J.C. Combs

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.

Spring, 2012

J.C. Combs — Sat, 12 May 2012 16:26:42 +0000

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.

Expose Magazine – Safe Passage

J.C. Combs — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 17:15:56 +0000

Here is a review that’s only in print of Safe Passage. Electroshock Records were kind to pass along the text to me.

“After a long period of what seems like relative inactivity, “Electroshock Records” released at least a dozen new titles in 2010. “Safe Passage” is among the most interesting of those, but also one of the least musical in a conventional sense, being almost entirely made up of samples, field recordings and loops. These works were created by Combs for his “Improv Friday” events that began in early 2009. Quoting the liners: “The event is a venue where Combs and a troupe of new music improvisers and sound artists gather weekly to share their works”. Four tracks in, on “November 3, 2009” we finally hear the integration of a conventional musical instrument by way of some dense synthesizer textures. Following that, on “Abysmal” there is some muted singing that offers a haunting melody through a good part of that track. Later pieces incorporate incidental spoken text, TV samples, random sounds, incidental recordings of mysteri¬ous origins and such, some juxtaposed with synth patterns, samples and drones to hold the pieces together like glue. Every new listen reveals some¬thing new that seemingly was hidden or unnoticed before. Overall the disc explores the notion that sound sampling by itself is a worthy art form. – Peter Thelen (“Expose”)

Steve Layton

J.C. Combs — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 05:39:56 +0000

Back in the early days, ImprovFriday was twittering around in 2009. I kept inviting Steve to IF, but he was was wary as most artists should be regarding random invites. Not sure exactly when he 1st participated (right around when we moved to our own site in 2009) but something clicked and Steve has been a major factor in IF’s growth since then. Obviously as an adviser, working with IF, but mostly with the works, the mashes, mixes, and his cordial attitude which has been a huge factor – How IF has developed. A post in this fashion can’t express the gratitude IF shares for Steve.

Check out the Internet Archives

J.C. Combs — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:16:12 +0000

Following up on my collab 2011 release with Lee Noyes, I noticed “Confessions of a Deviant Machine” (con-v) has surpassed the 500 download mark. Head over for your copy. http://archive.org/details/cnv68

2011 Favorites – Confessions of a Deviant Machine

J.C. Combs — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:59:15 +0000

I was pleased to find myself and Lee Noyes‘ collaboration, “Confessions of a Deviant Machine,” in the avant-garde net magazine “Spiritual Archives” year-end favorites of 2011. This album is free for download in a couple locations: http://www.archive.org/details/cnv68 and http://www.con-v.org/cnv68.htm.

“Over 70 titles chosen from thousands of discs, embracing a huge range of genres, a good exercise to remember the year that is leaving.” – SA

2011 – Top 100 Netlabel Releases – Confessions of a Deviant Machine

J.C. Combs — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 18:09:06 +0000

What a pleasant surprise to see my duo, “confessions,” with the talented Lee Noyes in a wrap up year review on the pages of AoS. Released on the netlabel “con-V,” this album is free for download in a couple locations: http://www.archive.org/details/cnv68 and http://www.con-v.org/cnv68.htm.

Re-Release “Bats in the Belfry”

J.C. Combs — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 22:58:18 +0000

My subscription to TuneCore ran out, apparently, a couple weeks ago and I decided against renewal in favor of releasing a free copy of “Bats in the Belfry” – 2009 via my independent label “cellar door.” This album is a contemporary classical piano work for piano roll.

Big event week

J.C. Combs — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 23:52:49 +0000

You can never predict when the ImprovFriday event week is going to be quiet, fair or large. Last week, December 1-3, was pretty large, with a couple new contributors and some old faces showing up for a total of 67 unique works. Ambient, drone, noise, acousmatic, electronic…., IF has it covered. There’s also a fair amount of mixes and mashes since we operate under a 3.0 creative commons.

Here is the particular playlist and here is the actual “event thread” if you would like to peruse through each post with the description of works and photos tagging along in some cases.