On Tuesday 2 July 2024, I was joined by Neil Valentine (Viola) and Shri Sriram (Bass) for an initiation session of the second experimental musical trio as part of the Experimental Musical Collaborations project.

The session took place over four hours at Solent University music studios and consisted of a series of improvisations to explore and develop musical ideas on the theme of “belonging”.

In music and in conversation we explored ideas groundedness; of tethering and untethering; of masculinity.

Reflections

Reflecting on the session in the morning afterwards, I am struck by the immediacy and ease which characterised yesterday’s collaboration. This lead to a number of improvisations which felt very well formed even in their early beginnings.

Undoubtably, some of this was about a serendipitous connection between each of our approaches, and a shared familiarity with free improvisation. But also, learning from the first experimental trio, I felt much more prepared (including a more robust and responsive musical palette of sounds which I was able to prepare in advance, allowing me to feel more freely expressive with my own musical performance) and more confident in the process (including a better understanding of what I needed to get from the initiation session, to be able to develop the ideas into a final piece/pieces).

Next Steps

I need to spend time with our initial improvisations, and find ways to either join the musical improvisations together into a piece, or, decide which can be made into separate pieces. We plan to come together again on the 19th July to rehearse and share what we have made, the shape of which I need to also look at.