kennethreitz
789b00eb85
- New theme pages for the Python-music arc and the self-hosting/archives arc - Backfill 8 stale theme pages through June 2026 (21 uncovered essays -> 0) - Link photo-archive essays from photography hub, music essays from music hub - Every former orphan essay now has 2-4 inbound hub links Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2.9 KiB
Music
I make electronic music as Infinite State. Between 2012 and 2018, it was my primary creative outlet alongside code. Five releases, all analog synthesizers, all processed through whatever was happening in my life at the time.
I'm a percussionist by training. Twenty years of drums, starting with marching band. These days I mostly play hand drums, djembe and cajon, when I play at all.
Currently making music on a Teenage Engineering OP-XY. Small, immediate, no screen to get lost in. The constraint is the point.
The latest project is something different entirely — a full album written in Python.
Discography
- Interpretations (2025) — 24 tracks composed in Python with Claude, using pytheory. Indian classical raga, acid house, ambient drone, trap, and everything between. The code is the score.
- Unmastered Impulses (2016) — The debut. 13 tracks, almost entirely analog. Raw and unpolished on purpose.
- Resolution (2017) — Recorded in my home studio in the spring. Closure and new beginnings.
- Messengers Rising (2017) — 14 tracks processing the bipolar diagnosis and its aftermath.
- Alchemical Divorce (2017) — An EP celebrating the end of a toxic relationship.
- As Above, So Below (2018) — Ambient and experimental. The Hermetic principle as sound.
Gear History
The studio I built between 2012 and 2018 is gone. Moog Voyager, Moog Sub37, Arturia MatrixBrute, DSI Tempest, Roland TR-8, a full Eurorack rig, Ableton Live with Push. I sold all of it. The music lives on the streaming platforms. The gear served its purpose.
Now it's just the OP-XY, a pair of headphones, and whatever wants to come out.
Writing About It
The Python era of this work has its own theme page. The highlights:
- Interpretations: An Album Written in Python — How the album was made. No DAW, no MIDI; the code is the score.
- NumPy as Synth Engine — Synthesis from arrays, no samples required.
- Free OP-XY Presets, Made from Python — Patches for the OP-XY, generated by the same engine.
- A Mini DAW in the Python REPL — The workstation that fits in a prompt.
- What the Snare Drum Knew Before I Did — The percussionist's half of the story: what twenty years of rudiments know that code doesn't.
Listen
Available on Spotify, Apple Music, and all major streaming platforms.