We Will Intersect - ‘Fragments’ (2024) Release Notes

7 March 2024

I’m pleased to announce the new record from We Will Intersect - ‘Fragments’, out on Belgium experimental label Off. This is the band's second record in as many years, following up our 2023 self-titled LP debut.

We Will Intersect is a collaborative project lead by friend and mentor Adrian Lim-Klumpes, and I. It features Adrian on piano, myself on trumpet and electronics, Miles Thomas on drums, and Nick Meredith on electronics. To be more precise, Nick plays a single drum rigged up to an FX chain through a contact mic. Pretty mad. It also has Ado and I on editing and post-production credits, which I discuss below.  

Before I delve into the musical processes of the record, I wanted to touch on mine and Adrian’s relationship. Adrian was actually my jazz band instructor, back in the late 00’s. For those unaware, Ado is not only an amazing improviser, but a world-class educator who has inspired a long list of students to pursue creative music. That list includes me. During the years I was in his school combo he introduced to everything from jazz standards to free playing, to Phil Slater. I realised I wanted to make my own music due to his directing of that school band. Moreover, I feel all of the music I make- from Microfiche to my solo music- has Adrian’s influence in it. And so, naturally, it’s an immense honour to be a part of this project with Ado.

I think that’s part of what makes this group compelling: I have been listening to Adrian’s music for such a long time, and have been so influenced by his approach and taste, I feel as though there is a certain sympatico we bring to the harmonic and melodic aspects of the group. I listen back and feel some of the musical moments could be mistaken for being pre-composed. This is also in no small part to Ado being such a strong musical listener, too.

Ado and became friends after school and he became a bit of a mentor throughout uni, as I was finding my feet as an adult musician. Then in 2019, we started collaborating. We first played a trio gig with Nick Meredith at the old Cleveland St 505 (RIP) in 2019. He then asked me to record some trumpet for Tangents upcoming recording (released as Timeslip & Chimeras in July 2021). Sometime after that he asked me to be a part of this new electro-acoustic project with Miles Thomas and Nick Meredith.

This at-the-time nameless project’s first activity was a recording. We had a full day of recording with Richie Belkner at his beloved but now defunct Camperdown studio Free Energy Device (RIP also) in January 2020. Yes, this is pre-COVID-19 music.

Adrian wanted to record an hour-long improvisation with one simple compositional parameter: each 15 minutes across the hour, one player would improvise non-responsively against the rest of the ensemble. It formed a sort of rotating trio + one solo format, with each 15 mins showcasing a different configuration. During the recording, we had timers to know when to begin and end our 15 minutes slot, as well to know when the hour was up. 

It could be interesting to listen to the first album and see if you can discern which player is the non-responsive one in each 15 minute bracket. The correct answer/order is Meredith, Lim-Klumpes, Calligeros and Thomas. In the case of Miles, I remember he went as far as to take off his cans for his 15 minute slot. 

Another component of the band and recordings is an improvisational approach of Ado’s called ‘future-listening’. Briefly, this approach asks the improvisers to forgo reacting immediately to a band mate within an improvisation and instead play towards a speculated future musical moment. I don’t want to do this concept a disservice so I’ll leave it for Ado to explain another time, but needless to say, this is where ‘We Will Intersect’ comes from!

During the recording session, we played 2 x 60 min improvisations (with a break). Nick Meredith and Ado also recorded some duo stuff in the arvo, which is yet to be released. Looking back, that day of recording was a fruitful one; not only did we record the debut album, but this new release lifts excerpts from the other hour-long improv that day. As you can imagine, recording two one-hour sessions of intense improvised music is pretty fucking… intense. It’s a test of endurance in terms of listening, responding and playing. Also, each player was isolated to be able to edit the session.

At the end of the day I was adamant the first hour take was going to become the record. Ado and I had linked up in the last 10 minutes for this brooding and beautiful, cathartic finale, which at the time I thought was the best thing I had recorded. But Ado was equally adamant on the day that the second hour-long improv was the one. I was quietly horrified as I got really chopped by the end and felt like it wasn’t my best.

A month after that recording session COVID-19 hit. As was the case for so much during that time, progress was slow on the editing throughout 2020. After conceding that we’d use the second improv take as the full-length LP, Ado and I went about editing the session to it’s final form across 2020.

Soon after in early 2021, Ado showed me the excerpts he had cut from the unused first take that were to become follow up EP, i.e. Fragments! Track 1 was the opening of the session, and is immediately followed by track 2 in the uncut version. Track 3 is actually the final section of the original take, with track 4 coming just before it.

I really enjoy the process of lifting tunes from extended recorded improvisations. In fact, I hope to utilise this method more, as it’s an ‘economical’ form of music-making. In fact, I remember Phil Slater describing The Necks as such, due to their ability to create a unique set of music every night, as well as a new album each year, thanks to the same process of improvisation and post-production. 

I should add, our editing sessions were done remotely. Ado had done some remote collaboration online with Tangents and suggested we employ the same method of sharing and saving our edits on the cloud. Basically, we had all the tracks and the DAW session on Dropbox, which was stored locally on a hard drive (although they make it hard to do this). This meant someone could upload their updated file of the session onto Dropbox and another collaborator could then open and view it. It is actually genius, and allowed Ado and I to edit without losing each other works. 

So the excerpts were cut in 2021, as well as most of Ado’s major edits. I’m not sure what happened through 2021 and 2022 but it took us a while to get the music mix, masted and on a label. It was only after the release of the LP in March 2023 did I open Ado’s edits of the EP. I ended up editing the trumpet part slightly, including removing some blemishes (some loud inhales on track 2!) and automated the volume a bit. I also did some slight structural edits to construct natural sounding starts and endings. Finally, I touched up my electronic contributions including the shimmering, crescendoing pads in track 1, and the FX’d bells in track 3. All the other more synthesised-sounding electronics are from Nick Meredith’s rigged up drum.

Ado did most of the other editing on the EP, ranging from subtle FXs of sounds to deleting whole stems and adding new ones from other parts of the session. Track 3 and 4 feature the most extensive production. In track 3, Ado doubled Mile’s ride track, as well as panning and displacing them slightly to create a sort of double drummer effect. Track 4 is that musical moment I thought was my best recorded trumpet moment to date. Ado had a vision for these super crunchy, gated and processed drums, you hear. He also automated a descending low-pass filter on the piano track, which gives it that underwater effect. I was initially against adding the LPF to the piano, as to me the beauty of this track is the dialogue between the trumpet and the piano and I felt losing much of the piano left the trumpet isolated and out of context. I tried changing Ado’s mind to keep the unaffected piano but to no avail. I do think the FX is beautiful and ghostly, especially in it’s final solo moment, but I also hope one day we can release an alternate version with the unaffected piano so the original piano+trumpet duo can be appreciated. In fact, I made sure to get a bounce from Richie with more unFX’d piano in it just incase ;)

The final part of the process for both records has been to take our Ableton session to Richie B and get him to recreate our FX chains- just way better- using his pro skills and pro plug ins. Richie has been part of all of Ado’s creative outputs, from Triosk to Tangents, to his solo stuff. It is during the mixing sessions with Richie we achieve the final production of all the sounds, including the right trumpet and piano tones, among all the other balancing that goes on in a mix session.

Fragments was mastered by Michael Lynch, at Shoehorse sounds. The great cover art is by Eddie Boyd, aka Human Noise, aka LomaLoma. Eddie is a great musician and band leader in his own right, who has over the last couple of years up-skilled and begun also working in the graphic design space. He also did the *mwah* We Will Intersect album cover.

Also, a big thank you to Alain from Off records, who has supported and released both We Will Intersect records. Alain released Adrian’s last solo record and was supportive of this new project, too. It means a lot to have someone backing your music and helping you get it out into the world. Thanks Alain.

Finally, the group has actually completed another day of recording already. Let’s see if we can keep this roll and get it out by March 2025 for our third record in three years! *fingers crossed*

This is a digital release only. You can listen and purchase the music at the world’s best music market bandcamp.com https://ugoki.bandcamp.com/album/fragments

Nick
8/03/2024