Release Notes: Microfiche ‘With Time’ (2026)

Improviser-composer collective Microfiche celebrates 10 years of collective improvisation, band-leading and music making with the release of our third studio album, With Time, out on Australian label Earshift Records. 

The music was recorded in a (long) day at the now closed 301 Studios with master engineer Tim Whitten, best known for his longstanding engineer duties with The Necks. The album was mixed by Tim over two sessions, and mastered by Lachlan Carrick in Naarm/Melbourne. The beautiful cover artwork was done by Eddy Boyd, who has also done my solo EP covers and the two We Will Intersect covers.

This album represents a period of transition for the band; firstly, and sadly, it is our final record with Novak on piano, as soon after Novak parted ways with the band. We are although supremely excited to have guitarist Hilary Geddes joined the collective in his place. 

For me, this record very much feels like it exists in the liminal space between old and new Microfiche - capturing the band on the cusp of a transition into new sonic territory. Both aesthetically and procedurally, the album shares qualities with our past records, while also including some fresh elements. For one, it follows a similar format to our past studio albums, featuring a mix of compositions by members of the band, as well as a number of fully improvised tracks (I won’t reveal which are which tho ;). Further, the tone of the music is varied, traversing across melodicism, ambience, beauty and raw energy.

The most notable difference on this record is the inclusion of electronics, which we first experimented with at the 107 Microfiche + guest residency, back in 2021. This new record is our first studio album to feature electronics and post-production. The electronics are scattered throughout, most explicitly used in Holly’s song Below, where Holly did extensive post-production on the raw band recording of her tune. That track has grown on me and is now one of my favourites on the record. Throughout the rest of the record, electronics appear more subtly, including in Pippa’s beautiful bass clarinet interlude, the end of Sam’s tune ‘I Sat In One Place Until It Became Many’, and for a moment on the last track ‘Outpouring’.

Everything is Everything VIII

My compositional contribution to this record, Everything is Everything VIII, marks the end of my ‘Everything is Everything’ composition series, which has spanned five compositions across three records. Truth be told, there’s no particularly profound reason for wrapping it; I think it is partly due to that initial feeling that I was interested to explore through the series morphing into something else, as well as feeling more confident to actually name my tunes lol.

The idea for Everything is Everything VIII came from my love of the unexpected moments of beauty and organisation that seem to emerge spontaneously from collective improvisations. I feel these unplanned moments of cohesion are often my favourite bits within our sets, and so I was interested in writing something that could consistently generate this sense of spontaneous ‘magic’.

Further, there is the trend of imperceptibility across my Microfiche compositions; I seem to love the sound of things changing gradually, to the point you only realise the song has shifted well into the tune. I explored gradual harmonic change in Everything is Everything 3.5, and slow melodic change in C To Sea, and so I thought to try experiment with duration this time round.

The form of this tune is quite simple: across the five minute composition, the rhythm section of piano, bass and drums are tasked with traversing from short sounds to long sounds independently of each other, while the horns do the opposite - imperceptibly and independently improvising from long to short. The magic happens somewhere in the middle where along each member's journey we meet for a moment on the same pulse, as if becoming magnetised and unifiying. The way this happens, and the particular pulse we meet on is different each performance. It is meant to be an unexpected, ephemeral moment of organisation and cohesion emerging from seemingly independent parts - and, as quickly as this magical moment emerges, it dissolves as everyone continues on reaching their assigned end point. 

Since recording the tune we have played it live a few times and it has developed further, as we have become more comfortable with the format. There is a live recording of it from a JSJ gig that we are hoping to put online. 

One of the things I love about writing for Microfiche is that I don’t need to compose anything too detailed. Although we all have different approaches to writing for the band, for me it’s important to merely suggest and not direct, so these master improvisers can run with the core idea and feel free to expand it as they wish. An additional benefit is that each playing of the tune is different and we can often find new and fresh approaches to old songs.

As you can see with my score below, the whole composition is really just three columns and some boxed directives. I leave the rest up to the band. Many of my Microfiche scores have been more directive based than notated, and more conceptual than musical.

With Time 

I love the title of this record. Sam came up with it after he and I went back and forth for what seemed like months trying to find a succinct phrase to represent what we felt the music reflected. 

The theme of time permeates throughout the record. it’s a core theme within both my tune - with the imperceptible magnetism that moves everyone from independence to unison - as well as Sam’s beautifully titled tune ‘I Sat In One Place Until It Was Many’, which evokes the richness of experience that reveals itself through stillness and mindfulness. It took us a lot of brainstorming to figure out that the throughline between the magnetism symbolised in my tune, and the multiplicity evoked in Sam’s was, simply, how both were achieved across time.

There’s also a multitude of others meanings within the title, but I’ll let you uncover those yourself ;)

Looking Forward

It is a true pleasure to share this project with some of my closest friends and musical collaborators <3. It’s been an honour to see them mature into world class artists and creatives over the last 10+ years and I truly look forward seeing what they create in future. Collectively running a project is not always easy, but growing and nurturing this lil band with these folks has been such a rewarding experience. I’ve been reflecting how sharing a project with people you care about it is a beautiful way to stay socially and artistically connected.

As a band, we are feeling renewed and keen to realise new projects and music. We’re working on a residency 2.0 with some extra special guests, and some new music, of course.  I’m keen to see how the music evolves with Hilary taking over harmonic duties from Novak (who we’ll miss!). The first couple of gigs with Hilary have been such a delight an I’ve been blown away at how seamlessly she has fit into the sound of the band. Lastly, we’re excited to further integrate electronics into the sound of the band, including getting my pedals involved !

Finally, I’ve been thinking about how the unique strength of Microfiche lies in how we stitch our compositions with long-form improvisation, and the musical telepathy and openness in which we go about doing so. The last few gigs we’ve played, the improvised sections have been real highlights, even though we have played as a band relatively little over the past 12 months. To me, this shows the power of the shared musical language that we have built over 10 years of playing together, as well as the countless hours hanging out, dining out, playing sports, touring and traveling together etc. etc. etc. that allows us to build improvisations that feel highly structured and organised. I guess that's the sort of thing that can only come with time. 

You can purchase a digital copy or physical CD of the new record at Bandcamp here.