Microwave is and continues to be: Improvised Recording.

With the last entry we started forming a system by which we could extract some sort of creativity from the participants and at the end of each session come out with something that could roughly be called music. Through a consistent once a week schedule a few regulars began to appear and with the minor success of the last experiment we managed to attract even more participants and given that we’d worked out some of the kinks of the method the material flowed like water.The system stayed more or less there same as it was before, we would record the entire track within the four hour session and each participant applied their contributions based on what had already been constructed in front of them. What changed in this application was simply scale. More disparate thoughts and influences to mould into the piece being presented by the room. A reflection of what was felt subconsciously on the day. Often being a non-zero amount of apprehension but mostly filled with feelings of artistic exploration and the joy of seeing it come together in some form.

Mechanically the sessions happen pretty fast, a piece is usually recorded within two to three hours and then moulded into shape to reflect the most clear possible image of that days expression. Production is used as a tool toward refining the initial feelings presented on any one track, often aspects of a persons musical tendencies, personality and mood actually paint the aesthetic of the piece and the production is less about moulding the sound and more about making sure every part of there expression is performing its “intended” function. More of these pieces explore the place of performance rather than the composition based thinking that lead most of the earlier group works. Adding more people to the room our aim become less concise during the recording process leaning back on a little more of the “jam” concept, the pieces came out longer and in some ways less focused, but the extended length allowed for a deeper exploration of the “vibe” set up in each track.

Whereas on Microwave 7 we tried to make short concise pictures of our intentions the records reads a little more as an atmospheric piece. The strange kind of sounds you’d hear in an unfamiliar place. The aspects of music are all there for you to latch onto through a cloudy atmosphere of musical intentions.

Sit with them and let it wash over you, analyze where your focus goes and why and build off of that, often find humorous as the easiest path forward. A useful process for both enjoying and creating this record.