Most if not all of X Space's music is improvised. We started X Space after working in a rock/alternative band called Grumpy Mope. On our last album under that band title we expanded our musical territory somewhat and discovered how much we liked working unrehearsed sections into songs.

X Space approaches improvisation in a simple way. At most we discuss what key and tempo we will start a composition with. We do so as we use several rhythmic devices that, once programmed, need to see some kind of timing and speed which the programmed sounds are played at.

We view improvising as a conversation. As we've been working together since 1991 we have a good idea what one another thinks. More importantly, we sense how one another will react and feel comfortable when each other goes off in a different direction than anticipated.

To some degree rhythmic elements are important and frequently we concentrate on this, however timbre, or tone is more important to us. Much of what we do is an experiment with relations between sonic textures. This is where we differ from many improvising bands. Our music is not based on melodic figures. They develop but more as a secondary byproduct of the sound and rhythm elements we explore.

To a great degree we owe a debt of gratitude to modern jazz, in particular Miles Davis and his initial experiments on "In A Silent Way" and "Bitches Brew" the latter a seminal work that ushered in multiple genres of music, jazz, rock and avant garde to name a few. Other influences include King Crimson, especially in their use of polyrhythmic structures and currently experimenting with synthesized sound.

Early electronic rock is of course a major influence, from the German tradition to less underground bands like Pink Floyd. X Space has no rules. We play by ear and we listen. We are at our best live in long form. Sometimes we experiment with shorter works which frequently become the base for remixed songs.

A comment we frequently hear is, "that sounded composed." We enjoy hearing such things as we want our audience to enjoy what they experience. If you hear structure it means we did too and we followed it. That is in a sense part of our job as musicians. Composer John Cage spent a great deal of his time philosophically arguing that people find order. Many of his compositions incorporate the audience and location of performance as part of the musical whole. Often considered a process composer, someone that sets up parameters and allows them to occur, Cage let the process dictate the result of the work.

In some sense we work with experimental structures. To a degree any band that has no idea what they are going to be playing when they get on stage could be argued as experimentalists. However, we do not think experimentation has to equal difficult listening (although this will sometimes happen) nor do we think that audiences are so feeble minded that they can not follow abstract concepts. If you take John Cage at his most literal, and in our case we do, people will frequently find order in music. We also realize that as musicians we sometimes find order and stay in this little bubble until we feel like moving on.

Without going too far into philosophy we view music as a physical process and compare how we relate to one another musically with particle physics. There is a principle in quantum physics that in effect says "stuff" is made up of waves, but the act of observation causes a collapse of the wave into a physical entity. It is mind numbing to think about but the idea of collapse upon view works well into how audiences, and to an extent we the musicians, hear our music.

And in closing, we find nothing wrong in displaying our ability to play our instruments. What you hear is what we do as we are playing. This is an offshoot of the jazz tradition and early 1970's electronic music traditions. Along with these traditions we enjoy ourselves while we play. We get involved in what we play be it intense or humorous. And of course, we hope audiences "get it." That is when we know we have done our best work.