I conceived 'Birdbrainsuite' in 2007 as an hour-long project for my duo with Nigel Harris, 2/3 (or 'The Two Thirds'). I sporadically developed it in a series of sessions over the next couple of years before inviting another friend Victoria Bourne to improvise vocals on one Movement and flute (in a sparse, shakuhachi-like manner) on the opening and closing Movements. I then passed it on to Nigel to add whatever he liked, tweaking things a little more at the final stage.
1st Movement: PulsewithIn (00:00-13:29)
2nd Movement: DualityScatter (13:30-21:20)
3rd Movement: ChimeLand (21:21-29:59)
4th Movement: SpannerThrow (30:00-37:36)
5th Movement: BirdBrain (37:37-44:43)
6th Movement: DualityShroud (44:44-49:59)
7th Movement: PulsewithOut (50:00-60:00)
The album sat as a kind of 'unofficial second' 2/3 album for a few years before Nigel suggested I treated it as my own, with Victoria and himself as guests. We both felt more comfortable with the project presented in this way; we can now keep 2/3 for material we would work on more or less equally, as it was for our debut 'Cadavre Exquis':
twothirds.bandcamp.com/album/cadavre-exquis
A while later in early 2011 I produced a shorter project piece 'Birdbrain' which condensed extracted edits from Movements 1, 2, 6 and 7 into a 15 minute electroacoustic piece with additional soundscaping and minus Nigel's material. Confusingly it does not contain material from Movement 5 which is titled 'Birdbrain'! Intended for diffusion to an audience as an electroacoustic work, I consider it among my most mature pieces. It can be found on the album 'Imaginary Soundtracks':
jimtetlow.bandcamp.com/album/imaginary-soundtracks
Please note 'Birdbrainsuite' is a continuous piece; if burning to CD, please be sure to burn without gaps between tracks to ensure uninterrupted play.
released April 1, 2014
Conceived and composed by Jim Tetlow, 2007-2009
Flute and vocal improvisations by Victoria Bourne, 2009
victoriabourne.bandcamp.com
Speech samples and additional soundscaping on 'Birdbrainsuite' by Nigel Harris, 2009
sksg.bandcamp.com
Revised cover made with the help of MidJourney, 4th March 2023