WELCOME TO THE PURGATORY HOME COMPANION

ROB K: This is the web site of the Purgatory project, part two of a trilogy of albums I have planned based on the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. The title of this second installment will be “The Purgatory Home Companion.” I am the originator of this project and the artist of record, with the ultimate product being a CD and online release under the Rob K name. Mark Abramson is the producer and co-writer for this project. And of course, my deepest gratitude goes out to all my friends who contributed their audio clips! And to Zen Jam, Mark’s graphic design firm and the developer of this web site.
The first part of the trilogy was released in 1995 under the name “Workdogs In Hell,” Workdogs being the name of my New York band, with partner Scott Jarvis, who also deserves credit for getting this concept off the ground. Mark produced one song for that album, the track called “970-DOGS.”

MARK A: Here’s a quick introduction/explaination of what this project is, and how it works. Rob asked all of his friends, musicians and non-musicians alike, to send him audio contributions for this project. We received over 100 contributions – recordings of everything from individual instruments to full songs, spoken monologues to mangled radio samples. From these contributions we build what are essentially musical collages. I will locate the contributions that are most easily built upon, and add other contributions that fit. A sound, riff or rhythm will usually generate ideas for a complete song, and other instruments are added to the collage until we’ve got something that rocks, so to speak. Rob takes it from there, and develops the lyrics based around his take on Dante’s Purgatory. We go back and forth for a while to get the lyrics and music well integrated. The results can be heard on this web site, and will be released in CD and online form when we’re done.
On this web site you will find the same kind of information most people have come to expect from a music site. Most of it is self-explanatory. The contributors page will have a full list of contributors, some information about them and a link to their web site if they have one. It will also have playable streams of their audio contributions to this project, and links to the Purgatory songs on which their contributions were used.
The music page will have the songs that make up the Purgatory Home Companion, and other things like alternate mixes, and links back to the contributors’ page for all contributions used on a given piece. The videos page and photos page will be filled in later – an item will be posted in the news section whenever we update the site.