J.C. Combs

“Gazing” 2013

J.C. Combs — Sun, 12 May 2013 17:53:02 +0000

I’m releasing a miniature album soon over at the exciting net-label “Spectropol.” ”Gazing” – Three piano + electronic processes – improvisational performances – between 2012-2013. More details to come.

Up to speed

J.C. Combs — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 00:10:54 +0000

Who blogs anymore? More of us should, actually. It has to beat posting to our generic blue and white diary right? Since I last updated this blog (which as you may know doubles as my artist website) I was lauding Bruce Hamilton for his efforts over the years with ImprovFriday. Since that post, however, we decided on a name change to accurately represent the online event. You see, we felt the fact that the event carries over to Saturday and now opens Thursday didn’t match the title. Couple that with the broader scope of music beyond improvisation and, thus, we decided a name change was in order. Not that anything regarding the event needed change, just the name. So now we are Sound-In. If you remember the days of sit-ins, love-ins or even bed-ins, then you will get the gist of the name.

Secondly, I’ve been advising a new radio-show-turned-video-cast called “Words on New Music” with Paul Muller and Jim Goodin at YT. The online broadcasts review artists from the Sound-In events in addition to all sorts of new music artists. They also produce in-depth interviews.

Also it was nice to discover a work of mine was picked up from my Soundcloud page called “recycled piano” and included in the fine radio show Miniature Minotaurs with Kurt Gottschalk (WFMU), 91.1 fm in New York, at 90.1 fm in the Hudson Valley. Check out the show here.

Update: ”Recycled Piano” was picked up by the label “Spectropol” to accompany two other works on the album “Gazing,” due out sometime in June 2013.

Bruce Hamilton

J.C. Combs — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 06:18:26 +0000

I’m going to get around to actually create a section for the ImprovFriday “mind” here. I have included the advisers back in the early days, Harrington and Toub, and the artists who followed, involved presently: Layton and Muller. Now its Bruce Hamilton‘s turn.

I remember Bruce participating way, way back in the summer of 2009. Every week he would post something very original and one particular event it was so damn hot outside…. Oh yeah, its an online event right? Well anyway, Bruce lives in my state (Washington), and he posted a piece called “Fanner.” He recorded his fan and manipulated the sound and turned it into a wonderful piece.

I wouldn’t admit this to Bruce publicly, but I asked him to work with ImprovFriday due to his vast experience with new music events, in particular his experience with BEAF. And its no coincidence that IF has flourished in our little niche due to the advice of Mr. Hamilton. Bruce was the lead and key figure curating releases IF vol. 1-2.

Bruce also heads up a very active new music label “spectropol”. Definitely check that out, with an array of seriously talented artists.

Four Night Scenes

J.C. Combs — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 23:23:11 +0000

Steve Layton put together a four track album titled “Four Night Scenes”- for the Amaranth Sound net-label, which is an IF Event label focusing primarily on compilation projects. My work, “Magic Theater – Entrance Not For Everybody (feat. Noyes, Sanderson, Sundström), is included. A mixture of pieces and electronic treatment feat. Lee Noyes “punaises de lit” Richard Sanderson “Lights of the Bay” and Roger ErocNet Sundström “Verto Serpentes.” The title is a line from Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse.

Four Night Scenes: “A series of four interrelated mash-ups, of tracks created during the August 2-4, 2012 ImprovFriday online event. All of them share very similar material, length, and a deep ambiance, but each masher’s take on the material is distinctive and personal. The mashers are Steve Layton, J.C. Combs, and Roger Sundström; the musicians mashed are Benjamin Smith, Steve Moshier, Paul H. Muller, Lee Noyes, Richard Sanderson, Roger Sundström, Chris Vaisvil, Lydia Busler-Blais, as well as insect sound samples from lorenzosu, acclivity, and reinsamba at Freesound.org.” – Steve Layton

Repeating History

J.C. Combs — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 16:39:18 +0000

I had the pleasure of working with three great musicians this week over at ImprovFriday - Shane Cadman, Peter Thörn and Kavin Allenson. Enjoying SC & wondering when I will run out of space.

“Encrypted Note” – Video

J.C. Combs — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 17:13:11 +0000

I still haven’t made a video for “confessions” but was happy to see a new video from a work from the album on ilirlluka’s channel at YT which is described as ” about sensitive music, generally experimental and electronic compositions mixed with classical/neoclassical elements , going from ambient and minimalism to abstract and avant-garde music, in the purpose of creating personal sensorial situations and for a deep and intellectual listening.”

And so I wanted to give that channel a shout out for doing a nice service for the arts.

love.exe

J.C. Combs — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 14:35:44 +0000

CC 3.0 All works at Sound-In (formerly known as ImprovFriday), unless marked (NMC) are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Sound-In: An online new music event. Each week the Sound-In will kick off at 5 pm Thursday, PST, concluding at 6 pm Saturday, PST. It’s very easy to join in, all you have to do is post a newly created new music work. A Sound-In includes a variety of new music ranging from free improvisation, musique concrète. acousmatic, electroacoustic, minimalism, postminimalism, (and more) and various arranging and rearranging techniques. Sound-In serves as an online venue for your creativity and is held in the forum.

Detailed instructions and rules are located here. Visit there if this is your first time participating. Note: We use an embedded media player on the site. Just look for the small gray tab in the bottom-left of any page; click it and you’ll see a playlist for all the tracks on the page. Happy music making and listening!

Revise Zombie

J.C. Combs — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 02:09:14 +0000

In light of the horrific so-called “zombie apocalypse,” I wanted to share a small portion of the collaboration process between myself and Lee Noyes while wrapping up “confessions of a deviant machine.” I have a tendency to coin what some may consider “interesting” titles. During one of the ImprovFriday events back in 2009 we came up with a work which I titled “cryptic zombie killers.” I just liked the way the words flowed together. Lee emailed me one day and in his usual polite manner said “I think we should rename the Zombie piece.” Well, I thought about it and believed it was the right call. Not long after the piece was renamed “encrypted note.”

My little contribution to the internet zombie wave.

Another location

J.C. Combs — Sat, 12 May 2012 19:34:04 +0000

Just when you thought there were too many changes happening online, storage, uploading, downloading, social networking and on and on – the community of new music musicians decides they like Soundcloud. I’ve been using it sparingly for a couple years but I decided to give in to peer pressure and give my account some attention. I intend to use it mainly for my most experimental works and phonography.

PPP (featured on NIWO)

J.C. Combs — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:53:03 +0000

I was featured on a new release, Steve Layton – PPP track 4. Here are the new release liner notes.

Between April 26th-28th 2012, twenty-five musicians from around the U.S. and the world gathered at the music-sharing website known as ImprovFriday.com. The suggested theme for our sharing was simply “ppp;” i.e., the music term for “very soft and quiet.” How each person interpreted this in their own performance was left to them. This CD documents mash-ups I made during the course of the weekend event, of all the different tracks coming in to the site from these musicians. Some tracks were heavily edited, but most were left close to their original state, and simply allowed to interact with the other tracks in an unforced way.

Musicians: Günter Gläser, Kawol Samarkand, Roger Sundström, Peter Thörn, Glenn Smith, J.C. Combs, Lee Noyes, Kavin Allenson, Steve Moyes, Richard Sanderson, Paul Muller, Lydia Busler-Blais, Benjamin Smith, Jérôme Poirier, Fabio Keiner, Norbert Oldani, Chris Vaisvil, Steve Layton, Paulo Chagas, Steve Moshier, Bruce Hamilton, Shane Cadman, Jim Goodin.