Fifteen Questions

Was there a particular event or experience that made you realise that there might be more outside of the realm of music we take for granted? When did you first start getting interested in the world of alternative tuning systems?

I remember hearing Karlheinz Stockhausen’s “Stimmung” for the first time when I was about 17 and being captivated by the simple beauty of a sung spectral chord. The music maintained my attention for over an hour but the pitches didn’t change. The chanted names of gods and morphing overtones just made ripples on the surface.

From there I went on to learn about the harmonic series. It was only when I was working on my first album “Sanctuary (Overtones and Deviations)”, however, that I thought about using this as a systemic way of organising the pitches in my own music.

I had recently finished studying for my Master’s in music production and was feeling confused about the creative direction I wanted to pursue with my music. So I rented a small studio and began recording ideas on different instruments without any consideration of whether this was classical music, electronica, pop or something else. In this open-minded spirit, I felt the limitations of 12-tone equal temperament very strongly, so I began electronically retuning instruments—from a Wurlitzer electric piano to a balafon. I was especially drawn to a 16-note spectral scale (overtones 16-31 from the harmonic series), though I didn’t know the term “spectral” at the time!

Full interview: https://15questions.net/interview/james-batty-about-alternative-tuning-systems/page-1/