"NY studio group"

The JMJ trio considers their music to be a part of the rich tradition of ambient music and trace their influences back to Erik Saties "furniture music" and John Cages ideas of inclusiveness. The environmental re-structuring found in the tape works of Luc Ferrari and Pierre Schaefer also contributed to the work in both sound and process. Contemporaries who have inspired the JMJ trio include such artists as Helen Said This-era Dead C, K-Group / Surface of the Earth, Omit, Dean Roberts, and Rafael Toral. Recording for In the Absence of the Third began in Oyster Bay, New York during the winter of 2000 and continued through the summer and fall months at the Library in New York City, using a simple four-track cassette recorder to document improvisations performed on alternately tuned and prepared guitars. The recording sessions were inspired in part from the ideas developed by the Nordoff-Robbins School of Musical Therapy; namely, that ones innate creativity can be expressed through improvisation, and that this exploration can positively address emotional, cognitive, and developmental needs. Additional sounds were drawn from the different recording spaces and from field recordings of the surrounding environment. Preliminary selections were digitized at The 402 Annex in October of the same year; recording, editing and mixing continued until the following spring. Improvisations were structured and re-structured in the digital medium through intuitive means. The goal was to layer sonic textures with shifting sound events that allowed the pieces to evolve. The JMJ Trio strove for music that dictated its own form, which re-invented itself within its own parameters. The living space became a crucial part in the creation of these sound events -- when someone unlocks the front door and slams it shut, the answering machine interrupting a recording session, St. Nicholas Avenue as a rain-slicked cavern, the sustained crackling of steam radiators throughout the apartment. The improvisations happened while life happened around us. In the Absence of the Third is packaged with silk screened and hand painted covers and is available in a limited edition of 250.


"THE JMJ TRIO - IN THE ABSENCE OF THE THIRD (LP by Ontological Records)
Housed in a partly silkscreened and handpainted cover comes this
limited LP of recordings made at home, in the living room. Despite
the fact that it's called a trio, I can see only the names of two
players, Tim Elder and Michael Machemer. I assume they both play
guitars, as this is an album of improvised guitar playing. Not the
kind of heavy, free improv noise, but rather soft and tinkling guitar
music, made like light weight space because of the use reverb, echo,
chorus and what have you got. Six lenghty pieces of ambient like
music, Isolationist as this was once called. A bit like Rafael Toral
(but maybe more rockier), Stars Of The Lid, Ultrasound or some of the
more softer lo-fi guitar groups from down under. The JMJ Trio would
have sounded great on the "Women Taken In Adultry' compilation,
reviewed elsewhere. And that is all a big compliment; nice stuff
indeed."

-Vital Weekly, 33/11 2004.


"Getting the opportunity to listen to (and review) music from someone you consider a friend is always a bit troublesome, because there's always a point when you'll have to face the person in question and let him or her know what you actually think. I'm relieved to report that Broken Face writer Tim Elder and musical compadre Michael Machemer who work as JMJ Trio have what it takes, and they deliver it in spades on their debut LP. Before discussing the music I should let you know that when I got this LP I could do nothing for a few minutes but stare at it and touch the hand-painted silkscreen covers. The packaging is just gorgeous and clearly a labor of love and passion, and it's not hard to see that it took at least one or two perfectionists in action to realize this record. But let's now dive deep into the oceanic guitar improvisations which are In the Absence of the Third. What we're served with are six pieces of lush ambient soundscapes and droning haziness, which comes from alternately tuned and prepared electric guitars, effects, and various field recordings. One could trace this recording back to some of the floating sonic icebergs that have appeared on the Corpus Hermeticum label as well as to the music of Oren Ambarchi and Rafael Toral, but there's also a distant predilection for musique concrete experiments nodding towards something more extreme. The general feel is like sitting right in front of some tone generator that sends out sound particles from beyond, creating almost weightless gossamers of sound waves from a strong compositional ability. I'd be happy to see more along these lines when exploring other contemporary minimalists' works. If you share our interest in some of the greatest minimalists and aren't afraid of finding as much emotion as compositional sense packed within each tone, then you'll love this as much as I do. Contact the label at ontologicalrecs@hotmail.com"

-Broken Face 5/28, 2004.