Systems Over-Ride is a new album featuring my latest compositions and newly established ensemble, WAVE RIDERS. The quintet of improvising musicians on saxophone, guitar, bass, and drum set, with me on piano, perform my exploratory compositions combining free jazz and doom metal, Systems Over-Ride, and For All the Wrong Reasons.
The central focus of my extended work Systems Over-Ride (31:43 in five movements), is the continued development of a notational system I call reflective notation, which refers to the communication of musical ideas in a way that is reflective of, and attuned with, the performative skill set and approach necessary by improvisers in the production of the music. I have found traditional notation to be limiting in this scenario, and therefore include graphics, and explore visual placement on the page.
In addition to my compositions, I directed a series of duo improvisations in the studio session and then commissioned five composers to create remixes using fragments of their choice from the recorded material. The composers are Nicole Lizée (CAN), Bree van Reyk (SYD), Joe Talia, Philip Rex, and Theo Carbo (MEL). The live works were developed over multiple performances at the Jazzlab Brunswick, as part of my Andrea Keller Curates Monday Nights series, during 2021. The album was officially launched at a performance for the Melbourne Women’s International Jazz Festival on Monday December 6. The album has received airplay in Australia and France and has been met with enthusiastic responses.
Due to the recent completion and release of the album, and the submission of this NTRO, there have not been official reviews yet.