brettworks

thinking through music

October 1, 2014

Curating The Week: Music-Related Stuff On The Internet

1. An article about a search for a folk music in Greece. “There is a belief among the people of Epirus that their music is deeply curative: that it reverses certain strains of heartache and expands certain joys, that it’s a panacea for certain existential and physiological ailments. Chaldoupis sees what is broken, he says,… Continue reading

Curating The Week
September 26, 2014

Meta-Review: Considerations Of Musical Invention In Aphex Twin’s “Syro”

In an interview some years ago, the electronic musician Richard James, aka Aphex Twin, once said that he didn’t care much for the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen. James pointed out two things: Stockhausen’s music had no groove and no basslines. I remembered both the irreverence and pointedness of that comment recently as I have been… Continue reading

meta-reviews

Aphex Twin, electronic music, Richard James, Syro
September 25, 2014

Curating The Week: Music-Related Stuff On The Internet

1. A video in which the Kronos quartet explains how its members communicate with one another in performance. “The way you play your note is deeply affected by the way the person right before you plays their note.” “What I should really be practicing in anything I do is…flexibility.” 2. A passage from Sean Wilsey’s… Continue reading

Curating The Week
September 19, 2014

Curating The Week: Music-Related Stuff On The Internet

1. A video showing soba noodle master Tatsuru Rai at work. The rhythms are amazing! 2. An article about about why you and your friends might like the same music. “Whether you turn it up loudly and sing along, wearing the music’s emotion like garlands of your own inner feelings, or just use it as… Continue reading

Curating The Week
September 17, 2014

A Creative Heuristic That Has Helped Me In Music And Writing

Perform (improvise material to render a moment) + Multiply (expand material) + Edit and Refine (subtract material) = A Result That Surprises, Feeling Like More Than The Sum Of Its Parts Continue reading

self-help
September 15, 2014

On Less Is More: Lorenzo Senni’s Music

Lorenzo Senni has an interesting musical thing going on. On his recent recordings Superimpositions (2014) and Quantum Jelly (2012) he makes a kind of electronic trance music that does away with the beats, leaving only pulsing, echoing, and arpeggiating synthesizer chord sequences. Without the metrical context of the relentless 4/4 thump, the synth chords are… Continue reading

analogies, groovology, less is more, music reviews, trance music

electronic trance music, Lorenzo Senni, Quantum Jelly
September 4, 2014

Curating The Week: Music-Related Stuff On The Internet

1. An article about the resurgence of vinyl records. “People still want objects with personality…”If it’s just a nostalgic or hipster-elitest thing, where does that leave us in 10 years? It might be the last gasp of an expiring culture before we all get sucked into the [digital] cloud.” 2. An article about the relationship… Continue reading

Curating The Week
September 3, 2014

Notes On Ed Catmull’s “Creativity, Inc.”

“The uncreated is a vast, empty space” – Ed Catmull Ed Catmull’s Creativity, Inc. is a memoir that explores and analyzes the history and creative life of Pixar, the American computer animation company. Catmull, one of the founders of Pixar, its current president, and an accomplished computer scientist, untangles the complex business of how to… Continue reading

book reviews, Creativity

Creativity, Ed Catmull, Inc., Pixar
August 28, 2014

Notes On FK twig’s “LP 1”

One of my ongoing frustrations with popular music–and the problem may be with me–is that the music doesn’t always keep my attention. So I was delighted when I heard FKA twig’s debut, LP1, an at times stunning release, both musically and production-wise that the Guardian called “the UK’s best example to date of ethereal, twisted… Continue reading

Electronic music, listening, R&B
August 25, 2014

Curating The Week: Music-Related Stuff On The Internet

1. An article by drummer Michael Barron about the latest creation of my favorite instrument designer, Roger Linn. The article also includes YouTube videos of several other new multi-touch expressive musical controllers. “In fifty years’ time I think people will still be playing piano, guitars, and violins, but I also think they will be playing… Continue reading

Curating The Week

electronic instruments, Michael Barron, Roger Linn

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.