For the large ensemble Decisive Instant, I composed Zusammengehorigkeitsgefuhl (2013) and Get Groucho (2015),
two structured improvisations with notated portions beginning and ending the pieces. The recordings here are Sibelius notation app playback.
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Conducting the Los Angeles-based ensemble Decisive Instant
in Zusammengehorigkeitsgefuhl Electric Lodge, Venice, 2013
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The group is directed by Jeff Schwartz and Charles Sharp



Conceptual score for Get Groucho,
composed for Decisive Instant



Bandcamp Albums
Six Circles is a structured improvisation for large ensemble,
composed for Surrealestate in 1998 and
performed here by Decisive Instant in 2012.
The piece was included in the 2000 album Contrafactum.
Graphic score of Six Circles (1998)

Phantomwise, an eleven track, 2012 album featuring alternating trios with
Emily Hay (flute/voice)/Tom Steck (drums) & Gustavo Aguilar (drums)/ Cristian Amigo (guitar)

Select works of structured improvisation
Rain Station Diaries 2017, solo guitar/effects
Get Groucho 2014 (for Decisive Instant)
Zusammengehorigkeitsgefuhl 2013 (for Decisive Instant)
Curfew 2006 (for Soundwalk/Long Beach)
13+7 plus one 2006 (for Edgemar/Santa Monica)
The Morton Feldman Kitchen 2006, indeterminate
Music for Water, Tree, Stone 2003, digital soundscape
Like a Zebra Toward the Islands of Yesterday
solo percussion 2001
Recorded & co-authored by Gustavo Aguilar
on his CD Looking for Aztlan (Acoustic Levitation , 2001)
Six Circles: In Memory of Alfred Schnittke 1999
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Select Recordings
Phantomwise (Acoustic Levitation Records, 2012)
with Emily Hay, Tom Steck, Gustavo Aguilar, Cristian Amigo
Aporias (Surrealestate/ on Acoustic Levitation Records, 2011)
Lacunae (Surrealestate/ on Acoustic Levitation Records, 2010)
Contrafactum (Surrealestate/ on Acoustic Levitation Records, 2000).
Members of Surrealestate appearing on the CDs Aporias and Lacunae:
Jeff Schwartz (bass), Charles Sharp (winds), Ken Luey (winds), Bruce Friedman (trumpet),
David Martinelli, (drum/percussion), Jonathon Grasse (guitar)
Listen to the Lacunae track "I Still Dream of Nana," featuring David Martinelli (drums);
Bruce Friedman (trp); Charles Sharp (perc); and myself on guitar
Read my and Jeff Schwartz' liner notes for Lacunae and Aporias CDs by Surrealestate
Themes of Literacy and Denial for solo percussionist and digital soundscape (2003)



In 2002-2003, percussionist Don Nichols and I worked on creating a set of approaches to structuring an improvisation map for him to duet with a digital soundscape I had created at UC Santa Cruz in 1995. These sounds were produced by capturing 'aliasing' phenomena from a Yamaha DX7. I was now faculty at UCLA, and Don was completing his studies at UC San Diego, where I visited him to go over fine details of the piece. He had come up with brilliant ideas, and I created a graphic score with the timings of the "tape" music's ebb and flow: the work is full of sonic points of arrival.
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