[2] Ivan Reese began recording music on his home computer when he dropped out of the Alberta College of Art and Design in November, 2004.

[3] Principal recording of the score was completed in three days in the summer of 2005 with the assistance of future Ganglion member Owen Thelwall.

[4] Both musicians neither slept, ate, nor wore any clothing during most of the recording process, covering their faces and bodies with tribally inspired painted designs.

[5] The following winter, Reese released the first solo work under the Ganglion name: a collection of demos and recording experiments titled with the pun About To Be Pretty.

[6] Immediately following the completion of the score, Ivan began recording a double album, with the two halves titled Point and Laugh respectively.

In April 2009, a steady lineup of musicians began writing and rehearsing music specifically for live performance under the Ganglion name: Ivan Reese (bass blarinet, guitar), Owen Thelwall (saxophone), Megan Gerbrandt (drums, jawharp), Kiri Rix (vocals), Jessica Yeandle-Hignell (piano), Audrey Burch (piano, accordion), Mark Webber (guitar, banjo), and Kyle Cheadle (bass).

[8][9] In the fall of 2009, Reese recorded a score for a feature film titled Mirror rorriM, a dark comedy written by Sticks Sutton.

The performance entailed a number of electronic, mechanical, and organic sound sources: a radio signal generator, animatronic penguin and elephant, boiling kettle, power drill, bass feedback, saxophone, harmonica, duck decoys, children's toys, poetry, singing, and various odd tone-sources.

The performance featured specialized computer software which recorded Reese's voice, analyzing and rearranging his speech into musical phrases.