Collected Solos

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The first recording in this collection is from 2008. Some time after this, after having recorded a number of other improvisations (which make up the rest of disc 1), I decided to embark on a 25-disc exploration of total improvisation - a pursuit of improvisation in the absolute, through the medium of sound. I decided on 25 discs because I wanted the resulting collection of recordings to represent a larger snapshot of the ongoing process than is generally available. Any document of an improvisor is going to be simply a snapshot of their ongoing exploration of improvisation, but in this case I wanted that snapshot to cover a longer period of time (both in the making and in the listening) so as to give a different perspective. I was also keen for the experience of listening to this project to be more akin to reading a long novel - not something that could be finished in an hour or so and then either forgotten or repeated, but something that would take a long time to work through, something that the listener would have to live with for a longer period of time before reaching the end. Some time later, I also decided to write a journal to go along with the improvisations, writing one journal entry per improvisation recorded. I would recommend listening to this collection disc by disc, over whatever period of time is comfortable, reading the corresponding journal entries after listening to each disc. Although since the journal entries only start at track 27, this would only apply from disc 7 onwards. If you wanted to (and didn't plan on sleeping) you could probably listen to the whole collection in one day, although this would require extraordinary dedication. The improvisations themselves were recorded on whatever recording equipment happened to be available, meaning that circumstances have left their mark on the recordings to a significant degree, and that the recording situations have been decided upon more or less on the fly. The recording quality of the improvisations, therefore, varies considerably. Most were recorded by me, although towards the end of the project situations arose whereby some of them could be recorded in much better quality by Alexander Feder. I should emphasise that this project (all 26 discs of audio, the journal, and the artwork) should be treated as a single work, and not divided into parts.

Massimo Magee - Collected Solos:

26 Discs of improvisations, an 87-page journal, and specially-created artwork, all by Massimo Magee