Zhea Erose - WXTCHCRXFT [37-tone Just Intonation] EP

This is an excerpt from my upcoming LP, Wxtchcrxft. This will be my 5th LP and it is purely microtonal. This 24 minute title track is the center piece to the album. It is divided into 3 parts but presented as a whole:
1. 0:00 Sonder
2. 7:48 Wxtchcrxft
3. 14:32 Forever

This piece contains the conceptual and thematic climax of the album in the land of forever. The story is of a harmonic witch who turns herself into sound and can't find her way back.

Tuning:
WXTCHCRXFT is further proof of concept illustrating my harmonic scale theories and "near equal just intonation" approach. I used two primary tunings throughout:

1) 29-tone neji, 19*11 novemdecimal-undecimal hybrid:
209:214:219:225:230:235:241:247:253:259:265:272:279:285:292:299:306:314:322:329:337:345:354:362:371:380:389:398:408:418
step - ratio - cents
0: 1/1 0.0
1: 214/209 40.9
2: 219/209 80.9
3: 225/209 127.7
4: 230/209 165.7
5: 235/209 202.9
6: 241/209 246.6
7: 13/11 289.2
8: 23/19 330.7
9: 259/209 371.3
10: 265/209 410.9
11: 272/209 456.1
12: 279/209 500.1
13: 15/11 536.9
14: 292/209 578.9
15: 299/209 619.9
16: 306/209 660.0
17: 314/209 704.7
18: 322/209 748.2
19: 329/209 785.5
20: 337/209 827.0
21: 345/209 867.7
22: 354/209 912.2
23: 362/209 950.9
24: 371/209 993.4
25: 20/11 1034.9
26: 389/209 1075.5
27: 398/209 1115.1
28: 408/209 1158.0
29: 2/1 1200.0

2) 8-tone, hypernaiadic /41 with a bunch of commas
41:47:53:60:61:71:80:91
0: 1/1 0.0
1: 47/41 236.4
2: 53/41 444.4
3: 60/41 659.2
4: 61/41 687.8
5: 71/41 950.6
6: 80/41 1157.2
7: 91/41 1380.2

3) Vocals:
The vocals are, of course, in just intonation but I accept organic tuning errors. When dealing with just intonation at this level, it's extremely difficult to sing pure. The resolution of control our vocal physiology offers quickly gets outpaced by resolution of harmonic possibility. Therefore, I do my best to sing the JI as I want, but accept error in the voice. I'm targeting several lower complexity intervals in the voice, tuning to the ensembles complex just intonation, and singing more complex JI targets not listed in either tuning.

Lyrics:
the lyrics are an impressionistic and reactionary impulse which spontaneously synthesizes my experience of the sound and the conceptual arc. There are lyrics but everyone will hear something different. The affect of the music, then, will dictate how each person hears WXTCHCRXFT.

Credits
Amelia Huff - tuning, synthesis, composition, arrangement, mixing, mastering, artwork, film, editing, and performance.

warmly,
z

[Sevish]

Felt the need to re-listen to this today. So chill everything in the room started levitating

[martincm]

Sometimes I think there's no more new fresh sounds. Fortunately I'm wrong. This is amazing!

[RackTomRememberance]

stuff like this is gonna redeem modernity

[alihassanmusik]

If Bjork and Terry Riley had a child who was raised by the music feys. I cannot even fathom this music. Mind expanding, life affirming. Thank you for your service!

[EdenAnnora]

one of the most slept on music creators out there

[Dominus]

The transcendent queen arose between the paradoxical harmonic dissonance that she carved in the land with hands and teeth. She towers over the vast sonic landscape that lay around her as streams flow from her mouth and eyes propounding to the all the melody of her intent; a conflict that only finds resolution in itself, of itself. This universe is both new and old and the source, the queen, has seen and caused it all to be. Magnificence! Thank you for your art 👏👏👏👏👏👏

[domc]

You're one of the best in the world of microtonal music. Often it sounds "out of tune" when listening to others play around with it but somehow you make it gel perfectly. Must be the primodality at work!

[CaptainSS]

See, the more and more I get into music, the more dimension, experimentalism, and definition I find in music. This a very great example in my expansive microtonal studies of alternatively tuned music being used in a familiar but explorative way. The new rhythms, selective use of already known harmonics to casual listeners, familiar sounds in both the artificial and traditional fields of instruments being used in new chords and interval relationships, the lines between audio spaces and pitches being blurred, and much more all packed into a parsible group of songs that are both interesting for the casual and advanced listener. Both able to be listened to for the experience, and picked apart for study. This is a good example of musical and sonic experiments being used in a way that is understandable without such complex language to go with the unusual sounds of free pitch-space.

[TATANKAvideo]

Brilliant. Thank you for pushing us out of our 12-tone comfort zone into true beauty.

[gallium-gonzollium]

Hey, Zhea.
I just want to give a huge thanks to you. You have seriously opened me up to a new world I've never seen before. Ever since I became aware of your channel, I've fallen in love with microtonalism, and your music.
-- The first time this track got recommended to me was more than a year ago. My primitive perfect pitch ears were still in sour terms with microtonal music that I found just while being on YT. If someone told year-ago me that I would be seeking out all various forms of microtonalism, I would have looked at them like they were a B neutral chord. However, it all changed when I listened to this gem. At first I was like that's some dissonant chord man" and my perfect pitch wanted to click away. But I kept listening. It wasn't easy in the first section (Sonder), coping with my now screaming perfect pitch. The chaotic middle (Wxtchcrxft) I actually quite enjoyed though with the playing of all the distortions. But then, the third section (Forever) rose back. This time, with a different feeling. Your well executed music skills taught my brain a lesson. Because as the voices crept in, as the chorus came back, _I was left in just pure awe._ Harmonically, I thought, nothing different from Sonder. However, it felt like my perfect pitch had just gave up on me and decided to join in for the ride. Those next 4 minutes were probably the best in my entire music listening life. No joke, it was literally so unique compared to anything else I've ever listened (because all of it was basically 12-tet lol) that it was undeniably first place. When it ended, I couldn't think straight for a while.
I went back to the first ever microtonal music I heard. Sevish's Gleam. I listened to the first part. Most of the sourness that originally led me to click away had completely faded away.

You have helped me tolerate the world of microtonalism. Creating this 25-minute masterpiece has completely changed the way I think of pitch and notes.
Most importantly you helped me combat my perfect pitch. You've unlocked my ears to a whole new division of the octave, and way more down the line.

Seriously, thank you.
- galliums

[cassmyers]

I can't stop listening to this. The control you've taken over your voice is so, so impressive. <3

[JohnLeonardMusic]

Fantastic work. Gives me vibes that are comparable to Sweet Trip's "Velocity : Design : Comfort", but far more modern.

[doug]

I haven't been this excited about new music in ages. Fantastic in the every sense of the word.

[PetraBrown]

The thought of your witch character not being able to get back her normal world, is saddening, it’s like missing a vital bus when it’s getting late Amelia. ❤ you from Petra-B

[We-all-watched-the-video]

I feel like microtonal music has a bright future ahead

[museisnotamused]

i dont get brought to tears by music very often, but this. this did it

[Starmander]

I came for the voice lessons, but then stayed for your mind-blowing music. This is such an active experience and yet so soothing. It's like syrupy electricity.

[creativical]

Why doesn't this have more likes, views, shares, saves, subscribers... anything? This is soo beautiful and inspiring!!!

[lucienburet]

This is criminally beautiful, I just can't get any other words to describe what I feel hearing this. I am just an amateur musician so I can't figure out what's happening, but damn those harmonies hit me so hard in the guts (in a good way). I'm so happy to have discovered your music, please never stop.

[sidharthghoshal]

This has been a very pleasant listen. It makes afternoon studying so much more effective. Thank you for your art!