Time Parts by James O’Sullivan, N.O. Moore

James and I had played a couple of gigs as a duo, the first organised by Earshots. We had a couple more lined up when the world withdrew. We were both keen to carry on, because it seemed that something might develop.

Both of us are interested in the electric guitar as a sound source – a found object, to borrow Keith Rowe’s lend from Marcel Duchamp - but we approach it in different ways. James tends to use controlled volume as a way to explore the sounds of wood and wire; I tend to use effects as a way to explore electricity. Together, a communicated world began to manifest. Could this world survive without us seeing each other?

We decided to keep it going by exchanging recorded improvisations and overdubbing. I think you can hear authentic interaction in the result, despite the fact that we were not reacting to each other in the moment; rather the moment got extended and stretched out – a sort of temporal virtuality.

Nevertheless, the improviser’s art is audibly there, in the moment of decision and act even in response to our recorded selves. We left a message before the tone.

N.O. Moore

Earshots Recordings, London

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