20 Years of leftfield electronic music. High-resolution 48khz 24-bit audio.
Reviews:
"With early encounters one is struck by the mastery of sound design, the compositional craft, the skillful use of space, and exploration of alternate pitch fields. But beneath the icy, shimmering, and sometimes menacing industrial synthscapes, I feel a deep underpinning of human emotion. This is not surprising given the artist’s work as an accomplished poet, and it’s one of the secrets to the arresting beauty in müesk’s singular musical world."
Bruce Hamilton, Composer, Performer, Professor of Music
brucehamilton.info
"müesk’s double decade retrospective starts off with the stunning, ethereal “My Beautiful Longing”. And wow, it IS beautiful. Wistful tones of soft metallic tubes play against deep and dark string synths, the tune finishing off with a fluted synth figure that somehow looks over its shoulder at what came before. It creates the emotion of longing with painful beauty.
If we didn’t know it, Steve’s notes inform us it is in a 17 Tone Pythagorean scale, one which is comprised of intervals based on 3:2. While I don’t know if this explains the sonic mood, it sheds light on the composer’s thinking. It is as if a need for mathematical beauty underpins most of the music in this collection; nearly all are annotated with the relevant scale information. From 11 Edo to Werckmeister 3, to 26 ed3, müesk keeps us in mind of the architecture underpinning his music.
We move on through audio landscapes, the almost ship-like booms and blaring horns of “She dreamed the Swans” conceding to tinkles of faraway piano and spaced out, thoughtful drum patterns. Before I can get a “Sad, Qui Moi” vibe off these drums, müesk quickly discards them and moves into new aural territory with soaring pluckings and stringings and very organic textural space. I am dreaming of swans too.
Throughout the reel müesk follows his thoughts into many sonic possibilities. From the field-recorded soundscape of “I’ve Been Thinking” (11-of-19 Mclaren for those who know) to the almost pop-like sensibility of the jangly, drummy, funky “Entropy’s Song”, he isn’t constrained by a single style, yet his thumbprint is on everything.
“Requiem for Mother Earth” and “Midnight on a Digital Sea” perhaps form the backbone of this set, not just in sound but in title too. If we ever need to go to a thoughtful sound-space, it is here in müesk’s work."
Flintpope
flintpope.net
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Tuning Information
My Beautiful Longing - 17-tone Pythagorean
Doomsday Clock - 23 edo
War Talk - Zeus 22
Machine Love - 9 edo
Mnemosyne - Fokker 12-tone 7-limit JI
On Second Thought - 16 edo
Stumbling Through Light - 17 edo
The Animal Inside the Animal - Werckmeister 3
Death of a Dream - 18 edo
Entre Nous - 13 edo
Aletheia - 11 edphi
The Problem of Evil - 14 edo
The Story of No - 15 edo
In a Cold Suspense - 11 edo
The Weight of Light - 11 edo
Entropy’s Song - 26ed3
I’ve Been Thinking - 11 of 19 McLaren
Let's Begin - 22 edo
released June 22, 2022
Cover image by Kevin Solie.
linktr.ee/kevinsolie
All additional samples from
Freesound.org
Used with CC Permission
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
As Wide as the Ocean
"Seagulls" by Eelke
Additional audio treatment with 2CAudio Aether.
I've Been Thinking
"AMB_S_Park_Children_Swingset_03"by Chris Conlee
www.chrisconlee.com
Additional audio treatment with Unfiltered Audio SpecOps and 2C Audio Aether.
War Talk
Various tank and battle sounds
qubodup, GaryQ, alanmcki, bone 666138, HolyMatt123
Drawing Horses
"Horses Battle Sounds" by Zenit Saphyr.
Used with personal permission.
Mind the Gap
"London Underground, Arriving, A.wav" by InspectorJ
www.jshaw.co.uk
Additional audio treatment with Paulstretch and 2C Audio Aether.
Additional audio processing on "Dance of the Ifrit" by Mechanoflora.
Spoken word performance on "Spy vs Spy" by Bleepeater.