Album Notes

new media artist robert duckworth (b. 1974) is currently pursuing a master of arts degree in composition new
media under mark trayle at the california institute of the arts. other teachers include tom erbe, wadada leo smith, morton subotnick, and james tenney. after becoming interested in drumset & percussion as a teenager, he studied music theory and music composition at the university of georgia with lewis nielson and leonard v. ball, jr., and japanese language and culture in the asian languaged department, eventually graduating with a bmus in composition. since graduation, he has studied at various seminars, workshops, and symposia around the world with such figures as pierre boulez, julio estrada, gerard pape, miller puckette, curtis roads, karlheinz stockhausen,
david zicarelli, and others. his research has led him to tokyo as a special training composer for the japanese agency for cultural affairs. under the expert tutelage of his mentor takehito shimazu, duckworth researched the japanese contemporary music scene. during his stay in japan, his increasing interest in the computer as a real-time performance/ improv instrument lead him to co-found the laptop duo tog with roddy schrock. the duo has concertized extensively in japan, with events in europe, and america as well. tog's fellow performers and collaborators are legion.

Roddy Schrock began music composition studies with Mark Applebaum while still a student of sociology. He later relocated to Tokyo where he formed the laptop computer duo Tog with Robert Duckworth. His most recent performances have included the debut of his new work Let's Examine the Issues, for computer, voice, and percussion at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as well as Paper Folding Piece, for amplified piano and electronics with Randy Nordschow at Strawberries and Violin: An afternoon of performance at the San Francisco MOMA. Schrock recently released the CD "Lexivexicon, a new collection of visceral electronic music" and completed a national Japanese tour with Tog, Hypo, Sawako, and others in December of 2002. Future plans include a new CD release from Tog and a European tour slated for the winter of 2003. Schrock's more formal compositional studies have included work with Yuji Takahashi, Chris Brown, Alvin Curran, and Fred Frith.