I finally wrote music for an album coming out soonish. I’ve been asked to create liner notes. I’ve been toying with the idea of just releasing all the programs that generated the music, bugs and all.
Here’s a rough draft of some words. Feedback is very welcome. Writing about music is like dancing about architecture. I’ve seen somebody dance about architecture and it looked hard.
Like a painter painting the same lake over and over, these are explorations of a set of algorithms for picking rhythms and pitches. They were mostly made during the first 60 days of the year 5786, between the holidays. They look to the year ahead, but are not burdened by hope.
As the year draws to a close, what stood out most was accelerated climate change. These pieces use algorithms, but ones that are handmade. I wrote all of the programs by hand on my own computer. Digital music will never be as low carbon as bamboo flutes, but it doesn’t need dedicated data centres either.
Thank you to Ellen Fullman for useful feedback.
This album is dedicated to the memory of Alex Lipkin, who died of climate change over the summer.
(Did I post here about my EP?)
