About Chris Vaisvil

Hello, I am a 12 tet and microtonal composer who works at the edge between acoustic and electronic instruments. I have a BS in Chemistry and an AA in Music and I find that each discipline informs the other. Occasionally I venture into the land of electrical, mechanical and acoustic engineering to modify or create DIY instruments as well.

My art is about now and is a response to the inspiration I feel from the visual, musical, poetic, and literary art of 20th and 21st centuries as well as science and world events. The art of our period I think has so much to say about who we are, where we have been, and what we will, or will not be as a community – a world village – a people, a unity of souls divided by the gulf of physical being and monetary inequity but united in spirit, desires, hopes and dreams. My goal is to communicate with you and if what I do speaks to you then I as an artist have succeeded.

I have performed several times in Urbana IL at the Independent Media Center in association with Oddmusic Urbana and performed at the Xenharmonic Praxis 2011 held at the Gesundheit! Institute in West Virginia. My music has received radio play and I have had pieces selected for the 2010 Voxnovus / UnTwelve 60 by 60 (17ET Jazz), and 2011 Vox Novus 60×60 international mix (Free Sue). These pieces have been performed in Chicago, New York City, Boston and other cities internationally. (Vox Novus 60×60) Additionally my composition “Ediacaran Garden” for classical guitar has been selected and performed by Kenji Haba in New York City as part of the Vox Novus Composer’s Voice series. A collaboration, As If – Spoken, with Kat Desiel, Christiane Offbar and myself in received terrestial air play in Brussels (July 9th, 2013) on Radio Panik 104.5 FM. My composition “Prelude for a Centaur Tuned Piano” was performed live over terrestrial radio (July 20th 2013) by Aaron Krister Johnson on Chicago’s classical radio station WFMT. You can stream the show it here or downland the podcast. In November of 2015 my performance at Wake Forest University “Runway Lights in 128” was played on terrestrial radio KEBF on Ted Peterson’s “Musical Explorations” show.

In September of 2015 I was honored to be invited by Johnny Reinhard and his American Festival of Microtonal Music to perform in the Winston-Salem North Carolina Microfest. I played the Linnstrument and Lap Steel guitar in 128 (8th octave of the overtone series) tuning. Venues included the New Winston Museum, Green Street Church, and the Brendle Recital Hall at Wake Forest University. In April of 2016 I was interviewed by “Words on New Music” podcast.

I am privileged to be listed as an internationally recognized microtonal composer by Franck Jedrzejewski in his book ‘Dictionnaire des musiques microtonales'(2014).

I was cited in Gary McAndrew’s paper “Use of a Quantum Number With Beat Frequencies in Psychoacoustics

I am involved in a number of microtonal internet gatherings such as the Facebook Xenharmonic Alliance and Microtonal Music and Theory groups. As part of my microtonal reach out host full albums of music by other artists and myself, provide Gene Ward Smith an example area for his tuning research, host a ton of examples by myself and others in a lot of different tunings. (My offer of web hosting for the music of fellow artists on a case by case basis. Please contact me if you have a need and can follow US copyright law.)

Unless otherwise noted my (Chris Vaisvil’s) music is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND license.

I accept requests for composing scores and/or audio rendering of the scores on a commission basis under the company banner of Vaisvil Compositions, LLC. The music you commission will be composed to your specifications. This can be music for your film, text, poetry, or lyrics set to music and can be exclusively for your own performance as you desire. Contact me at chrisvaisvil @ gmail dot com to discuss the project you have in mind.

If you want to support my work in general you can donate in the amount that is appropriate for you by emailing me for my how to do so. All funds will be used to support the music and related work that I am donating to the public under the Creative Commons License. If you would like a physical memento of your donation I would be glad to provide a CD or DVD of my work.

you can follow me on twitter at @vaisvil where I tweet my work and the work of other microtonalists that I like.

In a hurry?

You can find my music suitable for mass downloading at:

micro.soonlabel.com sorted by tuning system.

and you can find more music in 12 edo and various odds and ends at http://clones.soonlabel.com/public/

6 replies on “About Chris Vaisvil”

Hi Sentens,

Thanks for the comments (and listens) to Heptadecaphillia. My work is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND license.

I tried the fishing line idea but did not have a great deal of luck with getting the proper tension on the line. It is something that I intend to revisit in the future.

Also, thank you for your statement about contributing to life – that is a really big focus as to why I share what I do and encourage others to share as well. Music is such a great way to bridge the distance between people and connect to each other.

Respectfully,

Chris

I just want to thank you so much for Heptadecaphilia. It has its rough edges, but for mass and weight it is great. I can consider it as music far more readily than a LOT of microtonal “stuff”. What are the license terms of your work?

By the way, have you ever tried 40 or 50 lb test fishing line on your guitars? its cheaper than those cable ties…

Thank you for your contributions to life in spite of life (life with ART, that is).

Hi!
I’m new to the alonetone.com website and didn’t know how to reply to your comments through that site–but I did want to send a reply to you right away.

I do most of my stuff on my Casio keyboard (Privia)–the rhythms and a lot of the sounds are from that–I also add guitar and harmonica but most of the time I just produce bare-bones backup for my songs, hoping that eventually someone else will want to re-do one of them more professionally.

I’m 61. The original lyric at the beginning of that one song was, “We were cool Valley kids in the 60’s…..” I just decided to change it to “the 80’s” in hopes that a slightly-younger singer might want to do it!!!

I had a Nashville band backup on a few songs: “I’ll Take Today”, “My Baby Left Me”, and “Sinking In Seattle”–which is why they have a more professional sound.

Your stuff is fabulous!!! And thanks so much for taking a moment to listen to some of my songs!

Best Wishes,

John Eimen
Seattle

I’ve been listening to your music and realizing how little I know about some things. You are way further into the machinery than I. Mostly I’m a folk singer, but I’m always trying to learn more about what is going on with music.

Thank you for commenting at Alonetone.

j mt

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