Last year, we debuted a Very Special Episode titled 'Riffing', which we then described as collaboration without communication: an audio relay race in which each member of the team worked from a tiny snippet of sound, branching off into something radically new and different -- and it was so much fun, we decided to try it again.
Riffing is an exercise in freedom … within bounds. We were inspired by the children's collaborative writing game in which each kid writes a sentence of a story, then folds the page down so just a few words are visible and passes it on, leaving the next person to build on that fragment. When the story has gone the whole way round, each one is read aloud -- and everyone revels in the (un)expected forks in the road. In the Zeugma version, each team member puts together a 3-minute segment in secret, then hands over the last 15 seconds to their teammate to inspire their own 3-minute segment: lather, rinse, repeat. Last week we gathered to listen to the fruits of the semester's secretive labors and recorded our reactions -- and we invite you to share your own reactions on our Facebook and Twitter {{DUSTY -- ADD THE LINKS FOR THESE}}. But for now … just follow the music ...