Infinite Stew

Infinite Stew is a music / performance art project in which I regularly release working drafts of an album, indefinitely.

Every 4-8 weeks, a new version of the album will come out, containing slight (or dramatic) changes to the previous version. Eventually, the album will not bear any resemblance to the original release. It’s a sort of infinite, messy, playful game of telephone with myself.

The album is not finished, it never will be finished, although I do hope it’s enjoyable to listen to in all of its infinite variations.

The album is available on all DSPs, but I’d prefer if you listened on Bandcamp.

I’m doing this for 4 reasons:

  1. The idea actually came to me suddenly in a dream, and I think I’d be angering some minor deity if I didn’t do it.
  2. It’s a perfect way to encourage experimentation and risk-taking. I can publish any idea without the pressure of it being seen as a final and definitive choice. I can revoke any idea nondestructively. No choice is permanent, all previous paths are visible.
  3. By presenting Works-in-Progress in the same manner as most artists’ finished products, I hope to emphasize the idea of a "song" as an evolving piece of art. This idea of a "master recording" or definitive version of a song is a relatively new idea in music history. But a song is different than a recording — it is more like the recipe than the finished dish.
  4. In that way, it’s also a response to / critique of AI art. Generative AI is a black box that entirely skips over the process of creating things. I believe the process is where the value lies (both for me, and for others). In a world where “finished work” is increasingly easy to generate, unfinished work becomes more human, more relatable, more important.

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release history

acknowledgements