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thinking through music


  • September 9, 2019

    On Performance In Electronic Music Production

    When you imagine a musician or band really killing it onstage, you hold in mind the traditional notion of musical performance as musicians’ real-time striving to accomplish a goal in the moment. This could be improvising a solo, playing a composed piece from memory, or rendering a classic song one more time. Part of why… Continue reading

    music performance, Uncategorized
  • September 6, 2019

    Impossible Mix

    The subway dancer guys are performing  with a bass speaker  playing big beats   but I’m already listening  to my own sound on headphones   so I fiddle  with the volume  just so their beat  mixes with my bass line  and now I don’t ignore them  because our different musics  are getting along.  Continue reading

    poetry, Uncategorized
  • September 5, 2019

    Resonant Thoughts: Richard Serra’s “Verb List” (1967)

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    Resonant Thoughts, Uncategorized
  • September 4, 2019

    Brett’s Sound Picks: Bana Haffar’s “Genera III” (2019)

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    Brett’s Sound Picks, Uncategorized
  • September 3, 2019

    Art About Music: Jan Steen’s “A Young Woman playing a Harpsichord to a Young Man” (1659)

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    art about music, Uncategorized
  • September 2, 2019

    Musical Distortions

    distort – to pull or twist out of shape, change the form of;  from the Latin distorquere (‘apart’ + ‘to twist)  Among the many interesting and unanticipated discoveries made while producing electronic music is hitting upon distortions that cause sounds to behave in unusual ways. The most common type of distortion is overdriving or saturating… Continue reading

    distortion, Uncategorized
  • August 30, 2019

    Resonant Thoughts: Calvin Tomkins’ “Vija Celmins’s Surface Matters” (2019)

    “You do it again and again, and you sense that the thing is beginning to have a form that looks strong. And all the time you’re thinking, and making decisions. The making, the devotion to making, is what gives it an emotional quality.” – Vija Clemins  • “What makes her images so alive is the… Continue reading

    Resonant Thoughts, Uncategorized
  • August 29, 2019

    Five Benefits Of Writing Regularly

    You no longer feel you have nothing to say, because evidence points to your saying things all the time. You become less attached to whether particular ideas are “good” and more into the process that generates ideas in general. You see ideas as small and specific things rather than large and vague things, and more… Continue reading

    Uncategorized, writing process
  • August 28, 2019

    Brett’s Sound Picks: Leo Svirsky’s “River Without Banks” (2019)

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    Brett’s Sound Picks, Uncategorized
  • August 27, 2019

    Art About Music: Pieter de Hooch’s “Musical Party In A Courtyard” (1677)

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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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