Liner notes from the Tribes of Neurot "Grace" CD:
Active listening is required to fully experience the multi-directional effects of this sound recording. To achieve simultaneous play between Neurosis Times of Grace and Tribes of Neurot Grace you will need two sound sources capable of playing compact discs. The ideal setup is two independent stereo hi-fi systems placed on opposite sides of the listening space, however any combination of home stereos, portable CD players, home computers with CD listening capability etc., will work. We realize not everyone will have two sources to play CDs, so we suggest you combine equipment with a friend for this experience.
Grace is composed of sounds taken from Times of Grace manipulated and combined with atmospheric textures to express the same underlying tone and emotion as the original. Dialogue and sound effects are strategically placed to interact dynamically with the Neurosis version. Listeners are encouraged to experiment with different sources, different spaces, different speaker placement, and different volume relationships to bring an added dimension to life and spontaneity to the standard of passive stereo listening.
Once you have the listening space prepared, place each of the CDs in their respective players. You must attempt to have them start playing as close to the same moment as possible. The best way to achieve this is to hit the PLAY button and immediately hit PAUSE. This means that each disc is paused at zero on the time indicator. Then simply count down and hit both PLAY buttons at the same time. Due to the inherent differences in CD players, it will never be exactly the same. In creating this recording we have allowed for these discrepancies and in fact taken advantage of them in order to increase the uniqueness of this experience.
Through our experiments with these two discs, we have discovered that syncronization times within five seconds are optimum and nearest the "perfect" ideal of the project. Due to the nature of CD players however, the elements of chance and chaos will ultimately determine the relationship between the two recordings. Many interesting and unexpected results are gained through the randomness of longer discrepancies in playing time. We have witnessed extremes ranging from more disturbing and discordant than planned to more dynamic and beautiful than we could have imagined. Although we suggest you listen to these recordings uninterrupted in their entirety, track ID numbers correspond precisely on both discs, should you wish to sync them at various points corresponding to the song titles on Times of Grace.
