New Album: Jacque Harper and Geof Lipman, inchoate

inchoate is metrically phased music for guitar and bass, recorded asynchronously from 2023 to 2024.

Bassist Jacque Harper shares…

As a duo, we try to place both instruments on equal footing. In much music, the bass is relegated to a supporting role, with the guitar in the foreground. By rejecting this traditional formulation, we open space to explore in full the roles available to both instruments.

This album represents the first documentation of our collaborative Moire-patterned compositional process. We employ different levels of metric and harmonic coherence, uncovering compelling ways to create form and theme out of the interference and synchrony of independent musical thought lines. Borrowing from minimalism, aleatoric music, and jazz, and using techniques like looping and collage, we are working to create a musical space that has a unique identity, with eclectic roots and an unusual spirit.

“Cerulean” consists of tight heterophonic riffs, with short sections of soloing trading off quickly between instruments through the form.

“SARDINe” uses metric mutation to transition through an intricate harmonic progression. It demands tight focus from the performers and offers the listener meditative space.

“The Order of Apparent Non-Importance” uses a skeleton of short pentatonic motifs as an instigation to improvise.

“Sleng Teng Fantasy” careens rapidly through a series of precessing-phase sections, mercurially interposed with chromatic passagework. And some modern organum too.

“The Texas Sharpshooter” presents two characters: a funk-inspired bass in 7/4 joined by spazz guitar in 6/8. The title refers to the harmonic structure: I totally meant to do that.

Available online at jacqueharper.bandcamp.com/album/inchoate.