Simulated Progress
Fieldwork
The Band
The discerning Fieldwork fan may notice some personnel changes in the group. In late 2003, altoist Steve Lehman took on the demanding role previously occupied by tenor saxophonist Aaron Stewart, and he co-developed the material for Simulated Progress with Iyer & Kavee throughout 2004. In a more recent shift, since January of 2005, the drum chair has been occupied by percussionist-composer Tyshawn Sorey. Amidst these transitions, Fieldwork's startlingly well-defined group identity and band sound have continued to expand and mature.
This new lineup of Fieldwork continues to develop the work started by the original lineup. Using composed rhythmic material as seeds for extended collaborative exploration they inspire and impel each other into new avenues of ensemble playing. Fieldwork is a band using the organizational model of the rock band as a basis to explore 21st century creative music. The result resembles urban folk music from an imaginary civilization. built somewhat defiantly on the model of rock bands, but using that organizational structure as a basis to explore creative improvisational music.
Fieldwork's music has been developing in an Upper Manhattan woodshed during long, intense sessions between tours and recordings of the other projects these players are part of. The group's name refers to the fields of musical mysteries that emerge from these concentrated periods of collaborative work. Often, upon listening back on a handheld tape recorder, they would discover that they could not at all account for the music they had just played. It frequently sounded further beyond them than they could have dreamt, perhaps resembling field recordings of urban folk music from some imaginary civilization - a suitable image for a band that's unlike anything you've ever heard.
It is easy to note that Fieldwork has benefited from each member's extended collaborations with musical luminaries such as Henry Threadgill, Dead Prez, Steve Coleman, Roscoe Mitchell, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Anthony Braxton. However, far from a simple model of hybridization and re-appropriation, the music on Simulated Progress reflects Fieldwork's much more ambitious goal of musical transformation and innovation through an engagement with diverse musical communities and an extended and ongoing collective inquiry.
