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abstract form <—> physical behavior (2026)

☙ abstract form ⇽⇾ physical behavior (2026)
☙ Ergodic Études, for synthesizers
☙ by Edward Breitweiser

[HOW TO LISTEN]

☙ Full digital download (Metalabel) – .ZIP file including video & audio files, album art, and project documentation
☙ Video (Vimeo or YouTube)
☙ Audio (Bandcamp)

[ABOUT]

I often think of improvising in simple, personal architectural terms: 

I am designing a house, and I want to welcome you into it. When you enter my house, I take you on a tour. One room at a time, we explore my house. Together, in every moment, we decide how long to stay in each room, which objects to look at, what to talk about, and which room to visit next. Sometimes, we get comfortable in one room and stay there all night - other times, we speed through the entire house. In this analogy, the house - its walls, configuration of rooms, number of doorways, and decor - is a fixed limit that bounds our activity. However, we have freedom to roam and explore, to loaf and linger, to hurry and scurry. Because of the house, our life will not be purely random; but within the house, we are free.

☙   𝑛 → ∞   ❧

“Ergodic Études” is a title that refers to ergodics, a branch of probability studies in mathematics. I stumbled upon this term while reading an article profiling French mathematician Nalini Anantharaman that outlined her contributions to “quantum chaos” (“how a quantum system can become unpredictable without being truly random”) and “quantum ergodicity”, described as “the tendency of quantum states to spread out uniformly across the available space, rather than concentrating in specific regions.” (1) I was unfamiliar with the term “ergodicity”, but it captured my imagination – I’m drawn to the modular synthesizer for its ability to produce audible dynamic systems, and generally incorporate probabilistic or chaotic mechanisms that both impose limits on the breadth of possible behaviors and offer the listener a nuanced set of regular sonic patterns that are more complex than simple repetition. 

☙   𝑛 ← ∞   ❧

To return to our “improvisation house” analogy, the house is an available space, or form; the path we choose as we walk through it is a physical behavior imposed on that form. 

☙   𝑛 → ∞   ❧

I followed a minor rabbit hole of inspiration, perusing mostly-incomprehensible mathematics papers (Example: “[W]e can now define ergodicity. A dynamical system [𝑋,𝜇,𝑇] is ergodic iff ƒ* = ƒ̄ for all complex-valued Lebesgue integrable functions ƒ almost everywhere, meaning for almost all initial conditions.” (2) Huh???) for insights about ergodicity. The simplest definition I located was, “A modern description of what ergodic theory is would be: it is the study of the long term average behavior of systems evolving in time,” (3) and an ergodic system is one in which “every sequence or sizable sample is equally representative of the whole” (4). Said differently, by tracing the trajectories of “points” as they move through space, we can understand the behavior of an entire system – it is not purely random, but reveals itself as a non-random, regular process that can be known if we let it run long enough. 

☙   𝑛 ← ∞   ❧

If I repeatedly trace the path that I walk through my house, will the results be purely random (skipping from any room to any other room, regardless of whether their doorways are connected) or will a series of patterns (I always enter my dining room from my kitchen; I always pass through this stairway to climb to my bedroom) gradually emerge?

☙   𝑛 → ∞   ❧

Ergodic systems fundamentally require three dynamic elements: a space (𝑋), a measurement of that space (𝜇), and time (𝑇).

By greatly generalizing and overtly oversimplifying, I came away from this research with a framework for creating a series of new works using West Coast-ish analog-ish synthesis with tape music-ish formal techniques: 

1) Build a synthesizer patch that is a dynamic system with probabilistic, self-modulating variability (𝑋); 

2) Improvise with the patch until I find “regions” (i.e. fixed parameters) that are sonically interesting (𝜇); 

3) Record the patch self-performing in these regions, using my ears to determine when the system had fully performed itself (~15-20 minutes) (𝑇); 

4) Mix together four regions that complement one another as a multi-track stereo recording, like four simultaneous tape loops. 

In this manner, I imagined myself creating a “sonic space” with regions of interesting aural behavior: the synthesizer establishes the electro-sonic equivalent of a geometric volume, a form within which behaviors can unfold in time.

By guiding the synthesizer to these regions – the extreme edges (0, 100), and the gradations in-between ( … 25 … 50 … 75 … ) and allowing it to explore within these bounded limits, we can hear the full breadth of sonic behavior available to the system. My goal was to find regions that were sonically interesting enough that the listener would engage for ~15-20 minutes, until the system had fully revealed its whole process; yet, since any given moment can be considered a sample that represents the whole, the process should become sonically familiar over time as it accumulates more and more similar behaviors, like a digital image gaining higher resolution as more pixels are added. 

This process was a very fun creative exercise. All three études were created on the same synthesizer patch. The sounds are a bit raw – spikey pulses, sharp squares, crunchy bytes – but slowly evolve with the fresh spontaneity of continuous renewal. The system is harsh, but joyful, like a young computer discovering that it can write and run its own program. I’m drawn to electronic systems in which the performance of lifelike behaviors has a physical, material quality – to listen to these études, I use the same ears that hear the dialogue between textures, or nature sounds – birds, wind in trees, other animals that repeat common behaviors in slightly irrepeatable ways.

☙   𝑛 ← ∞   ❧

Choose any point in time and it will tell you where it has just been and where it will go next. Each room connects to several others, and we can walk through the same thresholds together. Each moment is the average of the whole process. In every room, we encounter the full freedom of the house without taking a single step. At least, in theory. 

☙   𝑛 → ∞   ❧

SOURCES:

1) Pagès, Arnaud, and Xavier Demeersman. “Quantum Chaos: Nalini Anantharaman, the Brilliant Mathematician Redefining Our Understanding of the Invisible.” Futura-Sciences, 24 Feb. 2026, www.futura-sciences.com/en/quantum-chaos-nalini-anantharaman-the-brilliant-mathematician-redefining-our-understanding-of-the-invisible_25920/.

2) Frigg, Roman, et al. “The Ergodic Hierarchy.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by Edward N. Zalta and Uri Nodelman, substantive revision, 8 Oct. 2025, plato.stanford.edu/entries/ergodic-hierarchy/.

3) Dajani, Karma, and Sjoerd Dirksin. A Simple Introduction to Ergodic Theory. Utrecht University, 2008, webspace.science.uu.nl/~kraai101/lecturenotes2009.pdf.4) “Ergodic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ergodicity. Accessed 16 May 2026.

☙ 𝑛 → ∞ ❧

[VIDEO]

The video uses footage that I filmed while driving the support car for my friend Drew Wieland’s endurance bicycle ride from Nashville, Tennessee to Natchez, Mississippi in the summer of 2025. I selected three segments of video from three sequential stops in Mississippi – three points on a journey through space – and ran them on continuous loops. Overlaid onto the looping footage are elements from the digital album art: a manually distorted audio spectrogram snapshot from this project; an object that was rendered by interpolating a 3D transformation between two hand-drawn 2D geometric objects; a “map” depicting the three-stage interpolation of a fully (100%) smoothed object into half- (50%) and un-smoothed (0%) versions of itself.

☙ 𝑛 ← ∞ ❧

[CREDITS]

Composed, performed, and recorded by Edward Breitweiser between February and March 2026.

Video filmed and edited by Edward Breitweiser between July 2025 and May 2026.

Album art by Edward Breitweiser.

Mastered by Colin Winkelmann.

☙ 𝑛 → ∞ ❧

🌐 www.edwardbreitweiser.com 🌐

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Pulse Canons (2025)

🕙 Pulse Canons 🕚
🕛 For clock pulses, oscillators, and organs 🕐
🕑 By Edward Breitweiser 🕙

Recently, I’ve been inspired by two musical threads: the simple sonic events of minimalist, electronic, and computer music of the ’60s and ’70s, and the contrapuntal voices of Renaissance and Baroque music.

🕙 PULSE CANONS 🕚🕛🕐🕑

In “Pulse Canons” (2025), I’m experimenting with a new system for generating musical structures. Inspired by John McGuire’s (American, b. 1942) compositions and sketches for clocks in the ’60s and ’70s, I built a system where clocks cascade into one another, creating streams of patterns that flow and weave – sometimes floating alongside each other, other times grinding against one another, still other times nested within one another. Through a series of probabilistic “coin flips” and rhythm generators, a complex range of possible arrangements can unfold in ways that are tightly synchronized, yet unpredictable.

🕙🕚 PULSE CANONS 🕛🕐🕑

Realized on modular synthesizer software, these pulse rhythms interact with blocks of simple sounds. On “Pulse Canon 001”, these sound modules are harmonically-tuned FM oscillators and organs with additive spectra. On “Pulse Canon 002”, these sound modules are enharmonic “plucks” created through Karplus-Strong physical modeling synthesis. The pulses activate these sounds and trigger formal changes, including pitch, harmony, timbre, and rhythmic patterns, creating a dynamic symmetry from specific events through larger formal structures – brief bursts of sonic activity resonate, delay, and repeat across time scales, from the infinitesimal to the macro.

🕙🕚🕛 PULSE CANONS 🕐🕑

Recalling the tape music techniques of McGuire, I generated four 111-pulse segments and layered them as canons, a centuries-old musical form in which a melody is repeated by new voices entering at regular intervals. Traditionally used to build harmonic and rhythmic complexity from simple layering of a single melody, I was drawn to canons for their ability to generate rich, dense textures that still allow the ear to follow the recurrence of sonic events.

🕙🕚🕛🕐 PULSE CANONS 🕑

“Pulse Canons” was written as an semi-open-form generative composition in 2025. “Pulse Canon 001”, the first realization of this composition, premiered on Friday, July 25 2025 at Common Sage Arts (Madison, Wisconsin, USA) performed by Edward Breitweiser.

“Pulse Canon 001” was initially mixed for quad surround sound and edited to videos of trains crossing the Mid- and Southwestern American landscape as a fixed media audio-video performance in Max/MSP. This video footage was filmed during the composition process and mimics simple canon-esque repetition in sync with the entry of canon voices in the sound composition. This editing technique results in stereoscopic images that hypnotically collide against one another, visualizing moments of both sonic synchronicity and misalignment. A stereo mixdown of this video is included here.

🕙🕚🕛🕐🕑

CREDITS

All sound composed, performed, and recorded by Edward Breitweiser between June and October 2025.
“Pulse Canon 001” video filmed and edited by Edward Breitweiser.
Mastered by Colin Winkelmann.

Video available on Vimeo or YouTube.

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Ecotonus (2024-2025)

〰️ ECOTONUS (2024-2025) 〰️
〰️ For ARP-2500 synthesizer and computer 〰️
〰️ By Edward Breitweiser 〰️

Using the works of pioneering French composer Éliane Radigue (French, b. 1932) as a point of departure, Ecotonus draws from improvisations that I recorded on the ARP-2500 that was custom-built in 1971 for the Electronic Music & Recording Studio at Washington University (St. Louis, Missouri, USA). The 2500 was Radigue’s primary instrument and is known for its uniquely noisy “matrix switch” design, which can result in quirky, unstable interaction between sounds. While improvising, I sought simple sounds that would behave unpredictably and evolve into unexpected complexity through the beauty of this rare machine.

Drawing inspiration from Radigue’s concept of “music-as-transition” and the water-based, self-scaling structure of her OCCAM series of compositions, Ecotonus (from the word “ecotone”, a transitional area between two ecosystems) follows the transitions between two recently-discovered features throughout the Universe: the “gravitational basins of attraction” that draw matter together similarly to water systems on Earth and their counterpart, the empty, foam-like voids that remain after matter is gone. These two dynamics – filament and void – ultimately structure all matter in the Universe, enabling life to form (and, much later, to discover these dynamics among the cosmos).

Ecotonus was premiered in November 2024 at Synoptic Frequencies (St. Louis, MO). Special thanks to Christopher Douthitt from Washington University for granting me access to this extraordinary ARP-2500 instrument.

〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️

CREDITS
Composed, performed, and recorded by Edward Breitweiser between January and November 2024.
Video filmed and edited by Edward Breitweiser between November 2024 and December 2025.

Video available on Vimeo or YouTube.

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Yellow as the Sun, but sweeter (2023-2025)

🍅 Yellow as the Sun, but sweeter 🍅
🍅 or, How to Become a Tomato in Seven Easy Steps 🍅
🍅 An electronic journey through tomatoey tones and warm words. 🍅
🍅 By Edward Breitweiser 🍅

Over several months in 2021, I wrote an extended “text meditation” exercise that was structured around turning oneself into a tomato. In summer 2023, I wrote a long improvisation-based composition for Eurorack synthesizers to perform on a tour of the Midwest USA. While preparing this composition, I found the tomato text to be a perfect complement.

Structured as a seven-part guided text + sound meditation, “Yellow as the Sun, but sweeter” invites the listener to envision and participate in the lifecycle of a tomato plant: from seed to roots, from stalk to fruit, and back again.

Plump and delicious, sweet and tender – I hope you’ll join me in becoming a tomato today.

🍅 D 🍅 O 🍅 W 🍅 N 🍅 L 🍅 O 🍅 A 🍅 D 🍅

“Yellow as the Sun, but sweeter” is available as a digital download, a limited edition cassette tape, or an artist edition cassette tape with two-tone printed poster (11in x 17in) and assorted tomato seeds (edition of 25).

You can view the full music video on YouTube or Vimeo.

released July 4, 2025

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Six Words (2022)

Using archival research, community dialogue, and collaborative music-making, Six Words engages directly with Central Illinois residents to reflect on our collective experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. Six Words takes place at the McLean County Museum of History’s “COVID-19: The McLean County Experience” as a starting point to ask local residents about their pandemic experiences, and to preserve them for future generations. Breitweiser is collaborating with local non-profits and youth organizations—including the McLean County Museum of History and pt.fwd—to create a communal space for telling and hearing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Bloomington-Normal area. These diverse experiences are shared in a concert-length public performance at the Museum of History, featuring music and words by area residents who contributed to the project.

Six Words was commissioned by NON:op’s “Viral Silence” program, a statewide collaborative community commissioning and virtual touring program that captures Illinoisans’ local experiences and responses to Covid-19. “Viral Silence” strives to address the needs of these accomplished individual artists and offers hope and support to a wide and diverse audience of viewers who mourn the closure of cultural and performance institutions. The project’s participatory processes and resulting portraits help to heal and bind communities around memory, loss, and rediscovery.

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Tones for Our Bones (2022)

Around 1966, pianist and composer Chick Corea wrote a tune called, “Tones for Joan’s Bones”, which I adore. It was released as the title track on his 1968 debut album, which I also adore.

After a very long week, I needed tones for my bones. I experimented with layers of bass guitar, feedback, and modular synthesizer, and recorded them during an extended improvisation.

By sharing these with you, they become Tones for Our Bones. (I don’t know who Joan is, but these are for her, too.)

“Tones for Our Bones” is a simple offering for anyone who needs it.

Best used at a loud – but safe – volume.

Released September 2, 2022

All tracks written, performed, and recorded by Edward Breitweiser between August and September 2022.

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wintering (2022)

“wintering” is a improvisational piece composed over the winter of 2021-2022. I designed an integrated modular and Buchla synthesizer system with various self-performing “sub-systems” (a subtly-shifting drone, pitched percussion, dry clicks, chirping ’70s oscillators) that influence one another in direct, but unexpected, ways. These sub-systems loop and morph slowly over time, and the performer can improvised to alter how they interact and blend with each other over the course of a performance.

Like a seasonal cycle, the system settles into repetitive patterns and returns to recurring sounds; during winter, the surface sometimes appears static the subtlest changes soon grow into new life.

“wintering” was inspired by the essay “On Cycles” by Julia Falkner: syllabusproject.org/on-cycles/

Released April 25, 2022.

All tracks written, performed, and recorded by Edward Breitweiser between October 2021 and April 2022.

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Capitol Riot -> Capital Riot: Sonic Sketches for Four Wednesdays in January (2021)

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~ Installations ~

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Ecology Study (2016)

Ecology Study (2016) by Edward Breitweiser and Michael Junokas is a set of handmade interactive electronic circuits that includes four channels of sound. The circuitry enacts an interplay between discrete parts and a larger holistic system, mimicking the effects of a small natural ecosystem.

Ecology Study was presented at the McLean County Arts Center (Bloomington, IL) in 2016.

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b/w (2013-2014)

b/w is an audio-visual-textual feedback network. Using LEDs and light-sensitive electronic circuits, b/w is set into motion–or “excited”–by gallery visitors, stray sources of light, and other LEDs, creating an adaptive symphony of light and humming sound.

Using his previous installation cusps (2012) as a point of departure, b/w is presented as an ongoing process, constantly in transition and subject to the influence of new circumstances (both for the maker and the materials). Standing as an attempt at the extreme of the singular (a thing of things; a sum without defined parts), cusps was an opportunity to observe levels that are higher and larger than an event, an actor, an area of focus. b/w enlarges the scope of Breitweiser’s earlier work from an individual piece to a dynamic, fluid construct within a broader body of works.

b/w was presented at Three Walls Gallery (Chicago, IL) in 2015.

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cusps (2012)

cusps (2012) is an audio/visual/textual feedback network. Three feedback loops, constructed from light-sensitive audio circuits that are amplifying their own electromagnetic fields, are routed to custom computer software. This software analyzes the audio signals and uses this data to synthesize three real-time video signals that are projected back onto the electronics. The light from these projections in turn affects the characteristics of the audio circuitry. Through this continual process, the independence of discrete events becomes indiscernible as catastrophic relationships continually sculpt the network’s ecology.

cusps was presented at the Sullivan Galleries, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL) in 2012.

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~ Collaborations ~

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Slow Dog – Slow Dog (2024)

Very excited to announce an album release on Breaching Static Media!

Slow Dog is a fun new project by me and my bb Stephen Holliger (Swim Ignorant Fire). When we were on tour supporting his album with the No Below Editions crew last year, we kept talking about a stripped-down, raw style reflecting the minimal, drone, ambient, and country music we’d been absorbing on the road. Then, we were waiting to play in Madison, WI and witnessed the slowest dog we’d ever seen. And the rest is history.

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Long ago, a dog was so slow that the world had no choice but to stop and wait. That dog is still walking, unafraid of the path ahead. When he howls, charred drones and snarling textures growl back.

Slow Dog is Stephen Holliger (synthesizers) and Edward Breitweiser (synthesizers and electronics). No leashes, no masters.

(Howls at the moon)

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At The Recreation Club, 11​​​-​​​5​​​-​​​22 (2022)

Recorded live, bootleg-style, at The Recreation Club in Champaign, IL, Saturday, November 5, 2022.

Released November 18, 2022

Edward Breitweiser – modular synthesizers and electronics
Yea Big (Stefen Robinson) – bass clarinet
Briar Darling – cello and moog
James Mauck – drums

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Rehearsals for Resistance (2017)

Rehearsals for Resistance (2017) is a joint project by Edward Breitweiser and Dao Nguyen. Through a series of collaborative gestures, Breitweiser and Nguyen explore resistance as a mode of productive activity. Beginning with an array of historical precedents and conceptual frameworks, they will present research, structures, and improvised acts that invent new futures for a tumultuous present. 

Rehearsals for Resistance was presented at Jan Brandt Gallery (Bloomington, IL) in 2017.

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