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Music’s Complex Problem
Édouard Vuillard, Morning Concert (1937-38) Why do we turn to music when there are so many other artistic, physical, social, trivial, and spiritual pursuits claiming our attention? One reason is that music is a multimodal experience that is already meaningfully integrated into our lives. Music is everywhere as a tacit shared language, a perpetual underscore… Continue reading
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Resonant Thoughts: John Wyre’s “Touched By Sound: A Drummer’s Journey” (2002)
“Dan [Fred D. Hinger] showed me the importance of one note. His enthusiastic response to the sound of one touch was an explosion of well-being and positive reinforcing energy. He thoroughly understood how our energy and touch combine to influence the character of the sound we produce” (10). “Finding solutions–there are no limitations to the… Continue reading
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Resonant Thoughts: David Epstein’s “Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better” (2026)
“artifacts of chance” (39). “Given complete freedom, we tend to default to simple solutions, not because they are good, but because they are familiar” (47). “Because we are cognitive misers, breakthrough creativity happens when the easy and intuitive path is blocked—by choice or by force” (48). “Constraints push the brain beyond its default tendencies, forcing… Continue reading
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Database: Alva Noto On Production Monoculture
“I also noticed how incredibly unified people produce music in these days, leading to a kind of monoculture where we’re all using the same tools and so produce, of course, something where the music sounds more and more similar. It’s really difficult to have a very radical approach of having completely different sound aesthetics.” Alva… Continue reading
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Techniques: Small Windows
Small windows—the real thing or as metaphor—are inherently poetic. Through them we see only a fragment of the world outside their frame—sunlight streaming in, the building across the street, a stranger passing, an abstract arrangement of sky and cloud. Small windows are inherently minimalist this way, because of how they contain what you notice. As… Continue reading
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