As an interactive system etherSound can take on different shapes (a performance environment, sound installation, composition tool, etc.) but its representation on this record is perhaps the hitherto most detached and abstract of all versions produced, in that it introduces a distance between the performers, the listener, and the collaborators. The electronic part on this recording is the result of a large number of SMS messages contributed by collaborators during a concert performance of etherSound on May 8, 2004 at Jeriko in Malmö, Sweden. All the messages sent during that hour were stored along with the absolute time at which they were received and just as their contents were used that day to generate computer originated sounds have they been used in this recording to generate the electro-acoustic track. The messages appear in the exact same order and at the exact same relative time position as they were received in the concert and in that sense, this recording is a mirror image in time of that evening. Those who participated in the concert also participate on this recording.

While recording this CD, the electronic track became like a third player to me and Peter. Despite its static nature, it appeared as a quite dynamic agent that mediated the `presence' of the concert participants, the other musicians and the ambiance. This presence made it necessary for us to engage in discussions concerning our musical relation to these distant performers. In another setting we might have chosen strategies that would allow for a more free approach but in this case we had to respect the absent players (or there would be no point in doing the record in this way) at the expense of our own freedom. We had to give up ourselves (our egos) in order to allow place for the collective. The collective introduced the authenticity that we had to relate to.

A recording is a simulation of a musical performance and in the case of improvised music it is simulated improvisation (though not necessarily less authentic). In some cases I would be inclined to say that a recording is a work kind of its own, only vaguely related to the music it simulates. This particular recording is a two fold simulation: It is a simulation of the performance of etherSound but it is also the simulation of interaction between an unnamed collective force and two musicians--just as etherSound already in its earliest conceptions was a simulation: A simulation of mobile phones playing music.

The recording was done by Henrik Frisk at Malmö Academy of Music July 4-5, 2005 and mixed by Henrik Frisk and Peter Nilsson at dinergy music studio, Malmö. The CD etherSound is released on Kopasetic Productions, a collectively owned, and run Swedish record label and available for purchase at the site. 
