Microtonal

Dan Stearns: composition, instruments and sounds

Not Even Love was composed and recorded in Rutland, MA across stretches of 1990 and 1991, and later mastered in 1993 by Pete Zolli and Shawn Briggs for the recording, Opus Contra Naturam. This track features several different microtonal guitars and tuning systems and is something of a long funk/fusion experiment that could be seen as an attempt to marry Miles Davis', Live Evil to Ives' Fourth Symphony and extra stuff too taken from the RIO vangaurd. that was the hoped-for Fusion I was looking for back then.

Opus Contra Naturam was released on cassette and circulated in various incarnations through both the guitar and microtonal underground and was later reviewed in a 1995 article in Guitar Player Magazine—--a rarity for a cassette-only release by an unknown artist---as sounding something like what Charles Ives might've sounded like had he played metal guitar. 

Opus Contra Naturam remains unreleased to this day, but in the nearly twenty-five years since this CD was recorded guitar music has changed a lot in terms of taste and openness to experimentation, and in some ways this music sounds more at home in its own future than it did in the athletic, Varney/GIT (etc) guitar period in which it was recorded.

Not Even Love

Microtonal Mathcore/Grind (25 equal divisions of the octave)

Dan Stearns - instruments and composition, with old friends Jim Capone on clarinets and soprano sax, and Scott Dakota on the production, engineering and mix.

"In a World Out of Tune" was composed in 1988 for a guitar contest. I was influenced by a lot of music in this period still, like Ives and The Decoding Society for example, but when I listen to it now I think it more or less was the first thing I did where I'd say maybe I was starting to just try to be myself- which of course just starts a journey that never ends if you want to try to keep moving forward towards any momentum in that type of a direction... the classic "damned if you do, and damned if you don't"!

In any event, the piece did place in the soundpage competition that year for Guitar Player Magazine and was said to sound something like "Carla Bley meets Merciful Fate", or so it was written anyway- and in a magazine I'd read since I was in middle school and my mom could buy at a store.... ha, the big time, my sentence-and-a-half of fame!

One of the great things I remember about this time was working with Scott Dakota, who was a close friend then whom I learned a lot from. My friend and frequent collaborator back then, Jim Capone, as well... as this was some of the last recording we did together before he went into Peace Corps and was suddenly in Swaziland. For me, that time with those people, that's what I remember most now* 

*having 'flashed in the pan' as it were and moved on to the other thing at the end of the rainbow--

Daniel Stearns - "In A World Out of Tune"

from the recording, "Opus Contra Naturam"
Dan Stearns - instruments/etc

Daniel Stearns - Silvered Alar Rise!

Eija Kankaanranta, kantele tuned to a scale of 18-21-5-13-18-3-5-13 steps in 96edo 


Enharmonic Tune for Kantele

Samhain, (pronounced SOW-in, SAH-vin, or SAM-hayne) means "End of Summer", and is the third and final Harvest. The dark winter half of the year commences on this Sabbat. 

It is generally celebrated on October 31st, but some traditions prefer November 1st. It is one of the two "spirit-nights" each year, the other being Beltane. It is a magical interval when the mundane laws of time and space are temporarily suspended, and the Thin Veil between the worlds is lifted. Communicating with ancestors and departed loved ones is easy at this time, for they journey through this world on their way to the Summerlands. It is a time to study the Dark Mysteries and honor the Dark Mother and the Dark Father, symbolized by the Crone and her aged Consort. 

[Excerpt from:  http://wicca.com/celtic/akasha/samhainlore.htm]

A huge thanks to Una Harrison for the advice on microtone singing!  This is likely the first of many vocal experiments.  :)   HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Zefora - The Thinning Veil

Teaser track for large-scale composition, Virtutes Occultae. 

https://taylorbrook.bandcamp.com/releases

Virtutues Occultae is an album in eighteen sections for six physically modeled virtual pianos, each with a unique tuning in an extended 11-limit just intonation.

In writing this music I used a mixture of traditional composition methods of structuring the music with various harmonies and progressions along with more free writing, collage techniques, and algorithmic composition.

The tuning of the virtual pianos extends Harry Partch’s conception of the over-tonality.

www.taylorbrookmusic.com

Daniel Stearns - Silvered Alar Rise!

Daniel Stearns

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