THE STERN BROCOT BAND
The Stern Brocot Band is primarily simply a great band. However, at the same time, its music explores less familiar shores of music such as punk microtonality, shifting additive rhythms and operatic microtonal-diatonic interplay. The band does this so fluidly and engagingly that it has been adopted by the Open University’s Music Computing Lab as a focus of study for insights into how music works – and how music keeps working even when familiar landmarks may be absent. Various performances of the Stern Brocot Band on YouTube are noted below.
A Broken Stern
A live Dynamic Tonality performance by The Stern Brocot Band (Andy Milne on QWERTY keyboard, Simon Holland on fretless bass, Vassilis Angelis on the drums) at Queen Mary University on Dec 21st 2010.
The tuning is 15-tone equal temperament, using a 4L 3s MOS scale embedded in a 4L 7s chromatic gamut. Towards the end, the synth’s tuning is moved dynamically between 15-, 19- and 31-TET.
The synth is called 2032 (it’s a Dynamic Tonality physical modelling synth), and is here played with the QWERTY keyboard on Andy Milne’s notebook—see http://www.dynamictonality.com for more info.
Yak herder fusion live
Refreshed from their sabbatical in Tajikistan immersed in pastoral Tajik culture, the Stern Brocot Band (Vassilis Angelis on drums, Maxime Canelli on electric guitar, Simon Holland on electric ‘cello, Andrew Milne on QWERTY) gave a live performance of their new piece “Yak Butter” on 12th June 2012 in the Nexus of the Jenny Lee Building at the Open University . This piece, inspired by Tajik yak herders, but with subtle hints of influence from Kyrgyzstan, was written in porcupine – a microtonal seven-tone scale (1 large, 6 small steps) and composed using Relayer, 2032, and TransFormSynth – microtonal software available from www.dynamictonality.com. Thanks to Phil Downs for videography and photography. If you like this live version, try also the studio version (see below).
Live Yak herder fusion on youtube
Yak Herder studio session
On 16th August 2012 The Stern Brocot Band went into the Research Recording Studio at the Open University to make a studio recording of “Yak Butter” overseen by ace sound engineer Jim Hoyland. Maxime Canelli, straight out of Nantes, rips it up on microtonal digitally modelled guitar.
Yak herding studio session on youtube
Rocket Socks rehearsal
February 2031. A very early rehearsal of transcendent punk prog metal piece “Rocket Socks”. Only the first or second rehearsal for new vocalist Simon Rolph. Line up of the band here is Vas Angelis drums, Simon Holland bass, Andy Milne AXiS-49, Anthony Prechtl 5-string digital modelling guitar, Simon Rolph vocals. The piece is written in the srutal temperament – generated by slightly wide semitones (105 cents) and a period of 600 cents, This is subtly different from 12 tone equal temperament.
Rocket Socks Rehearsal on youtube
Rocket Socks studio session
The Stern Brocot Band went into the Open University’s Research Recording Studio on 12th March 2013 to make a studio recording of Rocket Socks. The band was delighted to be augmented by soprano Anna Berry, and was fortunate to have the recording engineered by Jim Hoyland. The mix of 25th March has been submitted to the Un-Twelve Composition Competition. The rushes of Simon Rolph’s “Making of” video suggest a drastically raised bar for the band’s visual presentation.
Watch this space for the youtube release.
Other sites about the Stern Brocot Band
Dynamic Tonality