The three, who had been playing together in various groups for a number of months prior (most notably with multi-instrumentalist Masashi Harada), then began rehearsing regularly as a trio and recorded their first album at Studio 7A West in Charlestown, Massachusetts that summer.
And despite Rainey's move to Chicago in 1999, the group remained very active that year, beginning their ongoing collaboration with electronic musician Jason Lescalleet, travelling out to the West Coast for a number of concerts and making a 7-week cross-country tour later that fall.
The group also includes his nmperign partner Greg Kelley on trumpet, Mike Bullock on double bass, James Coleman on theremin, Chris Cooper on prepared guitar, Vic Rawlings on cello & electronics, Howard Stelzer on tapes, and Liz Tonne on voice.
Apparently the result of some good-natured heckling by John Olson and Aaron Dilloway of Wolf Eyes at the 2003 De Stijl/Freedom From Festival in Minneapolis, the recording showcases nmperign's sense of humor and conceptual rigorousness.
Despite the fact that the title of their first album was not a reference to John Cage (but simply the total time of the album divided by the number of tracks), nmperign has used a number of literary and other references in their titles, ranging from Marguerite Duras' The Malady of Death and Four Novels, Georges Bataille's Poems, Zen Master Eihei Dogen, a book of interviews with Jean-Luc Godard, Herman Melville's Pierre; Or, the Ambiguities, a box of Chinese tea, The Doors and micromosaic artist Henry Dalton.