Unnoted Sessions

Getting to our center of the world is not an easy thing to do as our two guest musicians rhyt-M and Y-coustic experienced today. Luckily they stumbled inside right at the moment when we were about to start. On one hand we were particularly keen to begin the session as we now had a live drummer which could take us into new directions. But on the other hand, recording drums appeared to be not that straightforward as the quality of the recordings shows. Furthermore it was a bit unfortunate that Y-coustic brought with him his acoustic guitar causing all kinds of feedback headaches.

The search for the creative moment with four less experienced musicians seemed to be harder then we had hoped for. Though clearly giving hints of the possibilities, we had a hard time floating above random noise level. The question arises to what extend communication is possible between several people without defining a framework. To be continued.

Having been late already we started installing our setup in the studio, when discovering that Lucky forgot to bring along the hardware security key for our recording application. Without key no recording, and without recording no documentation of the jam. And without documentation no art performance? Can art only exit through the perception of the receiver, with the performer excluded from his own artwork? And what is the value of the performance without registration, to what good has it been created, if at all?

Feeling that the previous questions were not be ignored, we feverishly looked for a solution. Bizarrely enough there was a wireless Internet connection in the studio, with which we were able to download a freeware sequencer application. This proved to be more time consuming and frustrating: while we could record our jams now, the recording itself appeared disastrous afterwards. Fortunately we were able to recover it through extensive postproduction, though the quality of the documentation leaves much to be desired.

From this state of frustration we tried to lift the spell by uttering classic words like ‘Let’s rock & roll’ and setting out for some stress induced straight rock. While not reaching new personal heights with it, we were able to be open and free of mind when starting our second jam, Jam 013. In these by Lucky’s bass created jazzy spaces IC floated away with long waves of delay from his guitar, reminding us why God made guitar and sent his son Jimi to earth to preach.

Today we hit a new creative milestone for ourselves. We brought in C the voice, professional jazz and classical singer with an incredible multilingual voice. With her a new kind of energy was introduced in the steril studio.

For our first jam, Jam 009, IC started playing an intro that faintly reminded of Led Zeppelin’s classic rock song. With Lucky joining in with a moody groove putting the right foundation for C to begin exploring memories of the past. It felt good, time stood still for a brief moment and we were at the center of the world for the duration of the jam.

We rewent through the same experience for the third jam, another moody ballad, in which somebody accidently turned out the lights from the outside. In the dark we felt small and free at the same time, open for anything. Though at the service of C’s inner workings, she was here to stay.

Afterwards we discovered small recording problems….

For our third installment we stepped further into unknown territory and introduced a guest musician: K the Spaniard. Furthermore we brought a synthesizer along to enlarge our possibilities and broaden the sound spectrum.

How would a guest musician alter our experiment? And with what consequences? Do we need to change our approach, make decisions first, losing the openness? Could we still capture the vibe or was there now too much noise to see through the sea of randomness?

Under the floating keys of K we wandered around mysteriously easy going reggae landscapes during our first jam. Though difficult at first, we knew immediately that guests were to be an integral part of our project were we to continue with it. Furthermore, the synthesizer was a winner.

For our second jam, Jam 007, IC and K switched instruments, why not!? After a rather slow intro Lucky started playing the groove and we found ourselves among some funky shit. Unfortunately we forgot to record the drums, which we have reprogrammed in later…

Could we repeat it? Could we catch the vibe again? Or was it a one-time-of-thing? Those were questions we had when entering the studio today. Again it was hot inside, making everything wet and heavy. A new software tool was introduced that enabled us to use a variety of beats in all kinds of genres, while mimmicking a real live drummer.

We started with a more uptempo rocky jam which felt good, but it was during our second jam, a slow rock dialog, that we reached the same level of communication and inspiration as in the first session. It felt good to know this, opening a land of opportunities.

By pure chance we had our first jam session in the studio today. Out of nowhere came the idea to make some music without predefining anything. It was both daring and revelating, a musical dialog solely based on the moment of inspiration. No rehearsals, no frontiers, no agreements, no codes, no cuts, just the freedom of musical expression trying to capture the creative moment in a sea of randomness.

It was very hot in the studio, over 30 degrees Celcius, heavy with tension and expectations. For some reason we started with some Arabian percussion, with IC on guitar and Lucky on bass. Then the first slide guitar notes could be heard, followed up very quickly by a searching bass line. Jam 001 was born, a groovy moody searching jam with Arabian influences. It felt immediately right. Energetic, bold, inspiring, moving were the emotions that went through our minds. Maybe it could grow into something bigger.

We have decided to upload all our jams uncut with postproduction, unless explicitly stated otherwise. The reasons for adding postproduction are based on the limitations during recording. We feel that by adding postproduction afterwards we can get closer to the vibe during the actual moment of creation.