The Backbone Flute is based on a poem of the same name by Vladimir Mayakovsky. I recorded myself singing or intoning the stanzas, and then multi-tracked instrumental responses to each one. When the instrumental music was complete, I removed the voice tracks. The resulting music escapes a potentially subordinate role to the text, while remaining closely tied to the poem in structure and mood.

Though there is no written "map" from which to re-create this piece, I include it in my list of composed works because the improvised raw materials were re-recorded and digitally reconstructed many times before I felt satisfied with the sound. By contrast, much of the improvised music I've produced collaboratively — represented on several of the discs below — is recorded in one take and subjected to minimal editing. Click here to listen to a recording of the The Backbone Flute.

Of the recordings below, 16 Powers and Union, 6000 Degrees Kelvin, Darker, and Unify are documents of collaborative free improvisation; each of the performers involved in these projects contributed equally to the spontaneous creation of the music. Talking Drum is a record of compositions by Chris Brown; I appear as a performer on Invention #4. Zond contains two pieces written by me — Bleed the Stone and The Backbone Flute — and two pieces written by my good friend and frequent collaborator, Arto Artinian.