Created by JC Combs in March 2009, ImprovFriday (IF) is a weekly event that has attracted a growing number of composers who come together from different areas of the globe to post their improvisations and sketches. The pieces posted on IF are, in turn, linked to various music and social sites and are spread out across the web. Each week during the event artists submit their improvisation or dedicated piece for IF. Combs explains that IF is designed to be “listening party” for those who want to perform new music and hear new music. The styles and forms of the music submitted to IF vary from atonal to ambient, classical to post-minimalist, free improv and same-day sonic mixes created from found sounds and works already submitted - the collaborative side of IF. This CD showcases selected tracks from the ImprovFriday submissions made from May to September 2009. The pieces were chosen by the participants themselves, as being a favorite contribution during that time. Many of the tracks were created quickly, in an attempt to capture the moment. Together they represent a snapshot of new music, right now. About the Tracks 1. Steve Layton - Spaceship (feat. Benjamin Smith, Lee Noyes, Johnny & Faith, Steve Moshier) Same-day remix of independently conceived improvisations contributed 25 Sep 09 by Benjamin Smith (piano), Lee Noyes (percussion), Steve Moshier (electronics), Token Wonder (electroacoustics). About Steve Layton - Steve Layton is a Pacific Northwest composer transplanted to Houston, Texas. Since 1980 he has worked mostly with electronic, electroacoustic and 'virtual acoustic' means, slicing and dicing histories and cultures. Layton has worked often with dancers and videographers, as well as in collaborations worldwide via the web. He also runs an online new-music label, NiwoSound, and is Managing Editor of Sequenza21.com. 2. Charles Turner – She Dances for Love ”She Dances for Love” is a piece for harp and percussion sounds, performed by my computer. I imagine a solo dancer moving to this music; I hope that it happens some day and that I get to see it. About Charles Turner - Charles Turner lives north of Boston. He is working on a song cycle, a one-act opera, a Christmas cantata for his church, and several other things. Oh, he likes to improvise, too. 3. Greg Hooper - Provisional Attempt to Get Real "Provisional Attempt to Get Real" is taken from a single improvisation for prepared guitar. This performance is then processed, heavily for the first part, less and less so as it goes along until the final section which is 'relatively live'. I have found that working through pieces like this is influencing my playing - I am playing more like the pieces that I construct through editing. I like that interaction happening. About Greg Hooper - Greg Hooper is a scientist and artist living in Brisbane, Australia. 4. Bruce Hamilton - Friday 3-in-1 for 7/24/09 (feat. Johnny & Faith, Benjamin Smith, Charles Turner) This piece is based on a Max/MSP improvisation that utilized samples from 7/24/09 improvisations by Johnny & Faith, Benjamin Smith, and Charles Turner. Additional sounds and processing were added using Audacity. About Bruce Hamilton - Bruce Hamilton is a composer, improviser, percussionist, electronic musician, professor, and event organizer based in Bellingham, Washington, USA. He was born in Philadelphia, grew up in New Jersey, and attended Indiana University. His creative work encompasses a variety of styles and genres. 5. Dennis Bathory-Kitz - Outside at the Ruined Piano The ruined piano is in Middlesex, Vermont, and has been weathered for several years. As the improvisation continued, more pieces began to fall off, especially the black keytops. The sound is haunting, and the distant sound of animals, traffic and a chainsaw can be heard. About Dennis Bathory-Kitsz - Dennis Bathory-Kitsz has composed more than 700 works, including sound sculpture, solo and chamber music for the instruments of classical music, electronic music, stage shows, orchestral pieces, dance music, opera, interactive multimedia, sound installations, and performance art events. He has also designed and built new musical instruments. He has advocated what he calls contemporary nonpop music, and the performance of contemporary classical music (new music) in preference to the music of composers of past eras. 6. David Toub - virtual music 2 This is the second of two brief improvisations created in Reason 4. Aside from some minor tweaks, this is essentially what was improvised using a M-Audio Keystation 88 ES keyboard connected to a MacBook Pro laptop with Reason 4 providing the sampled sound output. As such, both “virtual music 1” and “virtual music 2” are not highly-developed works, but are valid nonetheless. These are also among the only works of mine that have not been conventionally notated; rather than notated scores, the sequencing exists as .rns files. About David Toub - David Toub (b. 1961, Newark, NJ) has been described as a postminimalist composer. Largely self-taught, he studied at the Juilliard Pre-College Division on weekends for two years during high school and subsequently studied biology and medicine at the University of Chicago. He gives away his music at http://homepage.mac.com/dtoub/dbtmusic.html . Toub has had his music performed on both coasts, most recently the premiere of bs piece at the Hartt School of Music. His music may be found on the Web radio stations PostClassic Radio and Contemporary Classical Music, and has also been featured several times on Music from Other Minds on KALW-FM in San Francisco and Classical Discoveries on Princeton's WPRB-FM. Toub has three releases available on iTunes, Amazon and eMusic (mf, darfur pogrommen, textbook). He lives in Wyncote, PA with his wife and two children and works in Silicon Valley for a medical device startup (Gynesonics). 7. Shane Cadman - Piece 090409 Another ImprovFriday piece for NetNewMusic. Another real improv. I ran across this sound on my Proteus 2000, which I've been messing with since it can do a variety of tunings. The sound you hear is exactly as it sounds originally, including the delay. I purposefully left off a click and played with/against the delay of the drone (which functions like a tambura part). This one uses a Just Minor tuning. About Shane Cadman - Shane W. Cadman is a composer/performer/educator/impresario based in southern California. More information can be found at www.shanecadman.com. 8. Paul Hertz - Improv 7:00 for Organ “Improv 7:00 for Organ” starts out solemnly enough – it could be the organ prelude for a church service - but it soon takes on a more intense character in the upper registers, circling in and out of conventionality. The piece weaves a sort of dual personality, eventually finding its way back to solid ground in a bass pedal at its reassuring conclusion. “Improv 7:00” was recorded on a Rodgers T-957 three-manual electronic organ. About Paul Hertz – Paul Hertz is a graduate student in mathematics at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, who composes, performs, and improvises classical, sacred, and experimental music. He grew up in Nevada, Iowa, composing music from the age of 10, and has degrees in composition, trombone, and mathematics from the University of Wyoming. Paul is employed as a church organist, and his piano improvisations are a fixture of Ames's alternative live music scene. 9. Jukka-Pekka Kervinen - impro #7 An improvisation for retuned synth and computer-processing system. About Jukka-Pekka Kervinen - Jukka-Pekka Kervinen is a Finnish composer, writer and visual artist whose interests include automated composition using systems and theories from cybernetics, dynamical systems, cellular automata and stochastic processes. Jukka-Pekka says he works with “systems with negative feedback for maintaining and achieving control and equilibrium.” Mr. Kervinen resides in Kitee, Pohjois-Karjala, Finland. 10. Benjamin Smith - Improv for April 8, 2009 This overall introspective improvisation starts in a dark, searching place and moves to a rising, more optimistic place with a feeling of questioning as it concludes. About Benjamin Smith - Benjamin Smith, based in West Orange, New Jersey, holds a Bachelors in music theory from the Manhattan School of Music. Ben is an improviser and piano and music improvisation facilitator. Ben is interested in spreading the learning and practice of music improvisation in the world. 101 Adam Kondor - Two Violins “Two Violins” consists of twelve duos for two Violins and was performed by Orsolya Korcsolan and Jonathan Keren. About Adam Kondor – Adam Kondor is a Hungarian composer living in Budapest. Adam studied composition at the Béla Bartók Conservatory and also at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music. He has an extensive discography at the Budapest Music Center and he was awarded the Art Prize of the Hungarian Soros Foundation in 1999. His work “'Concerto for an Absent Soloist and Orchestra (2001)” was recently recorded by the Hungarian Radio Orchestra. 12. J.C. Combs - The Giant Eye of the 5th Dimension “The Giant Eye of the 5th Dimension” is an electronic improvisation decorated with found sounds. The Giant Eye is an all seeing deity who sits in judgement over the 5th dimension. However, due to some unknown cosmic collision every possible dimension was opened to the Giant Eye and for a brief period the eyeball sat in judgment over everything until the dimensions once again closed. Samples used are from The Berklee College of Music Sampling Archive (1999-2007), used with permission CC 3.0, and Samples from the Worldwide Community of Csound Developers, Teachers and Users - John Fitch, used with permission CC 3.0. About JC Combs – Founder of the event, ImprovFriday, JC Combs is a composer residing in Seattle, Washington. Combs began playing the piano at age four, studying with numerous teachers off and on through his formative years. Primarily self-taught, Combs began composing at age 19. Most recently Combs studied improvisation techniques with Gust Burns (summer of '09) and since the inception of ImprovFriday in March 2009 coordinates/performs for the event weekly. Combs composed, performed, produced "Charmed Elixirs" in 3-2008 and "Bats in the Belfry -18 bagatelles" in 1-2009. More information @jccombs.com. CD Production Assistance - Paul Muller Album Notes - Paul Muller and Steve Layton Cover art - Steve Layton Special thanks to Paul Muller for putting all the pieces in place.