Thanks to progressive musical acts like Angine de Poitrine, microtonal music is seeing a surge of interest. That's partly what's prompted Kingston musician James Mulvale to resurrect his abandoned musical recording and performance project FASTFAST. Our guest way back on episode 40, James returns to the podcast to share how a recent surprise call microtonal enthusiasts in Munich persuaded him to revive FASTFAST after a three-year hiatus for a music festival performance overseas.

Chapters:
00:00:00 Episode overview
00:02:04 What is microtonal music?
00:04:33 Anna-Maria Hefele and the nuances of human voice
00:07:35 Untwelving: Convention for contemporary microtonal and xenharmonic music
00:09:18 Finding an audience for microtonal music
00:12:12 Resurrecting FASTFAST
00:15:02 Song: Heebie Jeebies by FASTFAST live from Werkhaus Theatre, Munich (May 22, 2026)
00:18:03 The musical instruments of microtonal
00:22:01 Highlights of the Untwelving convention
00:24:00 Why Angine de Poitrine works
00:26:20 Break convention and embrace unpredictability
00:27:59 Microtonal as a reaction to AI
00:30:51 The forces driving virtual instruments and sample libraries
00:32:59 The future of music is analog, not digital
00:34:15 Why microtonal is a mindset, not a music genre
00:36:33 Normalizing microtonal and decolonizing music
00:39:51 Breaking paradigms and shifting perceptions
00:42:49 Exploring performance experiences for microtonal
00:44:41 James makes a microtonal playground https://chromotone.ca
00:47:49 Episode credits

Episode Production Credits

Music in this episode:
Heebie Jeebies by FASTFAST live from Werkhaus Theatre, Munich (May 22, 2026)

Guests:
James Mulvale https://www.kingstonlive.ca/artist/863074/view

Hosts:
Johnny San [email protected]

Audio production:
SoundWise Inc. https://kingstonlive.ca/resource/1191590/view

Episode Links
FASTFAST https://www.kingstonlive.ca/artist/855248/view
Untwelving: Convention for contemporary microtonal and xenharmonic music https://untwelving.com
Anna Maria Hefele https://anna-maria-hefele.com
Watch: FASTFAST performs Heebie Jeebies live from Werkhaus Theatre, Munich https://youtu.be/0_5ouW-W1_0?si=2aqTbP3vjCzOjc9_
Tachy Bunker https://tachybunker.fr
Horse Lords https://www.horselords.org
Podcast episode 40: Kingston's microtonal maven FASTFAST https://www.kingstonlive.ca/kingstons-microtonal-maven-fastfast
Chromotone music app https://chromotone.ca
Kingston concerts and music festivals https://kingstonlive.ca/

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