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A Curious Doubling Of Terms
Traditionally a real-time improviser, Thorn applies the same method here: live improvisation, spontaneous structure-building, and experimental mélanges of violin and code. Many of its foggy textures derive from Haze, a tool he developed for generating densely patterned lo-fi soundscapes.
A sonic memoir imbued with violin and experimental code, a curious doubling of terms begins at the churning waters of Necarney Creek merging with the Pacific. Unfolding from pure lyricism into machinic textures, the music summons the verdant twilight of the primeval forest and the glow of the city lights it adumbrates. The machinic is both refuge and trial in this work, though the final word is the fracturing, hard-driven logic-become-logistics that may signal a morbid dénouement.
- Mastered by volume-objects.com
- Artwork by Jeff Dungfelder
Tracklisting:
- Necarney Creek
- Metaphysics
- The Unspoken
- What Lies Before
- Old Degrowth Forest
- Taking To Heart
- Machinic Heterogeneticist
- Friends Show The Way
- Morbid Symptomatic Logic
Seth Thorn
A violinist and Assistant Professor of Interactive Media at Arizona State University, Thorn composes by writing sample-level code for sandbox modular hardware systems. He currently leads the NSF-funded Glitch’n initiative and develops haptic violin hardware through his startup, Matter Squared. A curious doubling of terms is his first solo release.
Reviews
Igloo Magazine A serene unraveling of ambient electronics, a curious doubling of terms by Seth Thorn drifts in hushed motion—an understated mosaic of modular pulses and muted light. With “necarney creek,” sparks of crystallized shimmer dissolve into air, as miniature tones hover weightlessly. Thorn, assistant professor of interactive media and accomplished violinist, threads bowed strings stretched impossibly far, weaving them with granular glitches on “metaphysics” and the slow-burning drone terrain of “what lies before.”
Within these gauzy layers and finely etched tones, a sense of calm emerges—textures that feel barely there, yet deeply felt. On “machinic heterogeneticist,” ephemeral clicks and ghostly signals pulse in quiet syncopation, while “friends show the way” opens wide, unspooling long ribbons of space and emotion.
Just when you think you’ve wandered as far as possible into this textural expanse, the finale, “morbid symptomatic logic,” sharpens focus. In just three minutes, Thorn distills a cascade of intricate rhythms—each cut, click, and beat precisely placed—moving with momentum and quiet grace.
A standout in 2025’s ambient landscape, this album presents nine distilled vignettes where energy flickers through silence and circuitry—each piece a careful balance of tone, breath, and digital whisper.
Seth Thorn is a violinist and assistant professor of interactive media at Arizona State University, who composes by writing sample-level code for sandbox modular hardware systems. He currently leads the NSF-funded Glitch’n initiative and develops haptic violin hardware through his startup, Matter Squared. A curious doubling of terms is his first solo release.
Original source > HERE
Chain D.L.K.Seth Thorn’s "a curious doubling of terms" feels like a diary written half in moss, half in binary. A violinist by training, an academic by trade, and a coder by obsession, Thorn builds music as if trying to braid memory with circuitry. This debut solo work, released via Audiobulb, leans into his dual identity: the human breath of bowed strings rubbing against the algorithmic churn of his self-built Haze system, a tool for conjuring lo-fi fog like a machine dreaming of Debussy in slow decay.
The album begins with "necarney creek", where water seems to seep through the strings, a merging of creek and ocean rendered not in field recordings but in timbral suggestion. It’s as if the violin, untethered from concert tradition, had wandered into the surf to test its resonance against salt air. From there, Thorn oscillates between intimacy ("the unspoken", barely two minutes of fragile tone that feels like a thought left unsent) and abstraction ("machinic heterogeneticist", whose title alone promises the kind of music that makes you wonder if your hard drive is about to weep).
Titles like "old degrowth forest" and "friends show" the way betray his environmental and humanistic leanings: these are not just code-and-bow exercises but philosophical sketches, touching on sustainability, community, and the uneasy romance between organic time and mechanical process. By the closing "morbid symptomatic logic", Thorn seems to suggest that even the most lyrical systems collapse under their own rules - entropy dressed as a coda.
There are no lyrics here, yet the music speaks with a sort of textual density: each piece feels like a sentence, or perhaps a fragment, in a longer argument about what it means to be human inside a machinic age. Funny enough, the album’s title could describe Thorn himself - both academic and improviser, violinist and coder, romantic and logician. "A curious doubling of terms" is less a debut than a paradox, and in embracing paradox it finds its own fragile coherence.
Original source > HERE
Musique MachineSeth Thorn is a violinist and coder – not necessarily two things that traditionally jibe – though today is certainly not traditional, by any stretch of the imagination. Thorn is a live improviser, and his first album, a curious doubling of terms, parades all of his talents, of which there are many. Things begin rather peacefully, the violin taking centre stage, but quickly the larger field in which it appears becomes populated by the machinic, in Thorn's terms. Similar experiments follow, including a church organ ringing out on "taking to heart", though the lo-fi tape flutter reminds us we are definitely not in the pews. The track concludes by submerging all of this under synthetic oceans, drowning any vestiges of the organic beneath its waves.
Thorn is adept, as are the best improvisers, at smoothing his transitions, making sure that nothing gets in the way of the durational experience of listening. Layers are added or subtracted without fanfare, as on "machinic heterogeneticist" (say that 10 times fast), which plays backwards and seems to swallow up all the flotsam that came before. Nothing can really prepare listeners for the final track, "morbid symptomatic logic", which sounds more like golden-era Autechre than any of the tracks that preceded it, complete with the dry cuts and breaks that made 90s IDM so compelling. We've reached the arid shores, I guess.
Fans of expertly crafted improvisation with acoustic and electronics will appreciate Thorn's attention to detail and pacing. Others with a penchant for the more organic side of computer music, should also find a curious doubling of terms a worthy listen.
Original source > HERE
Ambient BlogA Curious Doubling Of Terms is the debut album of Seth Thorn. But he isn’t exactly a debutant in the field of music. Quite the opposite: he is a violinist with a PhD in Computer Music and Multimedia, composing ‘by writing sample-level code for sandbox modular hardware systems.’ He is also active in somewhat related fields like leading the Glitch’N initiative, as well as developing haptic violin hardware through his startup called Matter Squared. As a musician, he is primarily a real-time improviser. This also applies to the music on A Curious Doubling Of Terms (perfect title, by the way): ‘live improvisation, spontaneous structure-building, and experimental mélanges of violin and code.’
Not all tracks feature the violin as a main instrument – the violin is most prominently heard on What Lies Before and Friends Show The Way. Of course, I am not sure if and how the violin may be used in conjunction with the software to create all the ‘foggy textures’ using Haze,a software tool he wrote himself, for generating densely patterned lo-fi soundscapes’.
The fact that there’s a lot of complex technology at work here does not mean the music sounds as such. The result is a warm bath of soundscapes that I myself would not particularly call ‘lo-fi’. Most of the album is quiet and contemplative, with one exception in the end: the closing track Morbid Symptomagic Logic breaks the spell somewhat with its intense, complex, breakbeat-like rhythm.
Original source > HERE
Sound and SilenceAvec son premier album, Seth Thorn propose un voyage incandescent dans les profondeurs de territoires nappés de brumes légères et de vibrations enveloppantes.
Alliant violon et outils électroniques, a curious doubling of terms est une bulle atmosphérique aux allures de conte éthéré à la beauté nuageuse.
Les mélodies se dispersent en halos lumineux, flirtant avec des zones de grésillements à la douceur moelleuse.
Seth Thorn nous offre un album délicat, où chaque seconde est une invitation à se laisser porter par des vagues habitées de lenteur indolente et de poésie stellaire.
Les titres se succèdent avec fluidité, formant un tout habité par la grâce, succession de plages tranquilles aux remous ensorcelants. Superbe.
Original source > HERE
The Slow Music Movement
“Seth Thorn is a violinist and assistant professor of interactive media at Arizona State University, who composes by writing sample-level code for sandbox modular hardware systems. He currently leads the NSF-funded Glitch’n initiative and develops haptic violin hardware through his startup, Matter Squared.” I’m not quite sure what most of that means, but it sounds as intriguing as it does geeky, and thankfully all that theory and science has led to some great music. I’m only surprised that for someone who’s obviously given music so much thought that it took him this long to release his debut album.
The album starts in fine ambient fashion, easy drones rising and falling like a summer tide as waves of static fold into the swell, making for a serene album opener. Next up Thorn unpacks his violin and glides like a lone figure skater over the glitchy, shapeshifting soundscape that’s cratered by submerged beats, encouraging all classical music to embrace the electronic now. So far so mellow, but signs of unease creep in on “the unspoken”. The violin is retired, the static intensifies, sounds are reversed and chopped before their natural course is run, a begrudging acknowledgement that life isn’t all plain sailing. The feeling of unease remains on “what lies before”, although to a lesser due to its drone undercurrents which provide an underlying calm to the surface’s more agitated electronic detailing, paving the way nicely for the denser, intenser, darker ambience of “old degrowth forest”, a mid-album wake up call.
The second half of the album maps a similarly well crafted, thoughtfully sequenced route. Violin parts are layered at varying depths on the more orchestrally minded, “taking to heart” and come to fore on the almost sentimental ambient neoclassicism of “friends show the way”, before the album ends with the string encouraged beats, low end rumble and shadow lurking “morbid symptomatic logic”, which wouldn’t sound out of place in a low lit Dresden club space.
His debut album might have taken a while to appear but it’s a serious statement, although sadly I have a sneaking suspicion it will pass many by. It’s tough out there. Let’s just hope the follow up doesn’t take quite as long to materialise.
Original source > HERE
Bandcamp Listeners to Seth Thorn on bandcamp have left such kind reflections - thank you!
Rodrigo Passannanti - An entrancing work of sonic exploration, weaving intricate layers of orchestral-ambient texture with organic motifs and emotive undercurrents. It conjures windswept deserts, distant planets, and spectral skies. A continuously evolving sound sculpture ideal for deep, contemplative listening.
Carrie Favretto ... This album is such a beautiful experience, from start to finish. Fragmented and yet so fluid, lush and surreal. Thank you again for such a wonderful listening party, with such lovely people. I am very much looking forward to hearing more of Seth's work in the future! Favorite track: what lies before.
Original source > HERE
A Closer ListenSeth Thorn‘s “foggy textures” meet forlorn violin and supple beats on a curious doubling of terms, which combines the organic and the electronic, reflecting the liminal spaces between forest and the city (Audiobulb, September 6).
Original source > HERE