This chapter investigates the relationship between the fluid practices that frequently characterize the work of contemporary musicians, and the more solid roles of performer and composer that continue to hold sway in contemporary music. Focusing on a case study of the collaborative creation of Forlorn Hope for eleven-string alto guitar and electronics, by Gorton and Östersjö, the chapter analyses the processes that lead from research and experimentation with particular guitar tunings and playing techniques, through a more conventionally compositional phase, to the first public performance of the piece. The chapter demonstrates how the affordances of both the instrument in the hands of Östersjö and the particular tuning specified by Gorton combined with improvised discoveries, and the ‘filtering’ force of a piece by Dowland, result in a piece whose creative ecology is distributed across a variety of timescales and practices.