Xenharmonic black metal project Melopœia consists of Brian Leong, Jon Lervold, and Dave Tremblay. Their albums are inspired by J.R.R. Tolkein, and features his direct text both sung, and by mapping the letters of the text to different notes of 26-tone equal temperament. Their latest album utilizing this is “Valaquenta,” be sure to catch the latest track “Varda” which we discuss and play in the episode! Their earlier album, “Ainulindalë,” used the same method of starting the album and then uploading tracks one at a time as completed.   Intro: Melopœia - Varda [Valaquenta] 26-TET Melop ..read more

Chat about contemporary music, composition, and just intonation with us in this theoretically adventurous and wide ranging episode. Christopher Otto, composer and violinist, works with the JACK quartet, a group that has played the music of such individuals as John Zorn, Tristan Perich, Cenk Ergün, Tyshawn Sorey, Catherine Lamb, Georg Frederich Haas, Dan Trueman, and many, many, more. Intro: Christopher Otto (jack quartet) rag’sma  Catherine Lamb - divisio spiralis (mvt. II) Beethoven - Symphony No. 6 (storm section low notes) Vicente Atria - Seasons Will Pass You By Christopher Otto (jack ..read more

Take a magical tour with us through some of Noah Dean Jordan’s microtonal instruments (including the requinto), including improvised performances! Be sure to check out the “Noah Dean Jordan” account on Bandcamp as well as the “Nueva Armonica” account! Intro: I Was Once a River (Rock Creek II) Outro: I Was Once a River (Te Quiero Verde)   Check out Noah’s work on the requinto: https://noahdeanjordan.bandcamp.com/album/i-was-once-a-river https://nuevaarmonia.bandcamp.com/album/remembering-cloud-forms-microtonal-studies-for-13-limit-requinto-and-violin   Support us on Patreon! (If we ge ..read more

Today’s episode celebrates the culmination of a years-long project with Matthew Sheeran, widely celebrated composer, orchestrator, and arranger. The album we’ve been working on is called “Acoustic Microtonal,” and it is a recording of Easley Blackwood’s Twelve Microtonal Etudes using acoustic instruments, playing monophonic lines in isolation and then being re-tuned using Melodyne. Matthew commissioned the Budapest Scoring Orchestra to achieve this huge compositional feat. Check out our episode here for the largest dive into the notes and chords behind the music, and be sure to check out the f ..read more

In this episode, we discuss composition and performance with composer Saad Haddad. One prominent topic - the challenges involved working with orchestras and large ensembles playing microtonal music, and logistics of the industry. We also discuss ideas of east vs. west, style infiltration, using minimal sets of pitches, and maqam.   Music: Vortex Temporum - Gérard Grisey Vignettes - Saad Haddad Aysheen (demo) - Saad Haddad Outro: Aysheen (demo) - Saad Haddad    Saad has his own podcast! (check it out): https://www.youtube.com/@saadhaddadshow   Other links: https://www.saadnh ..read more

After this episode, be sure to check out the new Sevish album, “Big Sway!” Myself, Sevish, and benyamind have a classic microtonal chat about all things fun and intervallic, covering topics such as intuitive tunings, voice manipulation (vocoding, autotuning, etc.), perfectionism, going gridless, expectations, and communication and accessibility within the microtonal community. Several instruments get the spotlight, such as Sevish’s new microtonal keyboards, the Lumatone, melodica, and saxophone! We also stretch some tunings out for 22-edo Lambda, and frolic about in JI with harmonic series seg ..read more

In this brief but informative chat with Brock Benzel, we explore uncharted territory, with a firm commitment to being true to the self, taking on challenges, putting the music first, and breaking rules just the right way. Enjoy the comfort of alien intervals that Brock brings using the Lumatone keyboard instrument (our big topic).   Music [Intro] Paranola (31-TET) - performed by Brock Benzel Something found (31-TET) - facebook excerpt (Brock Benzel) stay hydrated (53-TET) - facebook excerpt (Brock Benzel) [Outro] happy pride from me n my pride keyboard to u (31-TET) - facebook excerpt (Br ..read more

An episode about synth and drums among other tidbits. Topics include names, aliases, Sevish himself, reverberance, randomness, evil, disguising tuning, non-octave tuning, flaws, beauty, the joy of doing creative work yourself, AI, picking your genres, the microtonal community, and art. Be sure to check out Steve’s work as “Pentachrist” on Bandcamp, releasing new music periodically!   Music The Road After [Four] - Pentachrist (15-TET) Machine Love [Look - A Living Retrospective] - müesk (9-TET) Emancipate Pitch! - Stephen Weigel (22-TET) I’ve Been Thinking [Look - A Living Retrospective ..read more

Chris Bandy, a cappella maestro and creative polymath, joins us to discuss the microtonality of his spectacular arrangements on YouTube. He works in Logic Pro using FlexPitch. Most of his microtonal strategies involve tuning standard adjustments and drifts, or moving microtonal distances. His most xenharmonic sounding arrangement is likely “Where is Love,” and his latest video, “Silent Night,” gets really in-depth and has pioneered several extremities of his style (vocal agility, subtle and long tuning drift, range, complex slide editing, etc). Check out his videos on YouTube, and his Patreon ..read more

Experimental bagpipe and bass legend Mat Muntz brings his Croatian folk music expertise to the table… a topic most would say he has matsered in depth. Check out his latest album “Phantom Island” on Bandcamp, which freely combines folk music and jazz idioms into a grand polysystemic masterpiece. A lot of our conversation revolves around the intriguing differences between instruments such as bagpipes and double reeds, folk music/other influences, and tuning systems existing together in the same piece. The process of solving microtonal “issues” in an ensemble setting is one we describe as constan ..read more