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.

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”)