The Pandemic was grim, yet also offered unexpected possibilities. Time was suspended. The whole world quieted down. Surprisingly, nature and creativity flourished.

To continue our collaboration, John sent me home recordings of solo bass and voice. I responded in the tradition of Musique Concrète, the beginning of electronic music composition nearly a century ago. Those early pieces made use of recording tape, manipulatating the tape for various effects. I used recordings of acoustic sounds, including my own and others' playing, and all kinds of found sounds. I manipulated those sounds with simple effects, never using electronic sounds.

As the collection of pieces grew, it became a Story Book. My mother's childhood in 1930's Brooklyn. The heyday of Harlem's burgeoning jazz scene. Jazz Master stories. Stories from poetry, stories from drawings. Our own improvisational stories, and our future stories of Goodbye.

The Pandemic Quiet, along with John Voigt's inspiration, opened a creative space for me. A renewal and expansion of my work making sculptures in sound. - Josh Rosen

To call what Josh and I are doing "Free Jazz" or "Avant-Garde Jazz," or even just "Improvisation" is close, but that's not exactly it. Instead, we are sounding out emotionally-filled musical pieces which are like stories in a book.

We begin our improvisational compositions in one of two ways. Either we freely search for a theme, motive, or pattern, and then immediately develop it through our musical interplay.

Or we build a piece improvisationally from something specific. It could be an existing poem, or someone else's music, or from a freely sketched drawing, or the music mixed with the personality of famous jazz musicians such as Charles Mingus or Thelonius Monk. The idea is that everything is music so we can choose anything and make music from it-like squeezing the juice out of a delicious piece of fruit. - John Voigt