Only I will be able to record FD-files. As these files will determine the structure and the whole forward momentum of the GMC, I will carefully choose which musicians to record. If each FD-musician develops the GMC for approximately 30 seconds, 120 FD-musicians will total an hour – the perfect length for a CD.

I will be visiting nearly one hundred countries and I will aim to record one FD-file per country. A high level of musicianship, expressiveness and uniqueness are the qualities I will be looking for, and I hope to strike a balance between pop, art and folk music.

 

This is how it will work… I will copy my piece, the first FD-file, onto an mp3-player. I will meet FD-musician A and play this to him/her. Musician A will accompany my piece with a musical response, and then, when my piece is finished, musician A will develop the theme of his accompaniment freely for approximately 30 seconds to 1 minute. There should be no gap between the accompaniment and the development; it should flow smoothly and organically. I will record musician A’s full piece as a continuous mp3-file on my surprisingly good portable recorder, the Edirol R1. I may alternatively make use of the musicians' own recording equipment, if available. I will also capture the whole session on camera.

 

I will then meet FD-musician B, and play back the development part (the second half only) of musician A’s piece. Musician B will accompany this part, and then develop this theme forward in time when A’s development ends. B’s development will be played to FD-musician C and so on… Each musician should try not to end his/her piece too definitely, which will make it easier for the next musician to carry it on. The accompanying part should be like the introduction to each musicians unique piece - his or her development.

 

I will be recording less than perfect mp3-files on a pretty good, but less than perfect portable recorder, in less than perfect recording spaces, perhaps even on the street. Whilst quality matters, what’s being expressed is of a much greater importance. I want to capture real, live, once-in-a-lifetime performances, and I even welcome incidental sounds from the surroundings to add to the realism.

 

If an FD-musician is a singer who lacks words to sing, I will ask them to browse this website for inspiration.

 

This diagram should make it clear how FD works. (In this example, my file is exactly 30 seconds, and the other files are exactly one minute long. Hence the sync points. Time progresses on the horizontal axis.)