywhere. We had a knack for extending certain sections, and adding other parts to it. It was a true Frankenstein...just sorta pieced together out of bits lying around on the floor.

The funny thing to me about the song is that I don't think that any of us ever really felt that it sounded complete. There was always some work that we intended on doing to it. Any time we played it, one of us would remark, "y'know, that sounded really cool...but it's still missing something." We never really got around to finishing it, and I doubt we ever will. But the newly recorded version is by far the best we've done with it.

The '99 reunion is something that Brian had been trying to get me to commit to for the last year. But since I'm so flimsy and indecisive, it took awhile to nail me down to a firm date. In the end, Geoff is really the man to thank for it all though. Without his interest in subsidizing this project, I don't know that this would've ever happened...us recording OR getting back together. Thankfully there are people like him out there willing to help out a few starving musicians.