Eksjö Musik Encyklopedi

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layton noyes cadman sundstrom moyes hargreaves - the moment we opened our eyes

layton noyes oldani smith sanderson - the rabbit who talked with the moon

layton oldani kondor hamilton muller thorn - the world turning

layton oldani kondor thorn kervinen - in a landscape

layton palmer smith moshier oldani - die wunderkammer

layton poirier hamilton noyes muller palmer thorn - breakthrough and stillness

layton poirier kondor combs sirenes

layton poirier noyes ross moyes benzola - cracks

layton smith kondor sundstrom poirier - walking in circles

layton smith muller hamilton poirier combs benzola kolmar asta - blood moon

layton smith oldani palmer - summer nights on the fire escape

layton sundstrom duke hamilton oldani - at the heart of things

layton sundstrom noyes hamilton kondor kervinen duke - the dream and the chase

layton sundstrom smith cadman thorn - bali hai

layton sundstrom thorn goodin fairbanks hamilton poirier&noyes - duple duple triple

layton vaisvil izzo combs muller - the golden ones

noyes hooper layton - argo navis

smith kondor kervinen cadman layton

ImprovFriday mash-ups featuring:

Steve Moyes (UK), Bruce Hamilton (WA), Steve Moshier (CA), Peter Thrn (SE), Roger Sundstrm (SE), Lee Noyes (NZ), J.C. Combs (WA), Jrme Poirier (FR), Richard Sanderson (UK), Kavin Allenson (TX), Norbert Oldani (NY), Shane W. Cadman (CA), Adam Kondor (HU), Paul Muller (CA), Kenneth Palmer (MO), Andrew McCance (UK), Jeff Duke (FL), Steve Layton (TX), Benjamin Smith (NJ), David Perreko (ES), Greg Hooper (AU), John Asta (NY), Tom Izzo (CT), Paul Hertz (IA), Jim Goodin (NY), Phil Hargreaves (UK), Johnny & Faith Porto (PA), Glenn Weyant (AZ), Paul Bailey (CA), Todd Lainhart (MA), Jeff Fairbanks (MD), The Hentai Improvising Orchestra (TX), Joseph Benzola (NY), James Ross (NY), Gaetano Fontanazza (IT), Chris Becker (TX), Jukka-Pekka Kervinen (FI), Doug Kolmar (ME), Chris Vaisvil (IN), Grald DeGroote (FR)

Mixed by Steve Layton

Since early 2009, various musicians around the world have checked in weekly at a web site known as ImprovFriday (http://improvfriday.ning.com). From Thursday afternoon (US Pacific time) through Saturday evening, any and all are free to share newly composed or improvised tracks, hear each other's work, discuss and connect.

Part of my own working style these past 30 years is the mash-up, remix, or audio collage. Never being much of a live performer, averse to microphones and limited in the equipment I could call my "studio," I've often resorted to integrating (or sometimes, dissembling) others' recorded music and sound into newly composed pieces of my own.

Improvisation is often performed solo, but just as often as a group venture. At ImprovFriday we had many great solo tracks being offered up; yet many times I'd be struck by how sympathetic this artist's track was with another's, and would imagine how wonderful if the distance between us became immaterial and these two, three or four could be playing in the same space and time. And well, given that we were dealing with recordings, why not? By using my own expertise I could bring the individual tracks together, bring people into the same "room" as it were, and create wholly new and convincing works in the process.

A very few of these tracks were altered in any drastic way, which is why I don't think of them as "remixes;" rather, most of the tracks heard here are left largely intact, simply laid over and against one another, with just some fades and general spatial processing applied (all of the mash-ups were made using only Adobe Audition as my "instrument"). To me the process is much closer to ikebana -- the Japanese art of flower-arranging. There's an abstract element of storytelling at work, too, though the specific story told by the title came only after the piece was finished.

In the spirit of the improvisation that so many of these tracks were first performed and recorded in, I chose to work only with tracks offered up during that particular session, and I also chose to try and create each new mash-up within the span of a half-hour to and hour, no more, from the selection of source tracks to the posting of the final mix. I wanted to give a sense of coherence and real interplay, but also to leave as much of their individual voices and free spirits intact as well.

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to these wonderful musicians (all now friends); in the end, whatever I've been able to do here is only made possible by the creativity and musicianship that each of them has shown and shared.

-- Steve Layton / Pompano Beach, FL / March 2011

CC 3.0 All works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

NiwoSound: www.niwo.com/niwosound