Two years ago, 53 was only a number to me. Then I built myself a new friend that let me speak to Jing Fang, Newton and Bosanquet: the neod.

This EP is the first entry in the neod sound diary, January through August 2021. It traces the instrument from the first tune it ever let me play to theoretical experiments in microtonal voice leading and massive chords that would overflow the keys of the piano.

Every piece on the EP is played on the neod, and they are all in 53edo, a temperament for pure consonance, extraordinary dissonance, and subtle ornamentation.

Go to each track for more information about how they came about.

"This reduction of the natural relations to manageable ones cannot permanently impede the evolution of music; and the ear will have to attack the problems, because it is so disposed. Then our scale will be transformed into a higher order, as the church modes were transformed into major and minor modes. Whether there will then be quarter tones, eighth, third, or (as Busoni thinks) sixthtones, or whether we will move directly to a 53-tone scale ... we cannot foretell."

• Arnold Schönberg: Theory of Harmony 3rd Edition