Álvaro Pérez & Álvaro Domene

"Mathematics and music have intertwined since the beginning of human civilizations. Long before there was any high culture of music in Europe, Egyptians, Indians, Mesopotamians, and Chinese, studied the mathematical dimensions of sound and musical expression. The ancient Greeks considered musical harmony as a branch of mathematics. Mathematics has always been a human tool for understanding and exploring music and for exploring the Universe from an Earth-based point of view. 

Time, rhythm, pitch, harmony, form, tuning, and timbre - the basic pedagogical building blocks in European musical culture have used mathematics in all eras to construct composed musics, which, in actual performance, is always about some degree of personal expression by the musicians performing the composed musics. We see this in Baroque musics and everything that follows in the Euro-Classical traditions. 

Jumping ahead to the post-World War II composers of the 20th century, folks like Xenakis, Reich, Stockhausen, Glass, Derbyshire, and dozens of others - who used mathematical tools like algebra, geometry, and set theory to create their musics. As new types of mathematical thinking arose, composers often devoured them and employed them. 

Enter Benoit Mandelbrot and his vision of Fractal Mathematics in 1975. I read an article about Fractals in Scientific American shortly after that. I immediately saw that Fractals could be used to create new and unprecedented kinds of musics. This grew out of the newly perceived Fractalness of the world around us; that had always been there. 

When my first albums were released in 1976-7, I needed a name for a publishing company to register my music. What immediately came to mind was FRACTAL MUSIC, and that is still my publishing company 46 years later-on today. 

I remember fondly, that sometime in the early 80s, Mandelbrot gave a public lecture at UC Berkeley. I went, and I brought my guitar. At the end of the talk, I approached Mandelbrot with my Gibson 355 and asked him if he would sign the back of the instrument for me. He seemed very happy and surprised by my request. He said, “Nobody has ever asked me this before. Do you employ Fractals in creating music with this guitar?”. I told him that, of course, I did - and that his work had enabled me to see and conceive of new musical structures and expressions since 1976. 

Back then in the late 70’s, I utilized my studies of Fractals, just as I also employed stochastic math, inspired by both Iannis Xenakis and my college stochastic chemistry teacher, Leonard K. Nash. I was also galvanized by game theory, via a college professor, Thomas Schelling, with whom I had studied. My musical expression back then was often through exotic delay and looping techniques - I was the first to use digital looping on an album. Today, Fractals also affect my expression of the organization of sounds in many other profound ways. Fractals have been always surrounding me, and pointing out ways to see the world in new ways. 

But enough of my credentials to comment on this album. Here on ZODOS 3, the two Álvaros are creating startlingly excellent musical constructions and personal expressions that are a new branch of the tree of Fractal math used conceptual seeds in musics. I’ve always let Fractal math guide me in improvisations, so it’s something I know and recognize. The two gentlemen on ZODOS 3 have found many new ways to advance these methodologies. It’s obvious to see the references in the titles of the album’s pieces. But as one who has “seen the elephant”, the music here is truly ground-breaking, elegant and as expressive as only the best improvisations can be. 

Without getting too technical and specific, Domene’s use of pedals and digital processing is not just at the cutting edge of guitar-slinging. Still, it’s also at the cutting edge of real-time creation of improvised and complex musical structures that could only exist through his advanced and innovative use of exotic delay pedals. I believe that the two Álvaros also developed novel recording and arrangement strategies that reflect the musical structures that come from both their brains and the serendipity of the delays. I could teach a weekend workshop by just listening to this album. And it’s not just abstract musical intellectualism. One of my heroes, Ali Akbar Khan, once told me that music is food for the soul and spirit. I especially find this sort of nourishment in listening to this record. 

If I can make one suggestion to assist new listeners in accessing the realms of ZODOS 3, I would advise you to look up Fractal Art on the internet, especially YouTube. Experience that for a bit. Then listen or re-listen to this album. I suspect that you will find new illumination in the music. We live in a Fractal World - read up on Fractals in nature and especially coastlines. See if you then hear some of that in this excellent music. And then, the music can open the door to new ways to experience the Universe around you." 

Henry Kaiser. December 31, 2022  

All music by Álvaro Domene and Álvaro Pérez. 

Álvaro Pérez: alto saxophone 
Álvaro Domene: seven string electric guitar 

Recorded in November of 2021 in Madrid (Spain) and Kingston (New York). 
Mixed and Mastered by Domene at Singularity Studio.