Hi all!  I just finished this barebones blog where you can trace the progress Bryan and I make on our collaboration. 

How did this come to pass?  Both of us had been kicking around the idea of doing a project that uses a traditional orchestral pallet a starting point for some kind of electroacoustic treatment.  Once we realized we both wanted to do this, the natural next step was to join forces and see what we could come up with together. 

To make it interesting we’re approaching it a bit like a remix project.  We’re going to be preparing each other’s source material, which will then be the only sound we’re allowed to use.  All forms of processing and manipulation once we start working with the sounds we’re given is just fine of course. 

Here is an outline of what Bryan and I will have to prepare for each other by February 20th:

1. two minutes of raw, untouched instrumental recording.  we’ll bust out our respective collections of instruments (as long as they can be found in a traditional orchestra) and do our best to lay down some useful material with them.
2. two minutes of orchestral material performed by someone else.  this could be a clandestine microcassette recording of a live concert, or carefully chosen excerpts from that dusty old copy of the complete bernstein.
3. two minutes of layered instrumental recording.  this is where we get to take out our instruments again and get some help from the magic of digital multi-tracking to create some thicker ensemble textures that would be impossible by ourselves.

That’s the mission.  We’re both just beginning the sampling process, and we’ll report back here as we start collecting material!