brettworks

thinking through music

January 7, 2017

Three Views Of Times Square, January 2017

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photography
January 6, 2017

Curating The Week: John Berger, The ‘Pop-Drop’ Sound, Clapping On The Off-Beats

• An interview with John Berger (1926-2017). “The primary thing wasn’t to say whether a work was good or bad; it was rather to look and try to discover the stories within it. There was always this connection between art and all the other things that were happening in the world at the time, many of… Continue reading

Curating The Week
December 28, 2016

Brett’s Sound Picks: Huerco S.’s “The Sacred Dance”

I know little about how Huerco S. makes his electronic music, except that it seems loop-based, it has many layers, and creates a serene sensation of pulsation–circling, echoing, flanging, and chugging along, around and around, almost the same but always somehow changing just enough. My favored track on his For Those Of You Who Have… Continue reading

Brett’s Sound Picks, pulsation
December 22, 2016

Chasing Creativity

Creativity is a wolf that you’re chasing in a mountain forest in the middle of winter. You run after this stealth silent and fleet-footed animal that sprints ahead of you, flying over rocks and branches, leaping over iced streams, always vanishing just around the next bend in the trail. You’re patient in your pursuit,… Continue reading

analogies, Creativity
December 20, 2016

Curating The Week: Silent How To Videos, Imagery From Sound, The Psychology of Time Perception

• An article about the Primitive Technology videos on YouTube. “For all the virtuosic craftsmanship on display in these YouTube videos, the real draw may be the absorbing peace of watching a man go about his work…The videos are virtually silent, for one thing—no talking, no explaining—so the only sound is ambient: the rustle of… Continue reading

Curating The Week
December 15, 2016

Polyrhythms, negative space, circuits of meaning: making sense through Dawn of Midi’s “Dysnomia”

My essay on the music of Dawn of Midi, “Polyrhythms, negative space, circuits of meaning: making sense through Dawn of Midi’s Dysnomia”, is now available in the journal Popular Music. You can read an abstract of the essay here. Continue reading

inherent rhythms, negative space, polyrhythm
December 14, 2016

Working Knowledge: How It’s Sounding

If something sounds good today, return to it tomorrow. Chances are that it will probably still sound good: musical quality maintains its value over time. Conversely, if the music doesn’t sound good today, it won’t improve over time. Chances are that it will probably still sound bad tomorrow: musical problems persist over time. Continue reading

self-help, working knowledge
December 13, 2016

Ventrilo-Dialogue:  A Conversation Among Composers

Johann Bach: I think that the aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God  and the refreshment of the soul. John Cage: I think that music is everywhere. Arvo Pärt: I have a need to concentrate on each sound, so that every blade of grass would be… Continue reading

ventrilo-dialogue
December 9, 2016

Curating The Week: Questioning Mindfulness, Autechre, Tanya Tagaq

• An article questioning mindfulness. “Despite many grand claims, the scientific evidence in favor of the Moment’s being the key to contentment is surprisingly weak. When the United States Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality conducted an enormous meta-analysis of over 18,000 separate studies on meditation and mindfulness techniques, the results were underwhelming at best.” •… Continue reading

Curating The Week
December 7, 2016

Theory As Poetry: Italo Calvino’s “Six Memos for the Next Millennium” (2016)

A meticulous effort to match the written to the not-written, to the sum of the sayable and the not-sayable. These are two distinct drives toward exactitude. In trying to account for the density and continuity of the world around us, language is exposed as lacunose, fragmentary: it always says something less than the sum of… Continue reading

theory as poetry

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.