I really like his music but I didn’t know about this scale and I’m quite disappointed to read further into this.
Is there any substance to it?
Ignore the woo. Enjoy the good music.
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I love his music but i wonder how one would use traditional synths in the Colundi context? If i got it right they can´t be used “out of the box” because Midi wouldn´t be able to play the wanted frequencies?
hello any synth that support custom tuning tables is able to do this.
plugins usually uses .mts , the classic is scala files (.scl) and personnaly i have a minilogue xd ,that’s why i linked a site where you can convert any file to any format.
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Microtonal stuff on hardware is a huge pain in the ass, some synths have microtonal options but only support 12 pitches per octave, and you need 17 and 19 to do most Indian and Arabic scales. 32 per octave like I think this scale is is a lot. Scala supports however many pitches per octave you need but then you have to deal with using a keyboard designed for 12 tet. I’ve mostly resigned myself to using software for this stuff.
Edit: though Indian and Arabic music typically doesn’t use the entire scale in a single song so you see a lot of musicians changing the scale every song and using regular keyboards. It’s sort of like a mode where any given track might use 5-7 pitches from the larger scale it’s derived from.
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in my case i think it’s working see the conversion dialog.
i think sequential support full scales also but i 'm not sure
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ive been a big fan since he was releasing as Ovuca on rephlex. the colundi stuff is just a gimmick but he’s still making great tunes.
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Yes! The geometry of the inner chambers of the Great Pyramid of Giza was specifically designed to teach future generations of Finns to make sick minimal techno. You can see this quite plainly because of how it is.
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Colundi Sequence 17.2.
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Aleksi seems to genuinely believe in Colundi, but it’s easy to assume Grant was taking the piss:
colundi was first channelled to earth via the cyclops, the ancient egyptian/mesopotanian<->south american civilizations, wisdom passed via Flavius Claudius Antonius, arriving in Britain at the end of the Dark Ages. Discovered in the tomb of Saint Edward King and Martyr by John Wilson-Claridge towards the start of our last century, then presented to Grant on his 33.3rd birthday by the elder colleagues, owing to his/colleagues’ exploration and propagation of braindance thusfar. so continuing the old work was vestigial; because it was complete.
However… John Wilson-Claridge (Grant’s father?) does seem to have excavated the bones of Saint Edward:
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Quite a lot of synths these days allow microtuning, where you can dial in whatever frequencies you want for the notes of the MIDI scale. There’s a standard data format called SCALA and some devices will let you load scala files directly, others you have to dial it in manually. A lot of Yamaha worksttion/pro gear has it, Minilogue and related keyboards have it, Hydrasynth has it, also Ableton I think and quite a few softsynths. Elektron gear doesn’t support it which is kind of sad given their experimental reputation. I don’t think MPCs support it either but that might change as their software matures.
It’s very easy to implement in software terms (tuning tables are just a list of frequencies and note names) so in theory any synth could have it, but it’s sort of a music nerd thing so there is not much demand, and developers may consider the benefit less than the cost of people complaining ‘I tried microtuning and now my synth sounds broken what do’.
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I highly doubt that, sincerely, or I should say that I hope so. My assumption is that it’s simply a hoax, but not a really well-prepared one. That would explain why their statements are so confuse and contradicting each other.
In any case, music is nice !
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Its quite difficult to discerne the true intentions behind Colundi.
On the prosecution side:
The Rephlex crew understand the importance of, and have a history of using obfuscation, myth-making and smoke and mirrors to help promote their music.
It is as OP points out, a pseudoscience. There is no scientific basis, or evidence behind any of it. Just some vague anecdotes about it making ppl feel better. I believe G W-C came up with the specific frequencies but wouldn’t say how he arrived at them (everyone loves a mystery!). I think also Aleksi is trying to invoke the likes of Kraftwerk or Gerald Donald projecting the image of the electronic musician as a serious scientist, sitting in a lab, conducting experiments. It helps to try and legitimise the music, or give it some more weight or heft. Also re: the record (Contact?) with the reverb modeled on a pharoah’s underground burial temple - thats another example of weaving something pretty weighty in to add some context to your music.
The defence:
They have been incredibly straight faced about it for the whole time, really have to admire that level of dedication to a bit. In interviews he comes across as totally sincere and even sort of self aware about how crazy it all sounds.
G W-C is a total space cadet and it wouldn’t shock me to discover he actually does believe it 100%. His facebook page is absolutely steeped in frenzied Colundi psychobabble.
There is something spooky in the music, the slightly sour, but serene vibes that the microtuning brings out does have a special kind of magic in it where you think… maybe it is healing me? its at least giving me a pleasant brainfloss.
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If one spends time thinking about Braindance, one is not Braindance.
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Wow great round up!
Yeah it strikes me as a self tuned scale of frequencies where everything more or less harmonises (like a pentatonic) but with a bit of wonk from human inaccuracies. I can imagine gwc in a room with big speakers dialling in different frequencies and seeing what resonates nicely, harmonically.
Because no frequencies clash it’s easy to knock out tunes with it and they will all have a distinct colundi character.
My take I might be wrong as don’t know a great deal about music theory on that level.
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If it’s a bit then they’re very good at it, they talk about it in the exact same tone as every new-age person I’ve ever encountered. Giorgia Angiuli is also into this sound healing stuff, as an example. All these people make great music regardless of any magical properties. Probably because they just care so much about what they’re doing. I think a lot of the stories around Colundi are intentional obfuscation and myth-making because they want people to move past the “is it real or not” line of thinking. The core of it seems really important to Aleksi. I think it’s cool, even if I don’t buy the healing properties stuff.
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Pseudoscience or not, the scale is pretty hypnotic sounding. Track 2 on 17.4 in particular.
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I looked him up on bandcamp and was a bit dismayed to see he’s putting out a whole album every few weeks now
Not sure what this means?
- taking lots of speed
- computer generated beats lol
- the bare minimum to make a living with music now
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Or
• he really likes to make music
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