mirror of
https://github.com/kennethreitz/kennethreitz.org.git
synced 2026-06-21 06:50:56 +00:00
52 lines
4.7 KiB
Markdown
52 lines
4.7 KiB
Markdown
# Interpretations
|
|
*2026* — [interpretations.kennethreitz.org](https://interpretations.kennethreitz.org/)
|
|
|
|
A full-length album of 24 original compositions, written in Python through human-AI collaboration. Every track composed in code using [pytheory](https://github.com/kennethreitz/pytheory), a music theory and synthesis library I built for this purpose — with Claude as creative partner throughout the process.
|
|
|
|
The album is the answer to a question I've been asking for years: what happens when you treat Python not as a tool for making music, but as the instrument itself? And what happens when you bring AI into the composing room?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Twenty-four tracks. Ninety minutes. A singing bowl with a quarter-inch cable plugged into it — that's the whole idea. Ancient instruments rendered through modern synthesis, sacred geometry floating above the waveform. Everything on this record was born in a Python script.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
## The Sound
|
|
|
|
Interpretations spans Indian classical raga, acid house, lo-fi hip hop, ambient drone, trap, drum and bass, and a few things that don't have names yet. The tracklist is a journey — opening with a sitar raga over 808s, climbing through electronic energy, descending into raw emotional territory, then dissolving into sacred space before finally settling into silence.
|
|
|
|
Three tuning systems live side by side: standard Western equal temperament for the electronic tracks, 22-tone shruti intonation for the Indian classical pieces, and just intonation for the meditative closers. Some tracks run at A=432Hz. The tuning is part of the composition, not an afterthought.
|
|
|
|
Reverb is treated as an instrument. The Taj Mahal impulse response appears on nearly every melodic part — it's the signature acoustic space of the record. Cathedral reverb for the organ pieces. Algorithmic reverb for tight electronic production.
|
|
|
|
## The Process
|
|
|
|
Every track is a Python file. A `Score` object defines the time signature and tempo. `Part` objects define instruments with their effects chains. Notes are added one at a time — pitch, duration, velocity. Drum patterns are step sequences. Filter sweeps are LFO automations. There is no DAW, no MIDI, no audio samples. The Python script *is* the score, and pytheory renders it to audio.
|
|
|
|
The compositions were written collaboratively with Claude — I'd describe what I wanted to hear, the mood, the genre, the arc, and we'd build the score together in conversation. Musical direction and creative vision are mine. The note-by-note Python code that realizes that vision was written through dialogue. It's a new kind of composition process — closer to directing than performing, but deeply involved at every level.
|
|
|
|
```bash
|
|
uv run play # Interactive player
|
|
uv run play tracks/raga_midnight.py # Play a specific track
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
The interactive player is a curses TUI that shows the full tracklist with keys, tempos, and tuning systems. It renders tracks to WAV on first play, then caches them for instant playback.
|
|
|
|
## Why Python
|
|
|
|
Twenty years of drums. A studio full of analog synthesizers, all sold. An OP-XY for portable sketches. And now this — an album where the composition language is the programming language I've spent my career thinking in.
|
|
|
|
Python is how I think. And Claude understands Python the way I do — as a language for expressing ideas clearly. Together, we can move from "I want a sitar raga that drops into 808s" to a fully realized composition faster than I could alone, without losing the specificity that makes each track what it is.
|
|
|
|
The same philosophy that made [Requests](/software/requests) feel obvious — that tools should match human mental models — applies here. pytheory's API is designed so that writing music reads like describing music. A sitar plays a note in D Phrygian with shruti tuning and Taj Mahal reverb. That's what the code says, and that's what you hear. The AI collaboration layer sits on top of that — another tool that matches how I think about music.
|
|
|
|
## Listen
|
|
|
|
<iframe src="https://interpretations.kennethreitz.org/embed.html" width="100%" height="500" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" style="border-radius:8px;border:none;max-width:400px;"></iframe>
|
|
|
|
Available now on [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/1jYjggrr6HEKfV4FchcJWD), [Apple Music](https://music.apple.com/us/album/interpretations/1890986989), and all major streaming platforms.
|
|
|
|
The source code is the album. Clone the repo, run the player, read the scores. The music and the code that creates it are the same artifact.
|
|
|
|
- [Official Site](https://interpretations.kennethreitz.org/)
|
|
- [GitHub](https://github.com/kennethreitz/interpretations) |