专辑简介

'To the Passage of Time' is a title given to this series of improvisations by James Aikman and Robert Newcomb, created in preparation for Robert's annual winter solstice recital, in 2012 celebrating the end of the Mayan calendar at Kerrytown Concert House, Ann Arbor, Michigan, December 21, 2012. Each of us has vast experience in improvisation, yet as a duo, this is our debut. Since we had been recording our rehearsal sessions during the late summer and autumn of 2012, and since each seemed to go extremely well, we decided to schedule a holiday listening session a week or so after the recital. Impressions were so positive that we have chosen to release the recorded sessions as they were, without touch-up, over-dub, or any change whatsoever to the music. These were all views of the same subject from different angles and timeframes. The resultant ordering of the pieces was based on musical logic after the improvisations were recorded without regard to the linear time chronology of the sessions.

To the Passage of Time

When more than one person is truly improvising, a structural template outlining the formal arch is usually in order. 'To the Passage of Time' presents subtle, poignant opening minutes, reflective and musically conversational. This grows into the middle section via gradually increasing motion from which a guitar bass line elides with the more active interior section. These central few minutes are highlighted by evolving harmonies presented in ostinati, evolving arpeggiated techno/loops and broadened colors of sound. Here, a faster-moving, ricochet music takes place where we bounce ideas off of one another and each work simultaneously (eventually followed by a static coda, the intent of which is to instill peace). This outline, a simple three-part, slow-fast-slow arch form, works very well, assuming the notes cooperate as they usually do! The piece we search for all along…is always there, nestled within. (notes by James Aikman)