Track Premiere: Brian Baumbusch “Hex Tree”

Track Premiere: Brian Baumbusch “Hex Tree”

There’s an enchanting, otherworldly quality to the movements of “Hex Tree,” the spiritual center of Brian Baumbusch’s latest work, Polytempo Music. Variated sonic layers create kaleidoscopic rhythms, and on “Hex Tree” the effect is dizzying and whimsical.

“I wrote the music to ‘Hex Tree’ while undergoing a 10-day quarantine related to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Baumbusch shares, “I spent the quarantine in a single room on the 19th floor of a monolithic hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, and composed ‘Hex Tree’ over a two-day period from December 31, 2021, to January 1, 2022.” Across the 48-minute Polytempo Music, a mesh of melodic sequences rises and falls, taking cues from Indonesian gamelan music and minimalism and refracting them through his own prism. On “Hex Tree,” this unique cross-pollination shines, creating a heartbeat reverberating throughout the album. Baumbusch explains, “Because of the sheer power that this movement carries, both in the realm of virtuosity and deterministic cacophony, I think of ‘Hex Tree’ as the spiritual center of Polytempo Music.”

Polytempo Music will be released in three different formats on August 23: Other Minds will release CD and digital editions, a virtual reality application for the Meta Quest headset, and a mobile app. Listen to “Hex Tree” below and pre-order the CD or digital edition Polytempo Music HERE. The Meta Quest VR app, iOS app, and Android apps will all be released via Holography Records.

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