Simple Harmonic Motion Records

I’ve put together a Listening page on the Simple Harmonic Motion site—a small, evolving list of works that have shaped how I think about music.

It touches on duration, open form, and the idea of structure emerging over time, with music by Éliane Radigue, Morton Feldman, John Cage, Earle Brown and others.

There’s also a listening playlist that gathers some of these works in one place.

If you’re interested, you can explore it here:

A Listening List: Sound, Structure, and Open Form - Simple Harmonic Motion A Listening List: Sound, Structure, and Open Form There are certain works I return to—not as models to follow, but as points of orientation. They suggest ways of thinking about music: how it moves through time, how structure is perceived, how sound can be shaped without being overdetermined. Some ...

Éliane Radigue’s time in New York City marked a key turning point in her career, as she shifted from tape-based musique concrète techniques to mastering modular synthesizers. This blog post on our website explores that journey, starting with her electronic music residency at New York University.

Éliane Radigue: The New York Synthesis - Simple Harmonic Motion Éliane Radigue: The New York Synthesis by John Bickerton | Mar 2, 2026 | Composers, Experimental Music | 0 comments Éliane Radigue’s time in New York City was a pivotal turning point in her career, marking her transition from the tape-based methods of musique concrète to a lifelong mastery of m...

Éliane Radigue, who passed away last week at the age of 94, was a composer who transformed our relationship with time and sound. This blog post highlights her career and describes her journey from tape music and musique concrète to her renowned explorations of the ARP 2500 synthesizer and her later acoustic works.

Éliane Radigue and the Radical Power of Slowness - Simple Harmonic Motion Éliane Radigue, who passed away in February 2026 at the age of 94, was a composer who redefined our relationship with time and sound. Across a career spanning over six decades, she evolved from an apprentice of the musique concrète pioneers to a master of the modular synthesizer, and finally to a ...

Four Systems is now available on all major streaming platforms — including Spotify and Apple Music. https://tinyurl.com/4zydwc2z

The album presents four contemporary realizations of Earle Brown’s landmark graphic score, unfolding across radically different sound worlds.

For the best way to support the project — and to own the music — you can also find it on Bandcamp.
https://tinyurl.com/4zydwc2z

Four Systems

We’re excited to announce the release of Four Systems, a new album exploring Earle Brown’s landmark 1954 graphic score through four radically different contemporary realizations.

From acoustic ensemble to feedback-driven percussion, prepared guitar, and fully electronic sound worlds, each performance takes a unique path through Brown’s open-form notation — revealing how a single visual score can generate endlessly different musical experiences.

Available now on Bandcamp from Simple Harmonic Motion Records.
https://johnbickerton.bandcamp.com/album/four-systems

Have you ever wondered how a graphic score becomes music?

Our new blog post explores how Earle Brown created Four Systems — one of the most important open-form graphic scores of the 20th century.

Rather than using traditional notation, Brown’s score presents visual systems that invite performers to make choices about movement, pacing, and sound — meaning no two realizations need sound the same.

Head to the link below to learn more about Brown’s compositional process and why Four Systems has captivated performers and composers for decades.

Whether you’re new to graphic scores or simply curious to learn more, this post offers a compelling look at Brown’s vision and legacy.

https://simpleharmonicmotion.org/earle-browns-four-systems/

A central and perhaps the most distinctive aspect of Atlas Eclipticalis is its compositional method, which involves using an arbitrary graphical source—specifically, an astronomical chart or star map. Cage composed the work by tracing a map of the stars onto music manuscript paper and subsequently transforming these graphical inscriptions into musical parameters. He employed elaborate chance operations to create these star tracings on music paper, which determined the pitches of the music.

John Cage: Atlas Eclipticalis - Compositional Method and Reception - Simple Harmonic Motion John Cage: Atlas Eclipticalis – Compositional Method and Reception by John Bickerton | May 6, 2025 | American Avant-Garde, Composers, Experimental Music John Cage’s Atlas Eclipticalis, composed in 1961–62, is an orchestral work that can also be performed by any ensemble, whether chamber or orc...

Earle Brown's most significant contribution to modern music was his pioneering development of "open form" and the innovative use of graphic notation. His work December 1952, in particular, marked a revolutionary shift in music composition by abandoning traditional notation and allowing performers significant freedom in interpreting abstract visual elements. Brown's approach emphasized spontaneity, performer creativity, and variability of performance, fundamentally redefining the roles of composer, musician, and listener. This legacy profoundly influenced contemporary composition, experimental music practices, improvisation, and interdisciplinary collaborations, making open-form structures and visual-based notation integral to modern musical thought and aesthetics.

Spotify streaming code for Atlas Eclipticalis - The Music of John Cage and Earle Brown.
https://open.spotify.com/album/4uZnjczaKPfIsNQngBGPtH?si=LW7CU9VlTB2DdBNvDpHzqw

Our latest review from Fanfare Magazine. Listen at https://bit.ly/3DXaAo9