Miniatures (2016-2020)

"Miniatures 2016-2020 is a collection of tracks taken from the work that I have posted to social media over the last 4 years (primarily Instagram). Since I started with the format I have composed and posted over 300 pieces. This collection is my favorite 40 of them. All of them were composed and recorded in one session, oftentimes in some remote location and always live to 2-track with no overdubs or multi-tracking.

I have always taken these compositions seriously and I feel that contained within them is some of the best work I have done. I have always been a fan of brevity in recordings and performances and so I took to the 1-minute format quite naturally. John Zorn’s Gob of Spit (Naked City) and the short works of Webern come to mind as inspirations. :) My intent is to write complete pieces that are about a minute long. I rarely post excerpts of longer pieces, though there have been a scattered few of those.

The problem with social media for music is that it is a less than ideal way to listen. Most people listen on their phones, without headphones, etc. Not to mention the compression that is done to both audio and video. So, after being inspired when Lightbath started his “Selected Public Works” series, I decided I wanted to do my take on that. That is, present this music in a way that it can be heard as it was intended. Needless to say, I talked to him to make sure he was okay with my doing this and aside from my changing my original title (“Selected Public Works that Lightbath did not do”), he was cool with it. Actually, pretty sure he would be fine with that title too.

My background is in improvisation and these pieces reflect that. Not as instant as free improvisation, but not very far removed either. As a result, there are mistakes and gaffes, both technically and musically. I like that sort of thing as a listener so I am presenting these that way as well.

The idea here is that all of these little things done over a pretty decent span of time when presented together make up a coherent whole (with the obvious help of Nathan Moody’s mastering).

I hope you enjoy and thanks for listening.

Thank you to the wonderful Mystery Circles label for releasing it, Ben Owen on the gorgeous letterpress / die cut work for the tape and Joe Potts for the feedback and font suggestions on the design. And lastly to my daughter Penelope for inspiring me to see things in a more positive light as well as forcing me to be more economic with my time
in the studio. ;)

David Rothbaum
4.3.21

All tracks composed and recorded live to 2-track between 2016-2020
Instruments: Modular Synthesizer, Fender Rhodes
Mastered by Nathan Moody at Obsidian Sound