This week, Karl Paloucek is one of a number of Milwaukee musicians taking part in Betty Blexrud-Strigens’ Patti Smith tribute -- "Smith Uncovered" -- at Alverno College on Saturday, Oct. 18, at 8 p.m. He’s also riding high after the release of his second record, "Sail," recorded over 20 years and issued by Brew City’s Latest Flame imprint.

"Sail" is a symphony of sounds -- from chiming bells to gurgling water to gongs, steel pipes and sewing machines -- that combine to create a series of sonic moods that will wash away the worries of the world.

As he preps his contribution to "Smith Uncovered," we asked Paloucek about "Sail" and what comes next.

OnMilwaukee.com: For folks that don't know, give us the Karl Paloucek story.

Karl Paloucek: Well, like a lot of people, I grew up, in a large sense, in the Milwaukee music scene from the mid-‘80s through the ‘90s, going to see a lot of different music, from the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra to a lot of bands at venues like Cafe Voltaire and the Odd Rock; The Unicorn; The Globe, etc. I had a band, Shrilltower, with Colin Brammer -- many will know Colin’s older brother, Keith -- and we really were very much into a heavy industrial sound. And by heavy, I mean as in with real tonnage. We used to schlep an incredible heap of ducts, radiators, corrugated iron sheets, huge car hoods and other metal scrap around with us that we piled onstage. We were young and naive, of course, but we did some good work. A smattering of our best is available for download at mkepunk.com.

After one of our shows, Darren Brown from Boy Dirt Car introduced himself to me. I was a huge BDC fan, and soon enough we were working together as Impact Test. We did … I don’t know, something like eight albums, a few singles and a bunch of cassettes, toured a bit out east and to the West Coast. Impact Test was essentially a noise band, but it was a band -- we did shows with Steve Wahlen on drums, Peter Balestrieri on sax and eventually a few others. Keith Brammer played guitar with us a bit near the end, if memory serves. Dale Kaminski and Peter Zinda on keys.

At the same time, I got roped into Dave Szolwinski’s F*ckface. I was a fan and one night was invited to play on stage, and somehow I was allowed to stay. That was a great experience, that band. Latest Flame Records finally released our (1995) album on CD in 2010, with a lot of bonus tracks. Still really grateful for that, and for the opportunity we had to play together that year before our friend and guitarist Dave Raeck passed away.

Anyway, during all of this, I had started sketching out material of my own, based on a sound in my head that I wasn’t hearing anywhere else. After some initial sketches, I started recording the album in earnest sometime in the mid-’90s. Some of the material I developed for it eventually ended up on my first release, "K.," that Eric Lunde released on his now-defunct TraitMediaWorks label. Most of it, though, ended up on "Sail."

OMC: After spending 20 years on "Sail," how does it feel to finally have it out? Refreshing? A relief? A bit of unwillingness to let it go?

KP: What feels great is all of the positive feedback that I’ve been getting. When you work on something that long in a vacuum, you go through a lot of second-guessing yourself, asking, "Is this as good as I think it is, or am I just fooling myself?" I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of people actually listen to the record and many have really been vocal in their support of it, for which I can’t be thankful enough. I will say that it’s definitely a relief not to have that part of myself nagging at me to finish it, anymore. I can move on to other things … like actually trying to sell the record, which is always the real trick.

OMC: Now that it's out do you hear things you wished you'd done differently?

KP: Not so many. There’s a section from one of the pieces on my first album that was originally earmarked for "Sail," and I still think it would have been a good fit for it, but ultimately I’m very happy with how that first album came out, and I think that "Sail" might have been a bit long to digest had I included it, so I still very much stand by it. I think "Sail" as it is is the statement I’d intended to make. I really like it a lot, and for me, that’s everything.

OMC: It must be interesting to spend that kind of time, considering how much we change as people and as musicians in that amount of time.

KP: Yes, that’s true -- I changed a lot, and the vision for it changed quite a bit during that time. Not altogether; the core sound and most of the original ideas are intact, but there were some avenues I thought of exploring that I eventually decided not to, and in hindsight, was wise to avoid.

OMC: What accounted for the amount of time you spent on it?

KP: Mainly, money. This project was born in part out of a frustration I had at some of the work I’d been doing with other bands. In a lot of cases, I felt like the work could have been better than it was, and I didn’t like spending money on studio time if we weren’t going to get things the way we wanted them. I told myself that, just once, I would like to produce something of my own, to my own standard and not have any limitation put on the quality.

In the interim, we’ve all seen how home recording has become so incredibly affordable. But I really wanted that "big room" sound for much of this record, and that meant using an enormous room with microphones set up 20 feet back and turned up really hot. I have no regrets to speak of, since I got it to turn out pretty much exactly as I’d wanted. It just took forever to be able to afford doing so.

OMC: What's next -- are you touring in support of "Sail"?

KP: Well, as anyone who knows me will tell you, I’m a dad first and foremost. Going on tour isn’t really what I do these days. That said, I am trying to do a few more one-off shows than I usually would, to support the album. In August, I did a show in Chicago with some friends of mine from California -- Gitane DeMone, Rikk Agnew, Chuck Collison, Paul Roessler and Deb Benham -- and I just played with Jim Schoenecker, as well as Jim Warchol’s Dryhouse Ruins a couple of weeks ago at the Cactus Club up there in Milwaukee.

I want to get to Indianapolis and Michigan if I can in the coming months, and there's a long-standing plan to do a "playcation" -- that would be a vacation during which I happen to play a show -- in New York with Eric Lunde before either of us gets too old, but there’s also a current plot being hatched to get me over to Dublin early next year. I don’t want to say too much about that yet, though.

In the meantime, I just had a very successful session last night for the new album, which is now about 80 percent in the can; I also have another record that's just about finished -- a collaboration with pioneering percussionist Z'EV -- that I've been sort of sitting on for a while. It's a lot different than my other work.

OMC: Tell us about "Smith Uncovered."

KP: It's going to feature a number of Milwaukee-based or -bred talent performing interpretations of the work of Patti Smith. I'll be doing a version of "Horses" for multiple pianos, sewing machines and gong.