Igliashon Jones constructs twelve electronic pieces using tuning systems that favour theoretical dissonance over conventional harmonic stability. The album employs 11, 13, and 18-tone equal divisions of the octave, 180-cent equal tuning, and several mathematically derived unequal scales, all chosen to sidestep the gravitational pull of familiar intervals. The resulting melodies and harmonies sound genuinely alien, with chord progressions that refuse to resolve in expected ways and melodic contours that bend around pitches the Western ear has never been asked to parse. The production draws from glitch, techno, and post-rock, layering stuttering rhythmic fragments against sustained tones and occasional driving beats. Some tracks lean toward expansive ambience, others toward rhythmic propulsion, but all share the same microtonal vocabulary.
Released on Split Notes, a netlabel with a stated interest in xenharmonic music, the album sits within a small but committed community of composers exploring tuning systems outside the twelve-tone grid. Jones has been active in this space since 2007, and his work here is less concerned with psychoacoustic theory than with demonstrating that dissonance, when treated as raw material rather than problem to be solved, can support coherent and engaging music.
This is for listeners who want electronic music that sounds genuinely unfamiliar, who are curious about tuning as a compositional variable, or who have exhausted the possibilities of equal temperament and want to hear what lies beyond it.
