Gustavo Diaz-Jerez has written one of the most exciting music programs I have used. FractMus is a musical generator using algorithms, such as fractals. FractMus scans the model in two axis and renders a set of midi instruments to a musical picture of the results.
With a little time I found the most satisfying experience of listening to FractMus play out the settings I haphazardly assigned. Not only the notes can be altered by the model but many other musical parts such as tempo, envelope, scale type, note length and volume. So the piece plays with convincingly musical dynamics, making an odd mixture of conventional song feelings, provided by the midi instruments including drums, but also there is a fascinating strangeness to the 'music'.
I notice my dog seems to enjoy FractMus music in the same way I do - it is relaxing in a deeper manner than so called ambient music. It seems to have a quality of nature about it. The way bird song does not stay in a set key, or pulse, but relates to the environment. I get so tired of boom, boom, boom, in pop music, whereas FractMus can be highly arhythmic, if you choose non-linear settings for the pulse, speeding up gradually or in jumps. All instruments can be assigned the complete set of dynamic variations individually and results can be saved as a block setting to be run at another time, or as a midi file to be listened to as it played when run.
Download it, play with it and thank Gustavo Diaz-Jerez for his brilliance. FractMus website here.
Techno live from a suitcase of analogue synths.