Inauguration Day by y u u g e

This album was mostly improvised and recorded live on January 20, 2017, the day of Donald Trump's inauguration. The focus of the album is on the method of its creation--through improvisation based on careful listening between the musicians and spontaneous reaction. The album is about empathy in times of division.

The form is intended as an antidote to the seemingly dominant American social attitudes of acting to establish status, to show dominance, to prove value through winning. In improvisation, there is nothing to prove and no one to prove it to. The measure of success for each of us is how carefully we listen to each other, and how well we can clarify and communicate each other's ideas. All of Microscope, for example, is built on Nick saying "That's cool, keep going."

y u u g e performs live mostly from scratch, with no established idea of what songs will be played, their content, lyrics or structure. We sometimes use loops as song foundations like in Snow Man, and other times start with nothing but an awareness of our surroundings like in Captain Creepy.

y u u g e is a Jersey City and Rahway, NJ-based band:
Nick Afflitto, Alex Pergament, and Jerry Ramos.

We apply the philosophy of jazz-improvisation, listening, recurring thematic phrases-to organically improvise music and lyrics. We pull influences primarily from jazz, folk, punk, and hip-hop.

We grew out of After School Activities - a weekly improvised music night in Jersey City.