Home
Music theory has played a central role in the establishment of Modal .TXTualities, so I've featured here a few modal musical endeavors I've spearheaded and/or participated in.
The below amplified trichordo buzuki improvisations were recorded live into an iPhone voice memo app w/ no overdubs in the traditional rebetika style. My great friend Mike Ernst and I have been playing together for a few years now, mostly completely off the cuff.
The trichordo buzuki is a central instrument in post-Ottoman Greek rebetika, consisting of 3 double strings tuned to D-A-D w/ the low D acting as a "drone" string.
If you'd like Mike and I to perform at your hookah lounge please email 2gyroz(at)gmail(dot)com for availability and rates.
377 SYLLABLES PER MINUTE
American English is generally thought to be spoken at around 160 words per minute. If we assume 1.4-1.5 syllables per word, then that imputes 224-240 syllables per minute. If we look at the Fibonacci sequence (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 114, 233, 377...) we find that 233 lands about smack dab in the middle there.
The conceit behind the below records was to write poems and then recite them at 1.618x ("The Golden Ratio") the normal speaking tempo of American English. Or at about 377 syllables per minute (+/- 5%).
This is also sometimes called rapping.
They were then juxtaposed against various loops, many at 89 BPM, for a 4:1 syllable to 16th note ratio. Some were even recorded with microtonal adjustments to the loops. Some even went into 7/4 time signatures. And so on...
They were all recorded in 2024 and are available to download as MP3s free of charge.
Toward the end of 2024 another great friend of mine, Josh [redacted], sat me down at a saloon and told me how much he hated all of these records. How I was basically some kind of avant-garde cunt for even creating them?
The funny thing of it all was I didn't even disagree with the guy!
I sat there and said, "You know what, Josh? I might actually agree with you about the whole avant-garde cunt thing."
And really since that conversation, oddly enough, I've kind of considered myself first and foremost as, not just a cunt, but one who gleefully indulges in the avant-garde from time to time.
(Full text of below releases can be found here.)