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brettworks

thinking through music


  • June 5, 2024

    Resonant Thoughts: W.G. Sebald’s ” A Place In The Country” (1998)

    “What may be true of photography, though, is not necessarily applicable to art. The latter depends on ambiguity, polyvalence, resonance, obfuscation, and illumination […]” “Jan Peter Tripp’s paintings, too, have a consistently analytic quality rather than a synthesizing one. The photographic raw material which they take as their starting point is painstakingly modified. Artificial distinctions… Continue reading

    Resonant Thoughts
  • June 4, 2024

    Piano (June)

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    piano music
  • June 3, 2024

    Keywords: Humanize, Quantize, Frankenize

    If you make beats you work with timing on an infinitesimal scale. The timing or groove of a beat is as important as its rhythm patterns because timing conveys subtle, almost subliminal information about musicianship, directionality, intensity, and mood. Nuances of where a beat’s components hit in time–in relation to one another and in relation… Continue reading

    keywords
  • June 1, 2024

    Brett’s Sound Picks: James Devane’s “Kilter” (2024)

    2024 playlist Continue reading

    Brett’s Sound Picks
  • May 30, 2024

    Keywords: In One Session

    Although producing music is generally an iterative process in which you return to tracks begun yesterday, last week, or last year with an ear to gradually improving them, ideally it’s an all-at-once process that leverages time running out. In One Session is the principle of maximizing what you can improvise, record, edit, and arrange in… Continue reading

    keywords
  • May 28, 2024

    By The Waters

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    atelier, Uncategorized
  • May 23, 2024

    Resonant Thoughts: Kyle Chayka’s “Filterworld” (2024)

    “Today, it can often feel like there is no creativity without attention, and no attention without the accelerant of algorithmic recommendations.” “That kind of internal creative process, or even the process of thinking on one’s own, is something that feels lacking in the Filterworld era, when any idea or thought can be made instantly public… Continue reading

    Resonant Thoughts
  • May 22, 2024

    Database: Harold Budd On The Philosophy Of Doing Music In Real Time

    “I never used the studio for its technological side since I only utilise a fraction of its capabilities to produce my music. That’s a philosophical point with me. An awful lot of music justifies itself on how sophisticated the technology is, but me, I don’t give a damn about the sophistication of the technology. I… Continue reading

    database
  • May 21, 2024

    Chords Over Three Parts

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    Uncategorized
  • May 20, 2024

    Keywords: Always In Transition

    (Photo: Marianne Bos) “Transition” notes Ernő Rubik, “is the very heart of inspiration and creativity”, and compelling music is always in transition on every level of its unfolding. Like a kaleidoscope in motion, music is a continuous becoming from one state to another—waveforms vibrating, chords progressing, melodies inventing, timbre-textures morphing, beats repeating, and arrangements growing—a… Continue reading

    keywords
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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

  • 14 October
  • Database: Christian Löffler on Working Quickly and Using Field Recordings
  • Curating the Week: The Additional Touch, Philip Glass’s Music, How to Write a Paper
  • Performance Practice: Lessons from Music for 18 Musicians
  • Resonant Thoughts: James Marriott’s “The New Dark Ages: The Death of Reading and the Dawn of the Post-Literate Society” (2026)

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