brettworks

thinking through music

September 24, 2020

Resonant Thoughts: Ikonika On Arrangements

“I’m trying to exhaust what I’ve got. I’m trying to keep things simple, and build layers, basically. And so when I make a tune, I will concentrate on 8 bars at a time. But that first 8 bar loop has to bang for me, and I have to be able to listen to that loop… Continue reading

Uncategorized
September 23, 2020

Art About Music: Théodore Géricault’s “The Piper” (1821)

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art about music
September 22, 2020

Brett’s Sound Picks: Olivier Alalry and Johannes Malfatti’s “I can’t Even See Myself” (2020)

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Brett’s Sound Picks, Uncategorized
September 21, 2020

Five Lines

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Electronic music
September 18, 2020

Fractal Studies 2: Sky Divided

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fractal studies, musical analogies
September 17, 2020

Art About Music: Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Music, Pink and Blue No. 2” (1918)

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art about music
September 15, 2020

Brett’s Sound Picks: Moondog’s “Oo Debut” (1956/2020)

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Brett’s Sound Picks
September 14, 2020

No. 45

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sketch
September 11, 2020

Curating The Week: Creativity, Loss, Long Chords

• An article about creativity in the digital era. “Today, seventy-seven percent of music industry revenue goes to the top one per cent of content producers.” • An essay on creativity and the normalization of loss. “It’s not just the loss of creation, but also the insidious way in which that loss has been normalized,… Continue reading

Curating The Week
September 9, 2020

Art About Music: Fernand Pelez’s “La Vachalcade” (1896)

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art about music

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.