My new album, winter in tumultua, is now available as a name-your-price download from Spectropol Records: http://spectropolrecords.bandcamp.com/album/winter-in-tumultua! Spectropol is an excellent label for adventurous music out of Bellingham, WA, run by my friend Bruce Hamilton (an accomplished composer/producer himself—check out his album compulse here: skiks - compulse at split-notes microtonal netlabel!  And be sure to check out the other Spectropol releases at http://spectropol.com/.

I never update this, probably because I wonder if anyone reads it, but in any case, some news!

All new albums will not be released on this site, but at my bandcamp page.  Already my EP “Open Space” resides there, and my new full-length “Transcendissonance” will show up there later today.  Guess where it’s also showing up?  Split Notes records!  That’s right, my friend Sevish (an amazing microtonal electronic musician in his own right, and a never-ending inspiration) runs this label of international “microtonal with a beat”, and he has given me my first-ever opportunity at a non-independent release!  This is a milestone in City of the Asleep history.  It’s only going to get better from here, I hope!

So you might wonder, if I’m releasing all my music elsewhere, what is going to become of this site? 

My vision for cityoftheasleep.com in the years to come is to be a home for my writing, on microtonal music and otherwise (I sure would love to get back into creative writing, but there’s just so much I have to say about microtonality that it’s kind of blocked up the other outlets).  In the next month or two, I expect to have finally completed “A Field-Guide to Alternative EDOs”, my math-free novice-friendly guide to using EDOs 5 thru 24.  I also have a few essays coming, “On Dissonance” and “Against Quantification”.  I seem to have taken up the mantle of “tuning heretic”; although my thinking is not so binary that I would outright reject any approach, I feel that the “non-mathematical” or “non-psychoacoustic” approach to microtonality is severely under-represented in the literature and I seem to be the only one interested in rectifying that.

Hopefully I will also have some new artwork to post here, but visual arts are low on the priority list for me these days.

In any case, please check out the new album, bookmark the bandcamp page, and check back here soon for some new written works!

“Early Microtonal Works”, the definitive collection of “Holocene”-era microtonal guitar music, is now up on the “Music” page.  These recordings feature 17-, 22-, and 31-tone guitars, as well as the Catler “12-tone Ultra Plus”, a unique fretboard system that combines 12-tone Equal Temperament with several 7-, 11-, and 13-limit Just Intonation intervals.

On May 1, 2010, I will release my newest album, “Time is a Rectangle”.  After this, I will release ONE previously-unreleased album from my archives on the 1st of each month until all of my unreleased material is published.  The first will be “Y2K E-Z Performa Classics”, a collection of the best of my high school-era MIDI compositions (you really gotta hear the ridiculousness to believe it).

While I am doing this, I will be hard at work on an album of new microtonal music in 20 equal divisions of the octave, possibly featuring 18 equal divisions of the octave as well.  I will also be posting some microtonal theory writings for the uninitiated, describing all of the microtonal “metatunings” I am using on my guitars (or have used in the past) and why I like them.

Please download the new bold surrealist freeform post-psychedelic absurdity from the “Music” section!  It’s at the top of the list!

It’s gonna be a busy year for City of the Asleep. Here’s a look at what’s coming down the pipe:

-A trio of albums, united conceptually under one idea: that the past is never dead.  The first one coming is called “Finity” and it should be up within a few days.  It’s a collaboration between two of my past selves, separated from each other by 9 years.

-More writings, including some essays on xentonality and metaphysics.

-More xentonal music, starting with a compilation of “early microtonal works”.

-Possibly: the release of the long-lost City of the Asleep math-metal album, “Sierpinski’s Casket”, recorded in 2007 and never quite finished due to a lack of vocals.  Perhaps the instrumentals will be released, however.

Check back often, or subscribe to the RSS feed!

Welcome to the brand-spankin’-new City of the Asleep website, the end result of months of dedicated coding by my good friend Hryx. Enjoy the new visual styles, read my uber-pretentious ” “bio” “, check out the new “Links” page, and revel in the glory of Web 2.0!

Check out the music page for the free download!