These are 1-minute pieces written and recorded for an experimental radio project called "In Determining John Cage." The project is part of 120 Hours for John Cage, a celebration of Cage's works for radio organized to mark Cage's centennial and curated by free103point9 and the John Cage Trust. 

"In Determining John Cage" is an experimental adaptation of Cage's1959 performance-essay "Indeterminacy." It consists of ten 1-minute stories and ten 1-minute musical compositions which were written entirely independent from each other and paired at random to create a 10-minute performance. Because the pairing of story and music is determined only by chance, it is unlikely that any two performances will be exactly the same.

"In Determining John Cage" is a collaboration between Michael Garofalo, Shonni Enelow, and Josh Hoglund. Michael Garofalo composed and recorded the music. Shonni Enelow wrote and performed the text with Josh Hoglund directing.

The final piece incorporating these ten tracks will be available publicly in September 2012. Michael Garofalo plans to develop extended versions of these tracks to be released as a full-length album in 2013.

*Empty lectern image by Sayak Nagata 

09 IN DETERMINING MUSIC

Michael Garofalo is an electro-acoustic musician and documentary radio producer. 

Using analog synthesizers, lamellophones, field recordings, and found sounds he crafts pieces that reside in a sonic territory between incidental music for radio/television and eccentric synthpop. 

He was a founding member of the improvising trio Latitude/Longitude (active 2004-2010). Today, he performs solo and with like-minded artists. 

Recent collaborations include the experimental radio piece, "In Determining John Cage" (2012), with Shonni Enelow and Josh Hoglund, and an outdoor installation-performance at Groundswell (2014), "Black Mirror Picnic," with Laura Ortman and Bryan Zimmerman. 

Michael's documentary radio work can be heard nationally on public radio as part of the long-running StoryCorps series.

He is a transmission artist with the nonprofit arts organization Wave Farm/free103point9.

Latitude/Longitude was a Brooklyn-based experimental music group. Michael Garofalo and Patrick McCarthy founded the outfit in 2004, and percussionist Jason Labbe began performing with L/L in 2007. 

Songs began primarily as live improvisations that, when recorded, were subsequently layered, augmented, contorted, cut down, reconstructed, and juxtaposed.

Latitude/Longitude worked with diverse sonic materials: test oscillators, homemade cassette tape and field recordings, radio transmissions (FM/AM/SW/CB), toy electronics (broken and functional), and percussive junk, as well as more traditional instruments, such as pedal steel guitar, banjo, mbira, drums, cymbals, and voice.

Other projects include Snake Oil, Zig Zags, and Michael Garofalo's solo and collaborative projects.