Inc is the most recent iteration in a series of related pieces: Incoporate (2018), Incorporated (2019), and Incorp (2019). Each explores the grammar of improvisation and makes use of a constructed vocabulary for the generation/modification of musical events. In this iteration, each performer uses an iPad with the Mira app as an interface to send instructions, choose a leader, change the course of the improvisation, etc. The audience is invited to explore the space around the performers and intuit an understanding of the system with which they communicate.

In some ways, this series is my response to improvisation systems that revolve around arbitrary events of a specific character or style (e.g. John Zorn’s Cobra); while I respect these pieces for their musical personality and consistency, I was drawn towards a more open and organically-evolving system for its ability to produce different results in each performance. I wanted these pieces to be able to adapt to different musical settings, which in turn potentiated new challenges and constraints for performers to overcome in each rehearsal.

Less emphasis is put on what material is played, and more emphasis is put on how the material develops and mutates over time. With this, a social dimension is engaged, and the potential for certain contradictions are expected to emerge when these instructions are used in combination.

Instead of “play something soft” ... “draw attention away from oneself”

Instead of “play with more silences” ... “avoid playing at the same time as any other player”

Instead of “play something gnarly” ... “push the material against the constraints of your instrument”

etc...

Since the operations relate to the material that immediately precedes them, the resulting improvisation is naturally less mercurial and tends to develop outward organically like the root system of a tree. The irony here is that in the attempt to construct a more open system, I’ve created a byproduct of the internal consistency I set out to avoid.