What does a metronome actually measure?
Beats per minute.
At least, that's where this started.
When I created the first METRONOME, I wanted to build an album around tempo itself.
Eight tracks.
Eight tempos.
One continuous journey.
The BPM wasn't metadata. It was part of the composition.
The record explored what happens to us as rhythm accelerates - how the same fundamental idea can feel completely different simply because our relationship to time changes.
I loved the experiment enough that I knew METRONOME shouldn't be one album.
It should become a series.
But I didn't want to make METRONOME II by simply changing the BPMs and doing it again.
So I started thinking about something else:
Different cultures don't necessarily experience rhythm, movement and time the same way.
That question took the second record to Japan.
METRONOME II is built around Jo-Ha-Kyu, a Japanese concept of movement that begins slowly, gradually develops and gathers momentum, accelerates toward a climax, and then resolves.
And that changed everything.
Instead of eight tempos, I started thinking about eight movements.
Instead of filling space, I started thinking about Ma - the space between things.
Instead of asking how fast the music should move, I started asking where it should breathe.
Shakuhachi.
Koto.
Shamisen.
Taiko.
The instruments don't all arrive at once.
They enter gradually.
They meet.
They accumulate.
They create tension.
The taiko is held back until the seventh movement.
Then everything releases.
And the final track doesn't try to give you some enormous cinematic ending.
It returns to space.
To breath.
To what remains after the bell.
That's when I realized what this series is actually becoming.
METRONOME I measured pulse.
METRONOME II measures experienced time.
And now I'm fascinated by the question of where METRONOME goes next.
METRONOME II
Eight Movements. One Breath.
Available today, September 18.
Put on headphones.
Start with Track 1.
Don't shuffle.
A Final Note
ResonanceX
If this resonated, forward it to someone who needs it.
The work continues on the podcast and at the site.
Raymond