Nmperign is an experimental improvisation group formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1998. The idea for the group came when soprano saxophonist Bhob Rainey decided to embark upon an ambitious cross-country tour, choosing trumpeter Greg Kelley and percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani as his travelmates. The three, who had been playing together in various groups for a number of months prior (most notably with multi-instrumentalist Masashi Harada), then began rehearsing regularly as a trio and recorded their first album at Studio 7A West in Charlestown, Massachusetts that summer. The album was released as 44'38"/5 by the Twisted Village label and the group began their 6 week cross country tour in November of that year. 2 weeks into the tour nmperign became a duo, with Nakatani departing for personal reasons. Releasing an album of quiet abstract improvisations on a psych label and touring across the country garnered the group some attention. And despite Rainey's move to Chicago in 1999, the group remained very active that year, beginning their ongoing collaboration with electronic musician Jason Lescalleet, travelling out to the West Coast for a number of concerts and making a 7 week cross country tour later that Fall. All of this activity resulted in the release of This is nmperign's 2nd CD on Twisted Village (which featured the group's last performance with Nakatani and their first performance with Lescalleet) and the collabortive CD In Which The Silent Partner-Director Is No Longer Able To Make His Point To The Industrial Dreamer with Jason Lescalleet. By the year 2000, Rainey was back in Boston and the group embarked on their first tour of Europe. It was at this time that the group began its relationships with a number of European improvisers including Axel Dörner and Andrea Neumann, with whom the duo would embark on a 4 week United States tour in September 2001. Over the next few years, nmperign continued to travel the United States and Europe, including tours on both continents with percussionist Le Quan Ninh and dancer Yukiko Nakamura, an inexplicable pairing with noise provacateur Emil Beaulieau (including some collaborations which came to be known as nmpeRRRon), and collaborations with Jerome Noetinger & Lionel Marchetti, and Gunter Müller. In 2009, Rainey moved out of Boston to New Orleans. This move was ironically timed with a renewed spate of activity from the band with the release of Ommatidia (their first duo recording since 2004's double LP We Devote Every Effort To Offer You The Best That You Deserve To Have For Your Enjoyment) on Intransitive Recordings and a 1-sided collaborative LP with percussionist Jake Meginsky on Rel Records. Performances to commemorate these releases are expected. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.