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jamming at terra incognita
photo by katie rauh

how we work together

we are all amateur musicians. some of us are only beginners. we meet regularly to discuss ideas and play music. sometimes we just "jam" and sometimes we focus on a particular instrument, for example a voice, or a particular member and his or her contributions. we create an atmosphere that will encourage a person to freely express feelings or ideas in unfamiliar musical media. we record all sessions and our repertoire is developed from the session tapes by refining, organizing, and augmenting. thus a piece at any stage in its development is a collective product. also, the group acts as a "pool" of support for any member who wishes to develop a piece based on individual ideas. rather than working as a band, with a part for every member in every piece or performance, we organize pieces or performances in small subgroups based on convenience and commitment. thus a wide variety of attitudes, approaches, and ideas is nurtured.

From Terra Incognita Bio, 1981

 Riffs From the Air

1981-1982

The early Terra Incognita was a collection of musicians and artists who wanted to make noise. As described in the statement at left, our compositional method was "ethnographic". We were pulling "riffs" out of the air, samples of the collective musical unconscious: phrases from bach motets, movie themes, rock guitar solos, "pop" folk songs, commercial jingles, you name it.

Our first performance using these compositions was at Laguna Honda County Hospital in San Francisco, a home for the mentally ill, terminally ill, and indigent. We set up a row of silent TV sets on the front of the stage, because one of our members felt it would make the patients feel at home. Behind the TV sets, we stood playing our evocative compositions, which, by their very nature, would sound vaguely familiar to almost anyone.



audience, terra incognita at laguna honda
photo by scott rankin



max with tape machines, laguna honda
photo by scott rankin