Anatomy of a file-exchange album

Over the last months, I have engaged in a frantic file-exchange activity with Swedish bass player Anders Berg. The result has been 3 Bandcamp albums titled November, December and January. This process itself has given me food for some thought about the nature of improvised music: What is it? How free is it, really? Does it have a role to play in the music(s) of our time? What happened to melody? Can it be groovy? Do you need to be in the same room? How long should an improvised concert or album be? Will classically trained improvisors take over improvised music from jazz musicians? What will then become of free jazz?

These are not new thoughts. And they are relevant for many sorts of musicing outside the realm of free impro. Actually, that could be one answer to the question if impro should be banned. Its non-compromising nature can be a catalyst for questions about music itself, be it machined dance music or a gavotte.

Our duo's overall plan is to have no plan. One of us starts the recorder, plays a stretch over a number of minutes, and sends it over the border to the other player. Anders seldom listens to what he has recorded before he sends his stuff over to me. I usually play it back and sometimes replace it. That might be heresy, but it is what it is. In another group I play in our practise before performances ends up in a plan for a 3 or 4 sequence show where each segment has a signature sound or atmosphere. Still it is free music. But to call it completely free from idioms or each musician's background (or bag) would be false.


My collaboration with Anders Berg has so far resulted in 3 releases in 3 months

Go to:
simlas.bandcamp.com/album/november
simlas.bandcamp.com/album/december
simlas.bandcamp.com/album/january-2

Sketch from 2008

the drive from berkeley to santa cruz took us around 90 minutes. as my friend oivind, always the well oriented, already knew his way around town from earlier visits and I had directions to Rick Walkers house on my cell phone, it wasnt to hard to find Rick Walkers house. When we got there Rick was mounting some effects  into a rack with the rack placed on his work bench, a very old, big and rusty american car. As he was running a bit late for our improv session at Meta Records downtown he asked us to take a look around inside the house. Rick's house is a dream for any musician, and can be turned into a theme park for imagination and improvisation any time. Before we had had time to check out more than a very little part of his collection, Rick was ready. I packed the Fender Strat I was to borrow into a gig bag and off we drove to the main street. The Meta Records store is a small nice place filled with vinyl records. Rick put up is stuff in the corner, went one more trip back home to get some more, and was almost ready by the time people had gathered around him to listen. He gave us a set with the most varied and imaginative collection of instruments and sounds. This man is a true sorcerer of sound and colourful pvc. I went on an hour later and did a short stretch alone before Rick seamlessly made his way into my playing. We played for another half hour.

It became an evening i shall never forget. In may, Rick goes to Europe, and when he reaches the shores of scandinavia we will meet again to play. looking  forward to that greatly!