brettworks

thinking through music

May 24, 2021

Versa Est

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repetition, sketch, voice, why doesn’t he just write about music instead?
May 21, 2021

Notes On In-Betweenness

While there is something to those old sayings trust the process and it’s the journey, not the destination, in music production the process/journey often has the distinctive quality of feeling like an in-between state. Recently, while working on a new project, it occurred to me to think more about in-betweenness. I had just begun something… Continue reading

in-betweenness
May 19, 2021

Brett’s Sound Picks: KMRU’s “Peel” (2020)

(The 2021 Playlist.) Continue reading

Brett’s Sound Picks
May 17, 2021

Redeem

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music and discipline
May 14, 2021

Resonant Thoughts: Allison Funk’s “On Pruning” (1999)

“Cut it way back. Do not be afraid to pinch the first, the only blossom. The berry cannot thrive in freedom. Have no mercy, gardener…” Allison Funk, “On Pruning” Continue reading

negative epistemology, negative space, pruning, Resonant Thoughts
May 12, 2021

Piano And Its Echo

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echo and delay, piano music
May 10, 2021

Miserere

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counterpoint, Uncategorized
May 7, 2021

Curating The Week: Vibes, Josquin des Prez, KMRU

• An article on vibes. “The word ‘vibe’ is short for vibration—something that resonates and echoes, suffusing a space. In the early twentieth century, the term became associated with the vibraphone, a cousin of the marimba, which uses motorized fans beneath its bars to achieve a vibier sound. At the time of its invention, in… Continue reading

Curating The Week, Uncategorized
May 4, 2021

Memory Vector

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memory, piano music, resonance, space, Uncategorized
May 4, 2021

Populating Sounds

One technique I use often is to create variations on a single sound that has the potential to be multiple sounds. I begin whilst browsing presets, not looking for anything in particular, just hoping to be surprised. Searching for sounds outside of the context of making music can be dreary work: ninety percent of the… Continue reading

interestingness, it doesn’t matter how blog posts are tagged, populating sounds, Production Stories, sound design

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.