This highly experimental album was the result of what may be the very best source of inspiration available to an artist: last-minute panic.

While we were working on a far more in-depth concept for Joe's Concept Album Month (JoCoAlbMo) 2017, my collaborator and i realized that our project really required more time than was remaining (especially after sustaining some setbacks earlier in the month). In the final week of March, i started brainstorming on ideas for how i might create a compliant 40-minute recording in about 1 day, as that was all my schedule looked like it would offer.

Seeking to find ways to maximize runtime and minimize production time, i considered a few ideas. One was a freeform improvisational jam with minimal preparation, editing, or regard for taking myself at all seriously. Another was the idea of doing something very loop-based. I briefly considered ideas like trying to write one folk/acoustic song per hour, or crunching out quick-and-dirty rock tunes while relegating myself to only vocals, guitar, bass, and drums. I also started digging up some old ideas for algorithmic compositions that would explore the gradual degradation and/or re-integration of audio at the digital-sample level.

It was this last idea, combined with key elements from the others, that became the basis for this recording. I played around with a few different algorithmic concepts using a test audio sample. I found one that yielded some interesting results, and decided to give it a whirl. I made some notes and calculations during the week, and started thinking about how to cook up some fast new material to use as my audio samples for the process. By the time i was able to start production, i had literally only one day -- 31 March -- to complete the piece within the parameters of the JoCoAlbMo challenge. By then, it was all about just grabbing whatever crazy idea i could and running with it.

Using traditional instrumentation and multi-track recording, i prepared two versions of a short semi-improvised motif, each about 32 seconds long. I then used a combination of three types of data "scrambling" to simultaneously disassemble the first motif version and render the second over the course of 75 repetitions. The final result is a recording that starts with approachable whimsy, moves slowly and deeply into the realm of faintly suggestive digital noise, and then gradually emerges right back out again.

Primarily, this recording seeks to invoke the spirit of truly experimental music in that its creation was far more about just seeing "what would happen if ..." than it was about realizing any particular product. While some of its audible artifacts are the result of deliberate mathematical planning, the full aesthetic of the work was essentially unheard and unknown until after its completion. For the active listener, the piece may also provide something of a study in the extent to which recognition can be retained, lost, and regained for musical audio as it is being temporally disordered and reorganized. Beyond all of this, cranking this out on the 16-hour fuse was a fun ride, and it served as a good excuse for me to initialize the 4EARMe project that i'd been musing upon for awhile.


For a better sample of my more traditional musical efforts, check out my former eclectic rock project at northmusic1.bandcamp.com or thenorthwebsite.com .

For more about the annual creative challenge formerly known as Joe’s Concept Album Month, check out incoalmo.com .