• about
    • ai in music resources
    • archives
    • art about music
    • atelier
    • books
    • brett’s sound picks
    • database (a cache of perceptions)
    • film
    • interview
    • keywords
    • music
    • thought tools
    • ventrilo-dialogues

brettworks

thinking through music


  • March 5, 2021

    Curating The Week: Decolonizing Music Software, Max Mathews, Ambience Rooms

    • An article about decolonizing electronic music software. “I find Ableton pushes me towards following the beat grid. Everything sounds somehow Western—very mechanical, not organic like the rough tones and raw drums I heard growing up in Nairobi. Even as I try to break away from the loops and the 1-2-3-4 drive of these music… Continue reading

    ambience rooms, Curating The Week
  • March 4, 2021

    Not’s Power

    When you’re not selling anythingnot networkingnot trying to get aheadnot leveraging upon your existing skillsnot building on your successnot trying to fit innot playing to the crowdnot being on messagenot showing gratitudenot easy listeningnot putting on airsnot seeing it in perspectivenot humble braggingnot doing it with a goal in mindnot giving a shout outnot tipping… Continue reading

    Uncategorized
  • March 3, 2021

    Brett’s Sound Picks: Shivkumar Sharma’s “Raga Bhinna Kauns” (2021)

    (Listen to the dynamic range, down to whisper soft.) (Brett’s Sound Picks 2021.) Continue reading

    Brett’s Sound Picks, raga
  • March 2, 2021

    Mood Reel

    Continue reading

    it doesn’t matter how blog posts are tagged, sketch
  • March 1, 2021

    Pulsations

    Continue reading

    pulsation, pulseology, sketch
  • February 26, 2021

    [Untitled]

    Continue reading

    mindware, ocean waves, studio monitors, study music, thought tools
  • February 25, 2021

    Creative Notes: What The Tech Does, What We Do

    The tech calculates, we wonder What if?The tech measures, we balance.The tech generates data sets, we create ad hoc.The tech recalls perfectly, we remember fleetingly.The tech suggests if this, then that?, we associate by other means.The tech presents patterns, we seek meanings.The tech proliferates options, we seek constraints.The tech makes loops and redundancies, we make… Continue reading

    creative notes, human-technology interaction, tacit knowledge, techno-musical systems, Technology
  • February 24, 2021

    Brett’s Sound Picks: Thys & Noordpool Orchestra’s “Turning Point” (2021)

    (Brett’s Sound Picks 2021.) Continue reading

    Brett’s Sound Picks, Uncategorized
  • February 22, 2021

    Z arp P

    Continue reading

    sketch
  • February 19, 2021

    Curating The Week: Drumming, Oral Culture, and Whistling

    • DRUMMINGat50, a website about the history, composition, and performance practice of Steve Reich’s Drumming, a seminal piece of 20th- (and 21st-) century acoustic music. I contributed an essay, which is here. • Zenep Tufecki on the psychodynamics of oral culture. “…oral culture is not suited to certain kinds of knowledge accumulation and legibility of… Continue reading

    Curating The Week, drumming, Uncategorized
«Previous Page Next Page»

Thomas Brett is a musician and writer who holds a PhD in ethnomusicology from New York University. He is the author of Principles of Electronic Music Production and The Creative Electronic Music Producer, a book described by Sound On Sound magazine as “a deep philosophical analysis of the various creative inspirations, ideas and processes involved in producing electronic music.” His essays have appeared in the journals Popular Music and Popular Music and Society, as well as edited collections by Routledge, Oxford, and Cambridge University presses. Thomas has played percussion on Broadway since 1997 and writes about music at brettworks.com.

Recent Posts

  • Unquantized (Remodel)
  • Curating The Week: The Brand Age, Selling Out, Sync Music
  • Resonant Thoughts: John Ashbery’s “A Wave” (1984)
  • Art About Music: Google’s Lyria 3 (2026)
  • Studio Observations: Listening To Improvisation

Subscribe To Brettworks


©

brettworks

2022, All Rights Reserved.

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Subscribe Subscribed
    • brettworks
    • Join 779 other subscribers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • brettworks
    • Subscribe Subscribed
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar