July 30, 2025 (Los Angeles, CA):
Ned’s Mystery Machine Vol. 1 from Arthur King is out now on stereo/quad/immersive digital.
A steady exploration of contiguous musical thoughts, Ned's Mystery Machine Vol. 1 dodges repetition in favor of evolution. This is music with movement seeping through a door left ajar. Composed from an improvisational live performance, Arthur King employ ethereal drones of autoharp, melodica, guitar, bass, and sparse percussion from a vintage drum machine. The results are an expression in echoes and accidents, unfolding and unfinished, woven together in a single stream of sound.
DJ Ned Learner and his Mystery Machine has enchanted Angeleno airwaves for over twenty five years, through the portal of KXLU 88.9 FM. With his ever-expanding sonic wandering, Ned’s interests and formidable record collection swell into new territories, inviting his listeners, lucky enough to be tuned in, to join the celebration of discovery. To be guided by Ned in the Mystery Machine for two hours (and often for many more with his online post-show continuation) is to learn new ways of listening, or more simply, to be changed by music.
Predominantly operating on the currency of vinyl records pulled from DJ Ned’s vast stacks, or those of frequent guests, occasionally—on special occasions, that is—the Mystery Machine stretches it’s borders to include live music. One Friday night in September ‘24, Arthur King was invited by Ned with an experimental premise: what might happen when two dear friends with musical abilities play together for the first time, live on the radio?
To be fair, all of Arthur King’s releases are performances, all are recorded live, and all are created with the one rule of total-improvisation. The result is no two sessions that are quite alike, though an undeniable thread of experimentation can be spun between them all. On this evening at Ned’s, the first such happening in the intimacy of his home studio, it was an energetic stew of old friends, live broadcast, and new collaborations. Peter with his aged push-button drum machine and Chris with variously tuned stringed instruments, and sharing a live mic, set out to explore a novel way to meet in a creative moment, and make meaning together. The consequence of their listening produced intimate whispers, breaths of air, ethereal drones, pounding monsoon thunder darkening once clear skies, and the sporadic gasps of eroded circuitry. Use your ears and hear a music of friendship, interweaving itself towards kinship.
And the airwaves were filled, and Ned Learner seemed happy as the facilitator, and thanks to Kid606 for being the instigator.
Recorded on Aug 23, 2024 at Ned's Mystery Machine for live broadcast on KXLU (88.9 FM) Los Angeles
Chris Avitabile: autoharp, melodica, guitar, bass, percussion
Peter Walker: Roland CR-5000, melodica
Mixed by Peter Walker and KamranV
Mastered by KamranV
Cover art by Chris Avitabile
AKP040