Circadian Etudes, by The Assembly For Distance Alchemy

I’m happy to share that this collective album is now released by Infrequent Seams! In spring 2021, the final quarter of the year when we were still in COVID lockdown and holding classes entirely remotely, I was teaching a seminar on improvisation as part of our PhD program in Integrated Composition, Improvisation and Technology (ICIT), and it happened that all six grads in the class were experienced, creative improvisers. As part of the coursework, we decided to use networked performance software (in this case, Sonobus) to practice improvising together several times per week in different subgroups, then after 10 weeks, we recorded an album – all live takes, in a 2-day session – with everyone joining from a different location. I facilitated things, but the album is truly a collective effort, featuring Chris Hadley, Atticus Reynolds, Jiryis Ballan, Tony Fajt, James Ilgenfritz III and myself. You can stream/purchase the music and read the liner notes on the Bandcamp page.