Craig Taborn’s Wild 60xSixty Project

By DownBeat I Oct. 26, 2021

Craig Taborn, sound surfer
(Photo: Courtesy craigtaborn.com)

The concept is simple, yet a little crazy … as in, fun.

Keyboardist and composer Craig Taborn has created a new online work of 60 pieces, each about 60 seconds in length, that will play in a randomized order when a listener goes to the 60xSixty website and hits “play.”

“Pressing ‘play’ initiates a run of 60 tracks in a randomized order,” Taborn says in press materials outlining the project. “The sequence ends after all 60 pieces play. The numbers relate to the ordinal position of each piece in the present playlist and are not intended titles or identifiers of the musical works. Every subsequent play shuffles the deck. In time, new pieces may be added as others are removed.”

Taborn said the pieces “relate to one another only in seeking to explore how malleable the perception of a 60-second span of time might be when subject to different sound worlds in succession. Do some pieces feel longer than others? What elements contribute to this subjective experience? How does time pass or not pass?”

It’s the latest offering by the heralded pianist and electronic musician, a work that expands and contracts time, surfs sound from the ultra acoustic to the über electronic, ties them into a singular package, then mixes, matches and messes with them with each playing.

It also highlights the wide-ranging pool of influence in whichTaborn likes to wade. From his solo-piano performance project Avenging Angel, to the Craig Taborn Trio, to his electronic project Junk Magic and more, he has been a noted improviser, composer and sound surfer for several decades now. This is just another example of Taborn following his muse. Hear for yourself at 60xsixty.com. DB