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brettworks

thinking through music


  • October 22, 2019

    Art About Music: Antoine Le Nain’s “Three Young Musicians” (c. 1630)

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    art about music, Uncategorized
  • October 21, 2019

    A Banjo And An Accordion (And A Gorilla) Meet In A Mix

    Mixing, very roughly described by someone far from having expertise in the matter, is the process of balancing the levels and shapes of the sounds in your mix so that together they create a cohesive and living whole. On the face of it, it doesn’t seem all that complicated: if a part is too soft,… Continue reading

    mixing, Uncategorized
  • October 17, 2019

    Resonant Thoughts: Rory Sutherland’s “Alchemy” (2019)

      The opposite of a good idea can also be a good idea. Don’t design for average. It doesn’t pay to be logical if everyone else is being logical. The nature of our attention affects the nature of our experience. A flower is simply a weed with an advertising budget.  The problem with logic is that it… Continue reading

    Resonant Thoughts, Uncategorized
  • October 16, 2019

    Brett’s Sound Picks: Russell Hartenberger’s “Prelude” (2019)

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    Brett’s Sound Picks, Uncategorized
  • October 15, 2019

    Art About Music: Osman Hamdi Bey’s “Two Musician Girls” (late 19th c.)

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    art about music, Uncategorized
  • October 14, 2019

    Pre-Emptive Shh: On The Power Of Muting

    “It’s what you don’t hear, more than what you hear, that makes something clear. It’s the absence of junk.” – Steve Duda In music production, I’m often busied with everything I can hear, rather than everything I can’t hear. I get carried away—in mostly productive ways—with the details of what’s sounding in the mix:  Is… Continue reading

    Uncategorized
  • October 11, 2019

    A Mix

    A mix talks with the music, asking it how it wants to be heard. A mix dances with the music, leading it around the stereo dance floor. A mix emphasizes the important sounds right now.  A mix exaggerates, boosting tiny into huge, compressing loud into soft. A mix generates ambiance.  A mix balances multiple sounds,… Continue reading

    mixing, poetry, Uncategorized
  • October 10, 2019

    Resonant Thoughts: Jenny Odell’s “How To Do Nothing” (2019)

    “[David] Hockney valued painting because of the medium’s relationship to time. According to him, an image contained the amount of time that went into making it, so that when someone looked at one of his paintings, they began to inhabit the physical, bodily time of its being painted.” -Jenny Odell, How To Do Nothing (2019). Continue reading

    Resonant Thoughts, Uncategorized
  • October 9, 2019

    Brett’s Sound Picks” G. Jones’ “Everything All At Once” (2018)

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    Brett’s Sound Picks, Uncategorized
  • October 8, 2019

    Art About Music: Diego Velázquez’s “The Three Musicians” (c. 1616)

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    art about music, Uncategorized
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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

  • Drumming Diaries: Energies of Performance
  • Brett’s Sound Picks: øjeRum’s “I (2026 remaster)”
  • In The Works: 28 April
  • Resonant Thoughts: John Berger’s “Permanent Red: Essays in Seeing” (1960/2025)
  • Stolen Moments Are Open-Ended

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