Xen On is my second full length microtonal “pop” album under the name FASTFAST. Released May 20 2022
I explore many different tunings beyond the regular 12EDO including 10, 22, 24, 51EDO Bohlen Pierce and 11 limit Just Intonation. Below are some listening notes and some perhaps new theory and terminology that I've been using when discussing my music. I would recommend listening first before reading the notes as I firmly believe that music is first and foremost for the sensations and emotions of the art before analysis and theory take over. Enjoy.
Track 1.
Fix Myself.
Lyrically this is about escaping the rat race, running away to a lakeside cottage. The initial splash in the intro represents a very Canadian thing, jumping into the lake for the first time each year. That moment of cool silence as you go under the water only to rise back up refreshed and fixed and present.
Musically, it's in 24EDO with a chord sequence that moves up in half-sharp 2nds. A sort of Lydian-and-a-half motion which is not quite a the obvious minor third. It's a homage to the Beach Boys but also some Super furry Animals vibes creeping in.
Track 2
STARS.
This is about both the American Dream and my own personal struggle to fit in musically and make my parents proud.
It's in 51EDO (picked only because of the 51st state). The familiar IV I V vi progression gradually spiraling downward 1/51 (a minitone?) every two bars. The whole song is a giant comma pump, sometimes you notice the change but it's supposed to be smooth enough to just give you an uncanny feeling of dread.
Track 3
The Journey IS The Destination.
This track is one of the first tracks to use a new method of voice leading which I call micro-chromatic-voice leading or MCV where two chords morph into each other gradually in steps of 1/EDO.
The Journey Is in 34EDO and the arpeggio chords gradually morph into the next. At the start of each section "The Chords" are like islands of consonance (The Destination) and the Journey between each new chord is where the fun happens!
Track 4
Fever.
This was the first time I experimented with MCV and is in 24EDO instead of arpeggios though, the MCV is achieved by constant rising to mirror the lyrics "I hope you're rising like a fever."
The chorus overshoots the expected chord changes by quarter tones, giving a Doppler effect with the "Yeah"s but the Doppler effect is baked into the tuning, not a third party effect.
Track 5
The Walk.
Another instrumental. This time the focus is on the 11th harmonic. I call it an Elftone (from the German for 11). I hear it very differently to a tritone which buzzes and is stereotypically dissonant. Elftones are smoother and disappear into the soundscape very quickly. I tuned my acoustic guitars to harmonics 4|5|6|7|9|11 and my mandolin/banjo accordingly.
It's also in 11/8 even the proggy Drum n Bass section at the end. I used a lot of synths that were tuned to the harmonic series and a few times it goes beyond 11 (maybe 17). I was trying to make the dissonance melt away into the atmosphere. I hope it worked.
Track 6
Dogs.
This is an old song that I reimagined in 19EDO. It sounds incredibly diatonic on first glance, but there's a little sleight of hand going on with the fifth chord in the progression (it's 1/19 flatter than expected) which for some reason your brain can accept just fine… The progression continues, but then to close the loop, and get back to the I chord, you need to raise it back up that 1/1. But at the final Vm-I cadence of the progression which I intended to make the listener feel a little unusual if not slightly nauseated. The strings at the end were written to emphasize the 19-ness of the progression by arriving at consonance earlier than expected using glissando.
Track 7.
Tapering.
Some dirty techno in 10EDO. Part Harry Partch, Half Orbital. Not much is in common with 12EDO with this tuning so it was important to have percussive instruments like marimbas and xylophones to get a groove going. The samples I found from the prelinger archives about children’s mental health and medicine in the 1950s.
Track 8.
Lobe Encipher
One of the most challenging microtonal tunings to compose for is the “13 equal divisions of an octave and a fifth” scale, also known as the Bohlen-Pierce scale Despite its difficult nature having no major thirds or octaves, it still ahve major 10ths and glorious 7ths!
The tune was just a lot of fun playing with polyrhythms 6/5/4 and is a favourite live.
Track 9.
Spaceman.
Lyrically one of my most emotional. It's about my fear of dying in my sleep and not getting to tell my children goodbye. But musically it's a xen prog funk party!
Another one in 24TET many parts modulate up 1/24 which is sometimes directly noticeable and other times just a general feeling of rising rising rising! The brightness you get from a slightly larger (quartertone sharp) chord change is so much more than any Lydian or ii V I could ever achieve. The final live sax solo was performed by Nicholas Lennox of local band The Wilderness and done in about an hour.
Track 10
Xen On.
The title track, and the final track written for the album takes you on a journey in 22EDO which I believe to be the Uncanny Valley tuning. So many combinations of notes work perfectly which on paper should sound awful. You can pedal notes and change chords by 1/22 and it's still ok. It also does a double kind of sheperd tone illusion where pitches are simultaneously rising and falling with MCV and also glissando. The sound design is also dotted with Elftones and melodies that don't quite land as expected, but as you know, repetition legitimizes!