“There’s a Void” was initially released on M.T. Sky’s E.P., More Burblings. It was re-released (in remastered form) in April of this year on his first full album, the double-length Love & Oblivion. That particular song has the highest number of streams worldwide of any tune by M.T. Sky thus far, which surprises its composer, Mark Tiborsky:
“The song was intended to express the feelings of loss, but its second movement is sort of cathartic”, Mark says. “Then, the end of the tune is sort of like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. An instrumental piece (more or less) being my most popular track so far made me think I should just do vocal ohs and oohs and ahs and hmms in my music, instead of bothering with vocals using actual lyrics.” Mark adds, “I’m sort of kidding about that… but I’ll probably be tossing in more instrumentals for my future releases.”
“There’s a Void” features Mark playing fingerpicked acoustic guitar, a variety of keyboards, and electric 12-string slide guitar. And of course the “oh” vocals. He says, “This is definitely one of the tracks that I’m most proud of… I like the way it came out.”
(Be sure to play around with the cool 3D model above, courtesy of Tom Hodes!)
One day in either late 1979 or early 1980 (exact date uncertain), Mark Tiborsky went over to George Wright’s house with guitar in hand. The two 18-year old aspiring musicians had planned to get together to jam, with no particular musical agenda. During their prior get together, they had done some experimentation with improvisation – something that was still fairly new to two young guitarists who were used to playing cover songs as true as possible to the originals. Nothing had been recorded during the prior session, but dabbling in a bit of non-cover music had given George and Mark a taste for more experimentation.
George lived in a big ol’ house right along Lake Erie. His bedroom had a closet that was huge, probably 6’x8′. Being as it the boys wanted to smoke a wee bit of… you know… and since his parents were home, George decided to set the jam session up in the closet, complete with a cassette recorder.
Almost immediately, Mark started playing an ascending 3-note pattern out of the blue. George followed right in, and then suggested striking a D minor 7th chord five times. After playing that sequence a few times, Mark decided to play an absurd chord (major, but pulling of on a prominent minor note). He added one more change, and then George finished off the section with descending chords as a loop back to part “A”.
Within 10 minutes or so, George & Mark felt confident enough to record their strange creation. They laid down an acceptable version, and gave it a listen. The two were already sort of giddy, as the new piece of music was amusing to begin with. Then Mark said, “We should name this tune ‘Eyeball’.” Yep, that was it. The boys collapsed into tear-inducing laughter that went on for minutes.
Around a week later, George came over to Mark’s house with two verses of demented lyrics. That afternoon, the two finished off some additional lyrics together, and the basic song structure of Eyeball was complete.
Eyeball was played many times during informal Bean Philosopher jam sessions, and was recorded live in several different versions (some instrumental, and some with vocals). Bob Lanphier added some nifty lead guitar work to one version in particular. In addition, the song was played live by The Time Between (Mark & George’s “regular” rock band from 1979-1980) during their performance at the (then) yearly Euclid (OH) community festival.
Mark Tiborsky recalls:
“It was our last song of the night. It was kind of surreal to play Eyeball at a family-oriented community festival… we talked amongst ourselves, unsure if we should play it after playing all fairly familiar cover songs. Then we decided to go for it, complete with vocals. We really jammed it up at the end. When we struck the last chord, there was a stunned silence for a few seconds… then a hearty round of applause! We didn’t know what sort of reaction to expect… it felt like some sort of great artistic victory at the time.”
A band Mark was involved with in the mid-80s, The Particles, also included Eyeball in their repertoire. There is a video out there somewhere of that group performing the song at the old Sahara Club, which was one of the biggest clubs in Cleveland’s east suburbs.
It wasn’t until 1987 that Mark and George decided to lay down a “serious” version of Eyeball on Mark’s Tascam 4-track deck. All four tracks were completed, one of them being Mark and George singing through some sort of odd effect… flanger, phase shifter, chorus? Mark can’t recall exactly what was used.
In the “old days”, the idea was to get as much instrumentation as possible onto each track (as you only had 4 total to work with). For the 1987 version of Eyeball, track 1 was Mark on acoustic guitar and George on electric. Track 2, Mark on bass and George on electronic drum pads. Track 3, Mark on electric guitar and George on keyboards. Track 4, both vocal parts.
Fast forward all the way to 2021, when Mark felt that Eyeball needed an official release after spending several years cataloging/digitizing/sprucing up all the old Bean Philosopher recordings. He added some additional keyboards and drums to his & George’s best mix from the 1987 session.
A fast version of Eyeball was recorded in 1989 – part of that recording is tacked onto the last minute of the new officially released version. The complete song was officially released as a single in 2021. Eyeball has since been remastered for its re-release on the 2023 album Bowl O’ Bean.
Here is a video that Mark T. put together for Eyeball… enjoy!
It was the year 1980 when the three lads pictured above started futzing around with original music in Mark’s basement (located in Euclid, Ohio). Prior to this, all three played together in a “normal” rock band (Bastille) which played an assortment of cover tunes by Led Zeppelin, Kiss, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, etc. During Bastille’s tenure (1978-79), George Wright in particular became an astonishingly dexterous lead guitarist (with Mark Tiborsky on rhythm guitar, and Bob Lanphier on bass). After the breakup of Bastille, Mark and George played together in another short-lived cover band (The Time Between). Shortly thereafter, Bob and Mark joined forces in yet another cover band (The Dream).
But when George or Bob (or both) would come over to Mark’s house, the guitars (and an old keyboard or two) would inevitably come out… and the music being played was most often NOT covers, and not really “rock” in the traditional sense. The original music being created was mostly instrumental, and was/is a very odd mixture of different styles. When George and Mark would unite, it would tend towards jazz and classical (but often with an absurdist bent). When Bob and Mark would get together, the music would lean more folkish and semi-rock (though the oddness would penetrate there as well). When all three would unite, the music would sometimes veer into complex interplay in a style that’s difficult to pin down (along with some of the trio’s most whacked-out creations). Each session was dutifully recorded by Mark T. – first on a mono cassette recorder, then a GE stereo boombox (which recorded quite well), then by bouncing tracks on 2 cassette decks with a mixer. By 1986, Mark had obtained a nice Tascam 4-track cassette recorder. No recorded sessions with all 3 of the Bean boys exist from after 1986 – however, there are 4 track sessions from 1986-1990 that feature George/Mark and Bob/Mark.
This pattern continued throughout the 1980’s, as George Wright went off to study music at the University of Cincinnati, and Bob Lanphier (who had also become a fabulous lead guitarist) played in his own Cleveland-based blues rock bands (most notably Fine Young Minds). Meanwhile, Mark Tiborsky also stayed busy in a variety of area rock bands during the ’80s. But each time any configuration of the three got together at Mark’s house to play, it was all this oddball original music that was being created. Thus, Bean Philosopher was/is not a “band” per se… it was/is a more relaxed creative outlet for all three musicians while they were otherwise kept busy playing more standard forms of music.
The last Bean Philosopher 4 track sessions happened in 1990, when George came up to Cleveland from Ft. Thomas, KY to record some material with Mark. He had gotten married, and settled in Ft. Thomas. Bob was also married at that time and had a daughter – he was very busy with a popular Cleveland original band (Cat Free Air). Mark married in 1991, and kept musically busy though the 1990’s with The Cells (featuring songwriter Christopher Strauch) and the progressive rock band Intra (led by Ray “Mato” Tomorowitz), along with several wedding-type bands.
But the Bean Philosopher story does not end in 1990! Fast forward to November 2011, when Mark T. began what became a real labor of love. He started listening to all the 60 or so Bean Philosopher tapes, separating the worthy stuff from the (sometimes meandering) long acid jams, and converting it all to digital. As many of the earlier tapes were just 2 or 3 guitars (sometimes keyboards) recorded live sitting around the GE stereo boombox, Mark felt immediately compelled to add bass & other instruments to flesh the tunes out. By 2016, he had 8+ hours of semi-fleshed out material in the can. 8 (unofficial & unreleased) compilation CD’s were made, but mainly to organize for a future official release. The old stuff was sounding pretty good at this point… but, Mark felt that the material still needed some additional instrumentation (without trampling on the original raw recordings) along with improved mastering. He pecked away at the Bean Philosopher stuff for several more years, until…
Fast forward to April, 2023… Bean Philosopher finally has its first official album release! Bowl O’ Bean is available worldwide in digital form. There is surely much more to follow… Mark T. is already busy polishing up the tracks for the next release.
Sadly, George Wright, who was not only Mark’s musical cohort but also his dear friend, passed away in 2015 at age 54. He was the true maestro of the collaboration, and also the funniest one (in the most twisted way).
Bob Lanphier is (as far as we know) down in Nashville leading his own group, but hasn’t been in touch with Mark for some time. If anyone has his current contact info, please email it to sponyak@gmail.com.
As for Mark Tiborsky, he’s still busy with preparing more Bean Philosopher music for future release (after releasing his first two solo albums under the moniker M.T. Sky).
A quick story of the name “Bean Philosopher”… it began as a somewhat absurd possible name, made up by Mark, for the group with Mark & George that’s mentioned in the top paragraph (The Time Between). Mark and the drummer (Ken) actually liked it but George and the bassist (Walt) said “no way”. A year or so later… since he was the one recording everything, Mark said to both George and Bob, “I’m gonna call this original stuff Bean Philosopher music.” Both George and Bob were fine with that.
But what meaning did it have then? Nothing, really… it was just a strange name that Mark T. made up. It wasn’t until recent years that Mark discovered that there was a deeper, previously unknown meaning to the moniker. As it turns out, the ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras thought that excessive flatulence would release parts of a person’s soul, or “life force”; therefore, beans to him were evil and a no-no. More like anti-Bean Philosopher!
Here is an (as of yet) unadorned Bean Philosopher track, recorded live in Mark’s backyard sometime in the early 1980’s. For obvious reasons, we called this Cicada Improv. All acoustic guitars – Mark on 12 string, George on nylon string, and Bob on 6 string. Enjoy!
This website is the home of the musical artist M.T. Sky (Mark Tiborsky) and the music collective Bean Philosopher (an older collaborative project that Mark was/is involved with).
As of May 2023, M.T. Sky has two official releases available for streaming or sale: the double-length Love & Oblivion (released April 2022) and his new album Mental Garbage (released April 2023). Both of these releases feature Mark Tiborsky performing all instruments and vocals, as sole composer and producer.
Bean Philosopher’s first official release was a single, Eyeball (released in 2021). That song (in remastered form) is now the lead off track on Bean Philosopher’s first official album, Bowl O’ Bean (released April 2023). Bean Philosopher was/is a collaboration (in both composition and performance) between Mark Tiborsky, George Wright (1961-2016), and Bob Lanphier. As with both of M.T. Sky’s albums, Bowl O’ Bean is available for streaming or sale on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Deezer, Pandora, and numerous other outlets worldwide.
The music of M.T. Sky ranges from fairly straightforward rock/pop to more introspective instrumental pieces. The music of Bean Philosopher is mostly instrumental, and is an odd stew of rock, jazz, folk and classical, with a healthy dash of both weirdness and melodicism.
Here is the title track from M.T. Sky’s latest release… a somewhat wacky rock-popper. Enjoy!
M.T. Sky Music 