Invitaiton / Instruction:
Hello!
If you have received an invitation to this private event, I am hoping you might like to be involved in a large-scale “blind” collaboration project that I would like to work on in the first half of 2023. I am only inviting artists whose work I greatly admire and have been hoping to work with in some form (or perhaps already have) for some time!
Tentatively, it would be hosted by my Small Worm platform, and the umbrella title would be ‘Worm Hydra’ (album title).
This project is inspired by the free improvisation virtual-remote collaboration that my friend Erika organised some years ago and in general by the works of great artists who have been collaborating a lot over their catalogues (including many of you).
The plan would be – that I would ask for ‘x’ amount of audio from each of you, you send it in and then I arrange all of it together – you should submit with an alias and track title – the alias will be used in the final track accreditation (in the format “x & x & x” for tracks with three collaborators, and so on) and the track title will be mashed together with the other titles it is being arranged/mixed with to form a word salad.
Ideally, this is totally free rein – however, sounds should try to be/feel ‘singular’ and not overly dense, since they will be layered in with potentially many others.
I intend to message you each individually to discuss/allocate a specific time – though, if you have a preference, you can go with your preference and I will try to make it work, but I will ideally have a few ‘time ranges’ that I would like from particular artists.
It will be made in such a way so that plans to make a physical edition could be realised easily, though I am reluctant to commit to that until it’s more fleshed out and I’ve thought more about the logistics of getting every artist at least one copy of a run.
Planned ‘time ranges’:
Track #1 – 5~10 minute range
Track #2 – 7:30~15 minute range
Track #4 – 10~20 minute range
Track #5 – 15~30 minute range
Track #6 – 30~60 minute range
There will probably be more than 6 tracks, but these are the 6 ranges I’d like you to choose between.
Details for sending audio:
Any lossless file format – clearly labelled, “artist – track” format sent by WeTransfer or as a Google Drive shared link to jpjshearman@gmail.com
There is no deadline as such – I am hoping to be mostly done with this / finalising it some time in June 2023 – so there is ample time to work with, though it would be great to be able to get the ball rolling sooner rather than later.
Small Worm:
https://smallworm.bandcamp.com/music
NB: the event artwork is an old draft for a previous SW release that didn’t get used – it’s not the final draft for ‘Worm Hydra’
PS: I refer to this as “blind” as I intend for artists not to hear how their sounds are used until the final product of the project is released publicly.
S H E A R M A N 