A modular synthesizer is built from separate sound-generating, processing and control modules connected by patch cables or virtual routing. The open signal flow encourages experimentation, feedback, generative sequencing and unconventional forms of composition.
The ten pieces on Nala Sinephro’s Endlessness are all titled “Continuum.” Across the 2024 album, an electronic arpeggio acts less like a hook than a shared piece of ground. Saxophones, piano, drums, flugelhorn, harp and strings can enter, withdraw or drift across it without the music losing its direction. A rigid sequence can close down…
For The Sirens, Geologist and visual artist Kyle Simon did not use the night sky as a theme added after the music was made. At Simon’s Farrington Observatory in Joshua Tree, light from the moon, stars and planets entered a telescope fitted with optical sensors and photodiodes. An analogue amplifier converted that changing light into…
Caterina Barbieri built Patterns of Consciousness from an intentionally restricted electronic system. Her liner notes describe an Indexed Quad Sequencer and harmonic oscillator generating permutations from a small collection of predetermined harmonic material. Addition, subtraction, jitter and changing gates allowed patterns to keep transforming without requiring entirely new musical material. This interests me because complexity…
On EARS, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith built much of the music around the Buchla Music Easel, but the album never feels interested in proving how electronic it is. She composed first with the Buchla, then arranged parts for woodwinds and vocals, using granular processing to further reshape the material. Before composing, she even studied slowed-down recordings…
