Thomas Brett
-
Running As Flow Practice
“The run is white noise, a way to simply experience time as a body, a piston, that exists away from the mind and only in the body as a live reactive presence.” Matthew Futterman, Running to the Edge (2019) At home I move fast and bump into things. Shins knock the couch, flying elbows glance… Continue reading
-
Database: Jacob Collier On Even Though There’s Just Two Speakers There’s Always space
“[Mixing] is a constant prioritization about what should be in the background, what should be in the foreground, how do you carve a satisfying set of journeys where everything goes on a little path and paths connect. I think it’s just a matter of listening very carefully to what’s there and not being afraid to… Continue reading
-
Keywords: Not Knowing What You’re Listening For Until You Hear It
(Painting: Fernand Khnopff, “Listening to Schumann” [1883]) Composers who write for acoustic musicians have a good idea of the soundworld they’re scoring for: an orchestra, a wind quartet, a choir, a percussion ensemble. But this isn’t the case with music producers as they create both a palette of sounds and the virtual acoustic/synthetic spaces these… Continue reading
-
Resonant Thoughts: Kyle Chayka’s “The Longing for Less: What’s Missing from Minimalism” (2020)
[On the art of Agnes Martin] “They’re consistently sized, most of them six-foot squares of canvas, and as simple and gentle as any artwork ever made, yet with an inner strength. Each canvas is covered with repeating patterns in soft, pale colors; some are grids drawn with a ruler in pencil, others vertical or horizontal… Continue reading
-
Same Walk, Different Music
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, “Hand Covers Bruise” (2010). This four-and-a-half minute track is a gem of minimalist melody, orchestration, and form. The music is the opening theme of the 2010 film The Social Network, which chronicles the earliest days of Facebook and historicizes how Mark Zuckerberg invented a website that would go on to… Continue reading
