Album Notes

Music + One, a collaborative project by Jon Raskin and Myles Boisen, is a compendium of solo improvisations for improvisers. Meaning that the music on this CD is meant to be played along with. The instructions for the recording sessions were very simple; improvise for 3 to 4 minutes imagining you were playing music with your shadow. This was to, hopefully, allow room for others to improvise with the recording. To test this we than invited everyone to came improvise along with one of the tracks at a show at the 21Grand Performance Space & Art Gallery on September 32, 2005. The tracks were randomly chosen and the order of the players was set either as a duo, trio or quartet with the recording counting as one player. There were some wonderful moments that convinced us that the project would be worthwhile to release. The project also shows some of the breadth of the improvised music scene that is happening in the San Francisco Bay Area at this time. I would like to thank all the musicians that participated in this project and made such wonderful music.

Here are some suggestions for how to improvise along with this recording. Play around with the order that you listen. Switch between soloing, supporting or layering (by layering I mean adding another idea at the same time a around the relative density.) Try changing the density and/or volume of what you are playing. Take an idea from the recording and go someplace else with it. Ignore what is going on in the recording. Start improvising and than start a track so you have to adapt what you are doing to the recording. Another is picking a track and imitate it fairly closely, repeat it trying playing similar material (paralleling the track) that is close but can wonder a bit and finally adding ideas to the track that don’t have to been the same area but sound good.

Have Fun!