Movement 17 out of 26 from my Spiders from Space album.
Featuring 中井三十一 (piano introduction)

https://tachybunker.fr/sfs

Buy on Bandcamp!!

Mv17: Serres Cosmiques (5-6D) [feat 中井三十一]

Didier Aschour is a pioneer specialist performer of microtonal guitar music.  His custom guitar allows for rapid exchange of fingerboards, and he has worked with a luthier to build a collection of fingerboards that cover a vast range of tuning systems.  

This piece exists in two versions.   

While the two versions share a common score, they differ with respect to the arrangement of the fingerboard frets (the "warp") and the tuning of the strings (the "weft").   Didier commissioned two special fingerboards for the piece.


In each version, between the tunings of frets and the strings, one constitutes a fragment of the overtone series and the other a fragment of the undertone series.   The resulting interaction provides a very rich selection of pitches: within a limited span, arbitrary numerators and arbitrary denominators arise--thinking here of the available pitches by their ratios to the guitar's lowest open string.  

"Just intonation" always means composing with intervals formed from small integer ratios, thus with some subset of the rational numbers.   The tuning here, you might call it Cartesian, means to project the structure of the rational numbers writ large, so without imposing any subjective selection process.

Performed live, the piece would have Didier sliding a glass "bottleneck"  for the warp and strumming for the weft.  Or course that timbrel conceit is lost in these MIDI realizations.  But hopefully one day I'll have a recording of an instrumental performance for sharing.  This will have to do for now.


Warp Weft (II), for microtonal guitar (1998), for Didier Aschour

Monday - the Day of the Root Chakra - 256 Hertz

Joseph from ACL mixes the latest in new releases, showcasing records recently reviewed on the blog as well as some special treats. This week, a special Just Intonation mix with some help from Ben Richter of the Ghost Ensemble, celebrating their new release, interius/exterius, with composer Catherine Lamb. || @LostChildrenNetLabel || acloserlisten.com/ || https://twitter.com/acloserlisten || https://instagram.com/acloserlisten || https://www.facebook.com/acloserlisten/ || https://soundcloud.com/acloserlisten || https://lostchildren.bandcamp.com/ || Broadcast on 25th May 2025 at CAMP || http://listen.camp

Catherine Lamb & Ghost Ensemble, “interius/exterius iv.”
Ben Richter, “Rewild [excerpt]”
Ghost Ensemble / Pauline Oliveros, “Mountain Air (Arctic Air)”
Ghost Ensemble / Pauline Oliveros, “Angels and Demons”
James Tenney, “For 12 strings rising” 
Andrew C. Smith / Larry Polansky, “Piano Study #5 (for Just Fender Rhodes)”
Ben Richter, “I Am The Wind” Panthalassa
Ghost Ensemble / Ben Richter, “Wind People”
Catherine Lamb & Ghost Ensemble, “interius/exterius vi.”
Phill Niblock, “Poure”  Touch Strings (2009)
Phill Niblock, “EXPLORATORY, RHINE VERSION, LOOKING FOR DANIEL” (Looking for Daniel) (2024)
Ben Richter, “Portent of Laramidia,”  (Aurogeny)
Marc Sabat & the Harmonic Space Orchestra, “Gioseffo Zarlino (2015/2019)”
Wolfgang von Schweinitz, “Klang [excerpt]”
Catherine Lamb & Ghost Ensemble, “interius/exterius i.”

a closer listen for CAMP.fr / 25th May 2025

Movement 17 out of 26 from my Spiders from Space album.

https://tachybunker.fr/sfs

Mv0: Éon Vorace (2::54D)

Movement 10 out of 26 from my Spiders from Space album.

https://tachybunker.fr/sfs

Mv10: Tissu de l'Infinité (37edo + JI)

Slower ambient-type track. Made a 12-note scale in just intonation based mostly on the idea of octave-reduced prime harmonic overtones. Scale intervals as JI frequency ratios, pitch in cents (100¢ being a "normal" half-step/semitone), and type of interval:

1:1.      0¢ unison
17:16   105¢ minor 2nd
9:8      204¢ major 2nd
6:5      316¢ minor 3rd
5:4      386¢ major 3rd
4:3      498¢ perfect 4th
11:8     551¢ superfourth; low tritone
3:2      702¢ perfect 5th
13:8     841¢ neutral 6th
29:16   1030¢ neutral 7th
7:4       969¢ minor 7th
23:16   628¢ tritone
2:1       1200¢ octave

A couple of these aren't in ascending pitch order because I found it easier to play on a standard 12 note keyboard this way. Although 1:1 is A above Middle C, several mode patterns were applied but built from assuming a key of C. So there are some chords and pitch structures that get a bit odd, but I did some heavy editing and made sure it ended with a "pure" JI A major chord.

G.32 sitting (just intonation)

"Inmost" is the first of what will be many of my experimental microtonal studies. These studies are written with the aim of discovering natural microtonal musicality that can, and should become accepted music practice.

Inspirations
"Inmost" by Hidden Layer Games

Inmost - Microtonal Study in Mesoklian

For Percussion Perhaps, Or....
(night)
very soft
very long
nearly white
for Harold Budd
James Tenney
8/6/71


Recorded and mixed by Sam Dunscombe

James Tenney – (night)

líthos klásma (1995) was commissioned as the acousmatic score to the dance piece "Meshing" by Dave Wilson and the Parahumans. It premiered as part of the show Coded in October 1995.

https://elmahboob.com/2025/11/25/199530-lithos-klasma/

Composed and recorded September-October 1995

Korg 01/WFD, live transfer to CD-R, August 2000, unmastered

Image: my birthday, January 1995

Music and composer’s notes copyright Bruce A. Russell 2025

líthos klásma

Composer, mathematician, visual artist. 
Seeks collaboration with performers and choreographers.

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Harmonic Space Orchestra (HSO) is a Berlin-based experimental research and performance collective with Rational Intonation / extended Just Intonation at the core of its practice.

New & vintage compositions / lo-fi / analog

Since 2012, A Closer Listen has claimed a specialized niche in the music industry: instrumental album reviews!  By concentrating on this above all else (singles, videos, concerts, interviews, lyric albums, announcements), we’ve built a healthy fanbase and a strong reputation.

If music is recorded and nobody listens, does it still make a sound?

☨ You won't survive the Second Cosmocide ☨

Hidden discography:
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New tracks tagged #Just Intonation