2007, February 4, Improvisation

[Derek]

Enjoy! 

[gruffalo]

excellent! you seem to get progressively more intense and involved as the improv goes on. i really like your harmonic exploration (this is my favourite aspect of music as a whole). i dont know if it was your intention, but same of the chords sounded a bit cheesy and happy at first. but when you started firing up about half way through, it was great. im not some depressive freak, but i just found some of the chord choices in the 1st half oddly happy.

overall, it was great and i hope to listen to more of your improvisations as they come along.

Gruff

[ted]

A splendidly Celtic orchestral opening, perhaps unconsciously influenced by certain cliffs in Northern Ireland ? A cryptic response there. If it's cheesy then I say please pass me the gorgonzola. Harmony to me is like variegated colouring which is painted onto the more significant events of rhythm and phrasing. As I age I find it is changes in harmony rather than agglomerations of notes per se, which produce strange effects in my brain. Of course this goes against all Western tradition, but who cares, worse things happen at sea. I can live with being different.

I always seem to prefer the openings of your playing. Whether this is you or me I haven't worked out yet.

[gruffalo]

yes, offcourse i do look for other aspects of music. i am into electronic music where many of those artists (not your typical pop artist or whatever, more like Steve Reich, Aphex Twin and lots of underground ppl) use complex rhythmic variation and painting. Artists such as Autechre master this form. so i do appreciate all of that, but just found some of the initial chords used were slightly Pop style, but seriously, the 2nd half of this improv was absolutely awesome. however i can understand if the intention was to start with basic harmonic progressions and then move onto deeper and faster changes.

[Derek]

Thanks for the responses!   

Gruff, usually I like more depressive stufff also. This one just came out sounding really happy!

Ted, hmm I wasn't thinking about cliffs in Ireland at the time, but my girlfriend's apartment is adorned with many celtic things. Interesting response!