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

Check out this conversation with Aaron Myers-Brooks, Pittsburgh prog guitarist/composer extraordinaire. His latest album, “Oblique,” is a microtonal odyssey exploring various quirky polyrhythms, applications of 17-tone equal temperament, electronic sounds, and distortion flavors. We get an inside exclusive look at the scores to “Energy Shapes”, figure out why one might use up and down arrows instead of Gould accidentals, and talk about “drawing” microtones in the highC program. Music[Intro] Aaron Myers-Brooks - Energy Shapes (V - Emerge)Aaron Myers-Brooks - Eight HighC Miniatures (VII - Chitte ..read more

Check out acreil’s music! Algorithmic albums appended with “a.” Keeper of obscure words in lists. Hardware enthusiast and certified synth geek. We have a delightful episode discussing how acreil works in Pure Data among other curiosities, such as how one navigates form to prevent boredom. Not only do we mess it up (or whatever), but we solve the paradox of influence and extremity, by making one chord at a time in chord networks.   Music acropora antozone [acheiropoietic ansätze] - acreil ??????????????? (track 8) - Stephen Weigel newdrum7 [Luna Octava] - acreil acridine abeyance [aleator ..read more

Algorithmic August kicks off with Skueue, builder of the unnamed machine in Pure Data. This is an abstract, idea-filled episode packed to the brim with insights about the process. Our points of focus include a discussion of how writing affects software, uncommon disagreement about common practice, VST’s in PD, programming cadences, rootful resolutions, clowntone heptatonica, and SAMPLING. Eventually, we decide that algorithmic music written to sound as its author intended is a success.    Music Bisphen [Anagnorisis] - Skueue Geinoh-Yamashirogumi Kaneda [from Akira]Bedroom micro - Aph ..read more

Nicholas Denton Protsack’s music abounds with spectral delights of various kinds. Our talk today has a particular focus on notation, delving into the strategy behind its presentation. As we study tuning more and more, becoming less rigid with its implementation, it becomes helpful to focus on not just approximating some tunings with others, but also to focus on the broader conceptual ideas behind the tuning labels. In particular, polysystemic tunings tend to hint at the methodology of their compositions. “Firebird” (Sounds Like Things) blends aspects of biological study and music, explores the ..read more

How on earth does one create a 1200-tone tone row? Or even a 372-tone row in Sibelius? Find out in this wacky episode featuring Aaron Breeze, the swingin’ licc master himself! The broader topics in this thrilling, conversational episode include silliness and perceived complexity, the connection between playing and speaking, red dress methodology, repetition and intent, presentation in music, high-effort memes, mixing contexts and genres, and the social state of online spaces. We’re psyched that global icon Sarah Brand brought microtonality back   Music Intro - Groovy Serialism in 372-TET ..read more

In this colorful, rich episode, we take a look into the importance of visual and narrative elements in accompanying microtonal music and its ideas. Stephen James Taylor does this not only through writing music in film, but also through his own visual content, such as in “Surfing the Sonic Sky,” an important documentary about Erv Wilson. Among the topics discussed here are: how to approach microtonality in film composition (mixing that with 12-TET), dosage control, the emotions one can only get from microtonal music, and hearing different instruments played with cool effects! We’ll also spill t ..read more