I had the wonderful opportunity to jam with Martha Sparks, an excellent alto saxophonist from Melbourne at my apartment in NYC, early 2001. This is an improvisation between Martha and me on sax and oud (Arabic lute) respectively.

This is a one minute sound piece written Nov. 1993 and presented at the 1993 Evos/PICA Soundweek. It was later performed at the International Computer Music Conference in 1996.

The title refers to the intrinsic distortion of any recording technology, of contrived suggestions of different spaces that we deal with listening to any recording.

The piece was formed around an arrangement of sampled and processed natural sounds. It is really just classic tape techniques of musique concrete, but using newer and faster methods of digital sampling (and less tape hiss). The piece was structured from a couple of key sounds with the juxtaposition of the remaining elements improvised on a sampling keyboard until I was happy with it. The out-a-space sound following the opening gambit is reversed signal processed voice.

(4/1994 5:42, stereo)

This was the result of picking up a cheap cast off electric guitar at an auction. I experimented with preparing the guitar by inserting screwdrivers, pens and nail files between the strings. This adapts a technique devised by John Cage to turn the piano into a percussion orchestra. Preparing the strings selected a range of tunings (like adding movable frets, like a sitar) that could be changed as it is played. The guitar was played by laying it flat on a table and using drumsticks, the whammy bar and plucking with the thumbs in the manner of an African mbira (thumb piano). The guitar was recorded from it's pickups without processing, so the natural sound of the paraphenalia is missing and really displaces the expected sound of a guitar. The title refers to the time of performance and my mood...