Why does a clarinet play at lower pitches than a flute? What does it mean for sounds to be in or out of tune? How are emotions carried by music? Do other animals perceive sound like we do? How might a musician use math to come up with new ideas?
This book offers a lively exploration of the mathematics, physics, and neuroscience that underlie music in a way t ... Show More
Yesterday
Ian Gittins, "The Cure: A Perfect Dream" (Gemini Books, 2025)
The story of The Cure: a tall tale of a truly unique British band. The Cure's story is a fantastical pop fable, but their trajectory has not been one of unbroken success. Along the way, their uneven, uneasy pop odyssey has taken in fierce intra-band tensions and fall-outs, numero ... Show More
36m 21s
Feb 10
Areum Jeong, "K-Pop Fandom: Performing Deokhu from the 1990s to Today" (U Michigan Press, 2026)
K-Pop Fandom: Performing Deokhu from the 1990s to Today (U Michigan Press, 2026) insists that K-pop fan practices and activities constitute a central productive force, shaping not only K-pop’s explosive global popularity, but also K-pop’s cultural impacts, politics, and horizons ... Show More
37m 23s
Feb 9
Matti Friedman, "Who by Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai" (Spiegel & Grau, 2022)
In October 1973, the poet and singer Leonard Cohen—thirty-nine years old, famous, unhappy, and at a creative dead end—traveled from his home on the Greek island of Hydra to the chaos and bloodshed of the Sinai desert when Egypt attacked Israel on the Jewish high holiday of Yom Ki ... Show More
1h 3m
Aug 2025
Interstellar Winds (Extended Album Version)
Microcosmos Records presents a meditative electronic journey, the album Panta Rhei by Jule Grasz. Jule Grasz (Germany) began composing music in early childhood. In the 1990s, she wrote songs while collaborating with various artists. In 2006, she discovered the world of electronic ... Show More
7m 40s
Apr 2025
The Deaf Composer: How Beethoven wrote music he couldn’t hear
What happens when one of history’s greatest composers begins to lose the very sense he relies on most? In this episode, we explore how Ludwig van Beethoven continued to create groundbreaking music even as his world fell into silence. Along the way, we uncover the myths, invention ... Show More
28m 39s
Jun 2024
111. Production Techniques In Dance Music
<p>Dance music has a unique way of electrifying the atmosphere, but what is it about those beats and pulsing rhythms that makes it so catchy? In this episode, Xylo chats with producer, singer-songwriter & educator, Kerry Leva, about dance music and the important elements and ... Show More
52m 5s
Sep 2025
The Dead Composer Whose ‘Brain’ Still Makes Music
In a hauntingly innovative exhibit, brain cells grown from the late composer Alvin Lucier’s blood generate sound. Set in a museum in Perth, Australia, the installation blurs the line between art and neuroscience. Host Rachel Feltman and associate editor Allison Parshall explore t ... Show More
25m 25s
Sep 2025
The Dead Composer Whose ‘Brain’ Still Makes Music
In a hauntingly innovative exhibit, brain cells grown from the late composer Alvin Lucier’s blood generate sound. Set in a museum in Perth, Australia, the installation blurs the line between art and neuroscience. Host Rachel Feltman and associate editor Allison Parshall explore t ... Show More
25m 25s