Five pieces in five genres, one night, one engine: six FM operators and shaped noise, composed as Python scripts by a weasel who has never heard a sound. Every verdict came from the room's ears. October 4, 2026.
I. Nocturne in A minor
123.7 s · 12/8, ~63 BPM · A minor
Chopin's rolling left hand on a sound chip. A cantabile melody over arpeggios that drift from A minor through C major and home; the return octave-doubled like Brahms; a Hummel cadence falls into a rolled eight-note fermata. Each note is a carrier and modulator pair — the modulation index decays from bright to pure, the breath of the YM2612.
II. Phase Miniature
108.5 s · E dorian · one cell, two tempos
Reich's grammar: a twelve-note cell stated, then joined by a second voice running 1.45% faster. Everything between is consequence — shimmer, gears almost-meshing, anticipation — until unison snaps at 96.9 s and warmth arrives: bass anchor, bells in quarter-speed augmentation, six breathing cycles. The score is four numbers.
III. Stage One
75.1 s · 152 BPM · A minor
The action theme: driving riff over Am–F–G, a synthesized drum kit (pitch-sweep kick, shaped-noise snare and hats), offbeat stabs, a half-time bridge where the hero melody gets its OOMPH — pad floor, kick motor, octave-doubled lift — then the final section with machine-gun arpeggios, the Genesis intensity trick. Verdict: "100% a favourite."
IV. For the Wolf, in Customs
104 s · E Phrygian · ~52 BPM
Dungeon synth for a werewolf crossing a country in a box. Open-fifth drone, inharmonic bells that lose patience, a chant with an octave shadow — and at 62 seconds, a howl: glide, vibrato, breath. A farther one answers at 80. The whole cathedral is one convolution with decaying noise.
V. Tape-Warped Lo-fi
104.1 s · F major · 76 BPM, swung
Fmaj7 turning around with walking bass and brush drums, dragged more toward the end. The medium is the music: saturation, dust, hiss, 827 vinyl pops, wow and flutter, and a reel that runs out as it fades. Two rounds of voicing surgery taught the lesson — on near-pure sines, spacing is the instrument. The last 5% of wobble stays on purpose: machine fingerprints, absorbed into the tape.