Erin Rogers and Alec Goldfarb | "Earth's Precisions"

Earth’s Precisions by Alec Goldfarb and Erin Rogers crafts a musical surface that simulates both a larger ensemble and a single, hybrid instrument. At times, the composite of guitar and saxophone is pushed to extremes, as each of the 5 co-composed pieces explore the impossible polyphony of an expansive terrain, speaking in tongues. The duo shares an expressive vocality and an approach to construction that is both elemental and ritualistic, while at other times haunting and ethereal, permeated by a dose of horror.

Inspired by the lineage of guitar/saxophone duos –– from Fred Frith and Anthony Braxton to Tim Berne and Bill Frisell –– Earth’s Precisions expands on this tradition, at once confounding the sounds of their instruments past recognition and returning them to a seemingly nascent state. Rogers and Goldfarb achieve this with a unique setup: Rogers plays alto, tenor, and soprano throughout the album, and Goldfarb performs without effects using a range of microtonal retunings of the instrument.

Alec Goldfarb is a Brooklyn based guitarist, composer, and Hindustani classical musician. Active in the NYC jazz and new music communities, his work explores musical traits as historical vestiges of migrations, colonialism, geographies, labor, ritual. He holds a masters degree from CUNY Brooklyn College and B.A.’s from the University of Illinois in Music Composition / Theory and Philosophy.

An exponent of the Seniya-Maihar Gharana, Alec performs Hindustani classical music across the globe on the guitar using a novel synthesis of sarod and sitar technique. In Spring 2020 he co-founded the Open Improvisations: Online Edition weekly series with Marina Kifferstein and Carrie Frey, and served as the inaugural composer in residence for Jonah Bokaer Choreography in 2018. He is currently on faculty at NYC Guitar School.

Based in New York City, Erin Rogers is a Canadian-American saxophonist, composer, and improviser dedicated to new and experimental music. Her “decidedly future-oriented” music has been described as “whimsical, theatrical” (Brooklyn Vegan), “radical and refreshing” (Vital Weekly) and “a richly expressive display of stentorian brilliance” (The Wire).

Her work ranges from chamber music performance to solo experimental improvisation to individual and collaborative compositions that incorporate live electronics, theatre, and text. Rogers’ music has been performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), Roulette Intermedium, Centro Nacional de las Artes (Mexico City), Celebrity Series (Boston), MATA Festival, Ecstatic Festival at Merkin Hall, Prototype Festival, Winspear Centre (Edmonton), Resonanzraum (Germany), Círculo de Bellas Artes (Madrid), and NyMusikk Bergen (Norway). Rogers is co-artistic director of NYC-based performance ensembles: thingNY, New Thread Quartet, Hypercube, Popebama, and a member of LA-based Wild Up.