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This electroacoustic composition arises from practice-based research into live improvised electronic performance with two world-leading free improvisers. Its research questions are fourfold:

i) How might the laptop be deployed to establish rapport between musicians characteristic of freely improvised music?

ii) In what ways might field recordings add convincing musical content in such contexts?

iii) How might pre-/post-performance studio production contribute to improvisational practice?

iv) How might musical content intended for improvisation be meaningfully used in other modes of presentation?

From these questions the following methodology was developed:

i) Recording sessions to obtain material reflective of each individual artist’s improvisational language and particular soundworld.

ii) Modification of this material to develop content for an evolving MaxMSP instrument that generatively played texturally similar material through individual channels for selection and further modification during performance.

iii) Duo performance, adding live sampling/modification of the instrumentalist‘s playing.

Field recordings were incorporated as my own improvisational role developed. The final phase investigated the possibility of re-contextualising performance materials in the form of a fixed electroacoustic composition. Each piece uses a discrete collection of sounds developed for a specific performance, played back generatively using the original MaxMSP instrument, and combines it with field recordings, some used during performances, others not.

The project revealed that:

i) Rather than develop highly complex systems, much simpler methods yielded convincing aesthetic results albeit at the expense of improvisational responsivity.

ii) The textural qualities of field recordings worked especially well in the context of this particular improvisatory approach and formed the basis for a further research (Metis 2011).

iii) Improvisational practice directly enhanced electroacoustic compositional process.

The work is disseminated through one of the most long-standing and well established web labels focusing on this genre of music and pre-concert talks, detailing the project, were given at the Universities of Surrey and Newcastle.