75. The Wilson Installations (2002-2004) ( FOUR CD)

Burt's major work for the past 4 years, this is a set of three large and long works exploring harmonic ideas suggested by the work of Los Angeles music theorist Ervin Wilson. Include's Pythagoras' Babylonian Bathtub (2 cds), Saturday in the Triakontahedron with Leonhard (1 cd) and a new CD-long version of "The MOSsy Slopes of Mt. Meru: The Meru Expansion (2002-2004) made especially for this set. The ultimate ambient music experience.

74. Saturday in the Triakontahedron with Leonhard (2003-2004)

A 72 minute long exploration of a single 64 note scale, broken up into many smaller scales and chords. Some sections sound like the most tradtional kind of harmony, but quickly change to strange and unexpected chords, melodies and rhythms. One of the most complex works exploring contemporary concepts of harmony.

71. Road Works - Some Numbers - Graphic Descriptions - Stretti (2002-2003) (TWO CD)

Thirteen more turbulent pieces using either mathematical structures or graphic synthesis programs. "31 or 41 Ways of Looking at a Prime Numbered Spiral" which starts incredibly slowly (2 bpm) and gradually gets faster and more dense, has been described as "Pterodactyl Gagaku"! "And the Canonic Afterthought" combines turbulent orchestral samples with floating, ambient electronic sounds to form a contradictory emotional world. "343 Oscillators - The Public Version" is a series of continually changing veils of sound, each one washing over the next. A must for those who think math and emotional art are incompatible. "Stretti," on the other hand, are expansions in time of single phrases from pop icons, while "Graphic Descriptions" and "Road Works" extend computer graphic work with spectrograms to new levels of complexity. A must for those who think math and emotional art are incompatible.

69. Warren Burt - Eva Karczag - Dancehouse, Melbourne, 13 July 2002

This live performance for computer, voices, samples of hip-hop, CPE Bach, and Villa-Lobos, chord harmonica, music box springs, baritone ukelele, piano and footsteps marks the 25 th anniversary of the sound-movement collaboration of Burt and Karczag. Recorded live in performance at Dancehouse, the 50 minute piece covers a wide range of emotional territory, from conventional prettiness to noisy, scratchy textures, to some moments of ethereal beauty.

68. The Mossy Slopes of Mt. Meru (2002)

A sine wave drone piece that explores the many harmonies that can be found in the mathematical structure known as Pascal's triangle. Some of the harmonies are quite familiar, some very strange, and the specially tuned sine waves produce an unfolding pyramid of aural illusions. One of Burt's major works.

65. Paul Panhuysen/Warren Burt: Number Made Visible Made Audible (2001)( TWO CD )

Dutch sound art legend Paul Panhuysen and Burt collaborated on this, turning Panhuysen's "Number Made Visible" and "Calcucos" drawings into a deep, roaring sound scape. The first CD has two pieces, 48 and 24 minutes long; the second has all 63 sections of the first piece on the first CD presented individually, for random shuffle play. Create your own personally ordered Dutch-Australian soundscape.

64. Playing in Traffic (2000-2001)( TWO CD )

A 110 minute cycle of 8 computer and traffic noise pieces. Some of the pieces are filled with more notes per square second than you'll hear this side of Conlon Nancarrow, another is a fierce political denunciations of General Electric's environmental destruction; still another is a gentle wash of pure sine waves evoking Fitzroy, Melbourne in the summer heat. Birdcalls are stretched, samba samples are mangled, and in the end, a recalcitrant steam radiator triumphs.

60. Antipodean Collection: A Laptop Symphony (2000)

A suite of nine live computer pieces, performed on tour by Burt in late 2000. Includes "Looking Towards Antarctica" the piece that Merzbow fans find too aggressive (!), and "Some Physical Virtual Sensuality", Burt's sarcastic take on laptop culture. Also the gentle beauty of "Debussy Cloud" and the sampled duck quacks of "Fractal Follies" where, conceptually anyway, Benoit Mandelbrot meets Mel Blanc.

58. Music of the Pre-Neo-Cyberian (1998-99)

Perhaps some of Burt's oldest music - one of the scales used on this collection of 19 pieces is probably about 25,000 years old. Paleomathematics as music! Also Burt's tribute to British drum and bass magazines, a set of microtonal etudes, some noiseband work, and hommage to the late great performance poet Jas Duke.

57. Installations, Radio Pieces, etc. (August - November 1999)

Includes Burt's essay in semi-artificial almost-intelligence (or is it an emulation of a bureaucratic bungle structure?) "Installation for 3 Laptops", where 3 laptops talk to each other, each one telling the other what to do, - imagine Kenneth Gaburo jamming with Art Tatum on electric pianos. And "Summerlake," an installation for the Ripponlea Estate, designed to appeal to the swamphens and ducks in the lake. Human listeners can take their chances. Plus Burt's cut-up/homage to Melbourne improvising legend David Tolley.

55. Sorrento Suite (1998-99)

Seven improvised computer music pieces, on a marine theme, for seven dancers to solo with. Also, portraits of the dancers in musical form. First performed at Conundrum, in Melbourne in 1999. Experimental music for experimental dancing - one of Burt's specialties.

54. Ear Cleaners: 15 Short Experiments in Hard Listening (1995-1999)

Research pieces, most of which last 4:33. Hand drawn waveforms, unique shreddings of waveforms from malfunctioning home made software, massive clouds of corella samples, raucous tunings and timbres, skronky fm timbres. This is Burt at his most uncompromising and hard edged, revealing him as one of the predecessors of the Glitch movement.

53. Music for Microtonal Piano Sounds (1992-98) ( SIX CD )

An almost six hour long set of pieces, written over the course of six years. Using one of the most familiar of musical sounds, the piano, to explore the unfamiliar territory of microtonality. Looks in the direction of La Monte Young, Charlemagne Palestine and Terry Riley, but takes a left turn at the corner of Tuning and Complexity. Automatic composing machines, human improvisation, human-machine interaction, just plain playing, chaos turned into note patterns, this immense piece has it all. Includes "39 Dissonant Etudes", available separately on Tall Poppies, and New York pianist Loretta Goldberg performing Burt's "Book of Symmetries", for Disklavier and EPS sampler, available separately on Centaur.

VISIT TALL POPPIES WEBSITE FOR "39 Dissonant Etudes" Separately

VISIT CENTAUR RECORDS WEBSITE FOR Loretta Goldberg: Zygotones for "A Book of Symmetries" separately.

49. Two Installation Pieces 1997

"Pi and the Square Root of Two #2" is almost New Age Ambient Chill Out (add other terms as needed here) in its absolute glacial calm, as two parallel harmonic series of piano notes spin out the random digits of Pi and the square root of 2 for half an hour. A darker vision is offered with "Reality Check", an interactive installation about the absolute futility of playing along with the system. The system, as always, has a way of persisting.....

48. Four Experimental Computer Pieces (1995-97)

"Daisy Feeds the Temporal Piano Attractor" has a vintage historical electronic music machine (Daisy) caught in a feedback loop with a microtonal sampled piano. Can self-generating loops be musically intelligent? Only their hairdresser knows for sure. Microtonal drones with crunchiness abound in Burt's satirical take on Messiaen: "Vingt Enflures sur l'Enfant Melvin"; and the fake gamelan music of "Pi and the Square Root of 2 #1", which actually owes more to the Chudnovsky brothers (mathematical theorists) than to Bali, though it might sound the other way around.

46. Harmonic Colour Fields (1996-97)

Recently released on the American label Pogus, and available from them. From the glowing ambience of "Portrait of Erv Wilson" to the throbbing clusters of "48=>53; 53=>48", this piece contradicts the prevailing post-modernist musical orthodoxy with a one way ride from extreme consonance to extreme dissonance.

VISIT THE POGUS WEBSITE for "Harmonic Colour Fields"

45. Microtonal Fake Chamber Music 1993-1997

Burt returns to his late 60s roots, sort of, in these pieces, with a CD of contemporary classical chamber music pieces that would be absolutely impossible for humans to play. This collection includes his complexist "Scenes from the Jungle of Intonational Injustice" for imaginary piano and wind quintet (a homage to gamelan composer and pioneer minimalist Colin McPhee), and the music theatre piece "Remembering Griffes II", a musical seance where Burt tries to invoke the spirit of American modern music pioneer Charles Tomlinson Griffes.

44. Five Chaotic Movements for David Tudor (1996)

Remembering one of his inspirations, Burt uses analog synthesizers, computers, and samplers without regard for their ideologies to assemble a series of chaotic, self-generating environments to memorialise the late 20 th century master of the genre. All pieces recorded live.

38. Some Kind of Seasoning (1990-91) Volume 4: Spring Songs ( TWO CD )

A five hour forty minute epic cycle of interactive computer and synthesizer pieces from 1990-91, originally performed as a forty hour (five days at 8 hours per day) installation/performance at St. Kilda's Linden Gallery, this piece, on 7 CDs is one of Burt's most enormous and varied sonic landscapes. From the jazz influenced "Martigny" to the Sun Ra inspired "A Post-Modern Object-Oriented Chaotic Cellular Teledildonic Virtual Simulacra!" and "I Have My Standards" to the gentle ancient Greek harmonies of "21 Studies in the Modes of Archytas", and the almost mystical harmonies of "Summer Music I and IV", this is Burt at his most inspired. Includes extensive notes on all the pieces, and the cycle as a whole.

34. Chaotic Research Music (1989-90) ( TWO CD )

In the early days of Chaos research, when it threatened to become a fashion industry, Burt was quizzical, and not a little critical. This suite of 10 pieces includes an extensive essay on Chaos and Music where he tries to cut through the hype surrounding the use of ideas from math and physics in music, and produce pieces that might actually be reflections of those ideas, while still being interesting and challenging as music in themselves.

33. Fantasias, Quartets and Nocturnes (1986-88) ( TWO CD )

Three similar sets of pieces, in three different tunings: 12 tone, 19 tone and 31 tone equal temperament. The Fantasias are nostalgic exercises in free expressionist composition, ala Schoenberg, updated to the world of computer controlled analog synthesis; the Quartets are rigorous 1950s serialist "change-ringing pieces", and the Nocturnes are experiments in composing on the edge of sleep. Just before bed, each night, Burt would improvise into his sequencer until he dropped off to sleep. The Nocturnes consist of spliced together phrases made just on the edge of sleep. The exploration of the subconscious in the Nocturnes contrasts vividly with the caffeinated consciousness of the Fantasias and Quartets.

29. Experimental Music for Orchestra (1969-97)

Pieces for real and sampled orchestras. "Drakula" from 1969 is Burt's first major work - a three minute piece for orchestra divided into five parts, each of which traces out a different path. "Canter's Deli" (1986-7) is a transcription of the sounds of Canter's Deli, on Fairfax in LA, for chamber orchestra. The sampled orchestra and the sounds of the cutlery and dishes mix in epicurean splendour. "Thirteen Pieces for Chamber Orchestra" transcribes ancient Greek modes and different kinds of randomness for instrumental samples. "For Orchestra and Live Electronics" is a live orchestra playing a drone piece which Burt processes on the spot, creating a microtonal soundscape.

28. Music for Tuning Forks (1985-87)

Burt built his tuning forks in 1985 in order to explore microtonal tuning ideas. They quickly took on a life of their own, as their pure sine waves created glowing and warm washes of sound. The first three pieces for the forks show them off in a number of different contexts. "Improvisation in Two Ancient Greek Modes", with Ernie Althoff, is a multitracked piece exploring ancient harmonies; "Voices, Tuning Forks and Accordion" is a much more contemporary take - the Astra Choir uses the forks to assemble long sustained clouds of sound, weaving their voices around the tuning forks' haunting sines. "Almond Bread Harmonies II" for five players is a very slow, almost metaphysical scanning of the Mandelbrot Matrix, a chaos pattern, to make a piece that is sparkling and calming at the same time.

27. Computer Music 1985 for Fairlight CMI

Can tacky kitsch and serious inquiry coexist in the same piece? Burt's entire career has constituted an emphatic YES! to this question. In the forty minute "Easy Rounds and Folk Dances" he alternates between the refined and the silly, the severe and the stupid. "Post Modern Waltzes" is Burt's non-verbal denunciation of post-modern theory. If only those word obsessed critics had had the smarts to hear it and really understand it! In "Portraits and Homages", Burt uses and pays homage to the ideas of his spiritual forefathers: Charles Ives, Conlon Nancarrow, Henry Cowell, Lou Harrison and Percy Grainger. If you ever wondered what the Fairlight CMI sounded like outside of its habitual pop context, this CD is for you.

24. Aardvarks IX (1982-84) ( FOUR CD )

Aardvarks IX was a two year project of Burt's, in which one of the first single board microcomputers was used to control an analog synthesizer that he built. This four CD set consists of a 2 hour cycle of pieces that vary from serial to tonal to chaotic to incredibly noisy; a one hour live performance for Australian environmental sounds and live electronics interacting with those sounds; and six versions of an early experiment in artificial intelligence where a computer program was instructed to compose and play an endless series of variations. As well of being of historical interest, these pieces swing.

21. Four Pieces for Synthesizer (1981)

Four major analog synthesizer pieces from the early 80s, mostly made without keyboards, where the synthesizer is treated like an analogue computer, and is programmed to control itself. Two of them were dance scores for choreographer Eva Karczag, and are definitive early minimalist pieces. The other two pursue a more complex path - Simultaneous Portraits features intense polyrhythms, and Harmonies at Launching Place uses the sound of rain and lyrebirds in the Victorian bush to trigger off and control walls of glittering sound.

19. From the Dreambooks and Lo-Fi Proposals (1980 & 86)

“The thing about Warren Burt is, he can take any thin thread of trashy material, and make a piece out of it.” -Ron Robboy. The trashy materials here are Dreambooks, gambling charts formerly used in the numbers racket in the US. Using these as a source of random information, Burt makes one of the earliest Synclavier pieces, basing each highly cyclical piece on the bogus numerology of the Dreambooks. “Lo Fi Proposals”, on the other hand, continues Burt's love affair with cheap technology and it's defects as a source for art. Here the mighty Casio SK1 toy sampler is put through its paces in a series of environmental, political, orchestral, and structural miniatures.

18. Lo-Fi Melodic Electronics (1979-81)

Low technology, low humour, low volume characterize these pieces. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” is the sound track for an early performance by New York cross-cultural music legend Ned Sublette. It's a kind of automated medieval music that nods to minimalism. “Dr. Burt's Microtonal Disco-Fat Arkestra” is three badly played pop tunes (so bad they're really baaad!) in the style of the legendary California incompetence ensemble Fatty Acid (that Burt helped found)- one of the earliest pieces made with the Fairlight CMI; and “Leather Disco” is an attempt to out-disco Giorgio Moroder with a table full of electronic toys and cassette recorders.

13. 8-8s: Four Pairs in the Shape of a Piece (1978-79)

Long lost, and recently recovered, these pieces had quite wide exposure in the late 70s, with some being released on LP and cassette, and much radio play. There are eight 8-minute pieces, ranging from clanging bell-ringing change pieces, to happy minimalist pulse pieces. Four are made with one of the first Synclaviers, and four with the Serge-Driscoll synthesizer that Burt had built.

12. Le Grand Ni Symphony (1978)

Burt and Julian Driscoll designed and built Aardvarks VII, a digital composing machine made out of the simplest chips. Simple in concept, but powerful in execution, this microtonal music machine formed the basis for a 70 minute long symphonic piece (Glenn Branca wasn't the only person doing unorthodox symphonies in this period!), for live electronics. Performed all over Australia, Europe and the US it's in C Major, no less, and alternates high-speed minimalist melodics with the sounds of rattling metal signs activated by the electronics of Aardvarks VII.

11. Pastorale (1977-78)

A more gentle set of pieces for concrete and electronic sounds. Two minimalist dance scores for choreographer Eva Karczag; a patch which gets the synthesizer to laugh, and compositions for environmental sounds and percussion make a suite which could almost, but not quite, (just a bit too subversive, it is!) fit into the New Age bin.

10. Aardvarks V: Symphony (August 9 th ) (1977)

A single unaccompanied melody which lasts for an hour. Using Aardvarks IV, his homemade music computer and semi-intelligent composing machine, Burt steers his digital processes through the seas of musical structure, creating a polyphonic electronic single line melody. Think of a Bach solo cello partita updated with hard edged electronic sounds, elaborate spatial panning, and atonal and microtonal harmonies and you'll get the idea.

6. Aardvarks IV (1972-5)

Noise fans will love this one. One of Burt's major works, it's been called "the best electronic piece since the First World War." A long, violent fresco, it was made with Aardvarks IV, an almost intelligent composing machine that Burt built because he couldn't afford a computer at the time. Evolving from an uneasy drone into complex and roaring sounds, the piece rises to what seems like a climax, only to dissolve into a sense of mystery and curiosity. If you want to find out what the state of the art in electronic music technology was in the early 70s, here it is.

4. Harmonia Mundane (1974) ( TWO CD )

Burt was one of the members of the People's Synthesizer Project, which evolved into Serge Modular Music systems, makers of the legendary Serge synthesizer. This is a set of five pieces made with a collection of fabled early electronic music machines: the Serge; the random information generator Daisy; a PDP-11 computer, and the Scalatron microtonal organ. "Bromeliads" is a static, non-directional soundscape, where a computer program simulates the motion of electrons in a black hole. "French Fried Minds of Walruses and Caterpillars", on the other hand, is a directional electroacoustic landscape, and "Busonianiania" is a straight out all-needles-in-the-red distortion piece.

3. Anthology 1970-73

A collection of analog and live-performance pieces from the early 70s. "Lullabies II" for briefcase synth and tape delay was an early minimalist piece. "For Charlemagne Palestine," a tribute to his friend, was Burt's first microtonal electronic drone piece. "John Lilly Meets the Dolphins" is a piece based on the voices of consciousness-studies pioneer John Lilly and his dolphin collaborators, as well as the sounds of whales and walruses. This is Burt's first piece dealing with underwater soundscapes, a theme that he would continue to explore.

2. Sketches of Scenes and Seasons from Upstate New York (1971-72)

Three analog synthesizer pieces which were made without a keyboard - these are structuralist abstracts. Burt was heavily influenced by the ideas of Constructivist sculptor George Rickey at the time, and these pieces, all of which have landscape titles, are the sound equivalent of the outdoor kinetic sculptures of the late 60s.