Commencing Tomorrow

by Charles Rice Goff III & Michael LaGrega

1 Uniphonic Dawn
2 Fresh As Copperfield
3 The Way You Wish Them To Live
4 Ever Ever Ever

INSTRUMENTATION:

Goff:

Korg R3 Vocoder/Synthesizer
Yamaha VSS-30 Sampler/Synthesizer
Voice
Stylophone
Artiphon Orba
Boss RC 20X Loop Station Loop Duplicator
JVC TD-W303 Stereo Cassette Recorder
Sound Samples From Random Cassette Tapes
Tascam 424MKIII 4-Track Cassette Recorder

LaGrega:

Moog Matriarch
Oberheim Xpander
E-MU PX7 Command Station
LR Baggs Venue DI Pre-Amp
Fourness Electric Violin
Eventide Space
Mackie VLZ 12-channel Mixer

SOFTWARE:

Cool Edit Pro II Multitrack Recorder
Audacity Multitrack Recorder
Several Plug-In Audio Sound Effects
Amazing MIDI Wave-To-MIDI Converter
Musescore MIDI Scorewriter
Roxio 2011 Sound Recorder

PROCESS:

Goff and LaGrega recorded ninety-nine minutes of unrehearsed improvisations on January 2, 2026, at the Taped Rugs Studio in Kansas City, Kansas, USA. The duo produced four individual recordings during the session, each following its own unique trail of interactive atmospheres and moods. Goff edited these recordings into their current forms between January and February, 2026, cutting the total playing time by roughly half of its original length.

The elements of “Uniphonic Dawn” were recorded first, as a single, digital, monophonic track. Originally intended as a test of the wiring set-up, this piece ended up displaying some considerable interactive artistry between the improvisers. Goff retained its monophonic attributes in his edit.

The other three improvisations were each recorded digitally as well as on cassette tape, through a Tascam 4–Track cassette deck. The cassette recordings broke the instrumentation into tracks that could be edited individually. Staying as true as possible to the ebbs and flows of the original improvisations, Goff removed some of the less compelling materials, moved some other elements forward and backward in time, and sparsely added effects to various bits. No materials from any of the four original recordings were transferred to any of the other original recordings. No new elements were added to any of the original recordings. No artificial intelligence (AI) was employed in the editing of this collection.

THEME (?)

As Goff painstakingly worked to refine these recordings, he became more and more conscious of how they acted together to subtly reveal the rudiments of a metaphorical jumping-off point for a journey into a new beginning. (Of course, this metaphor was conjured entirely by Goff’s imagination, which has often been known to stray from traditional human behaviors.) Goff’s whole “new beginning” idea was reinforced by the fact that this collection of recordings was literally birthed at the beginning of a new year.