Mesh by Norman Freund

Mesh

Track 1: Trunk, 02:19 (Tree Hum, Soma Lyra 8)
Track 2: Leaves, 04:14 (Tree Hum, Soma Lyra 8, Soma Pipe)
Track 3: Rings, 04:49 (Tree Hum, Soma Lyra 8)
Track 4: Vines, 06:43 (Tree Hum, Soma Lyra 8, Soma Enner, Whistling)
Track 5: Roots, 02:15 (Tree Hum, Soma Pipe)

Dates:
17-Nov-2025 (inception), 19-Nov-2025 (finalised), 19-Nov-2025 (released)

Artists:
Music composed, performed, produced by Norman Freund
Artwork by Norman Freund

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/album/mesh

Description:

A twisted tale of synthesiser dreams, aspirations and dreams meet reality. I have been intrigued by hardware synthesiser the Soma Lyra 8 for some time now, dating back some 3 years or so. Back in December 2024, inspired by the design concept of the Lyra 8 with it's two stage hierarchy tuning system and importantly before I purchased a Lyra 8 late 2025, I wrote down some sketches of my own synthesiser concept, which later became to be known as Tree Hum. This album celebrates the meeting point of the Tree Hum and the Soma Lyra 8.

Having a back ground in structural vibration analysis, makes one aware of coupled resonances, how the structure, stiffness and mass all interact to bring about the final vibration response. On the other side of my creative brain, I let my imagination drift to a tuning system inspired by trees, a four stage hierarchy tuning system, starting from the trunk, to branches, smaller branches and finally to the leaves -- the voice of the synthesiser. The tuning system is based on frequency ratios, starting at the tree trunk, the master, then as each level is passed through it adds it's own frequency ratio to the frequency ratio inherited from it's predecessor. Do real trees behave like this? No, but let's not let reality get in the way of creativity. Nature, engineering, mathematics and human imagination inspire synthesiser and music composition.

Tree Hum's main human machine interface is a grid based midi controller, the Ableton Push2 along with rotary encoders to set the synthesiser numeric parameters. The 8x8=64 notes pads form the artistic interaction between human improvisations of tuning and the digital synthesiser. One row of 8 pads to activate the eight voices of the synthesiser. The remaining 48 pads are used to adjust the just intonation (JI) frequency ratios of the eight voices (leave's contributions) and that of the leaves predecessors right back to the trunk.

The initial inspiration for the tuning system comes from Neil Thornock Ref. [1] which I used as a starting point for all tracks of Mesh.

Tree Hum provided the grounding for the tuning, hardware synthesisers Soma Pipe, Soma Enner and Soma Lyra 8 all have very fluid tuning systems not having discrete frequencies. The Soma instruments used here were tuned by ear, either prior to each track recording, only later to be adjusted during the performance or tuned live from scratch during the performance.

The Tree Hum makes no attempt to replicate the Soma Lyra 8 but instead take some inspiration from it, so now my Lyra 8 has a friend to accompany it. Tree Human includes an eight track recording systems, making it the perfect companion to the Soma instruments to record them. The Soma COSMOS was used in all tracks to add some reverb to the hardware synthesisers. The Soma Pipe was played by me singing into it. The Soma Enner mainly played a percussive role here, using it's piezo pickup to receive hand drumming and wire drum brush gestures, plus some whistling.

****
Track 1, "Trunk", (Tree Trunk, Soma Lyra 8, Soma COSMOS):
The trunk introduces the tuning system used as the starting point for all tracks.

Table 1: Track 1 Tuning.
Reference frequency 145 Hz
Voice, frequency ratio
1, 24/24
2, 28/24
3, 32/24
4, 36/24
5, 39/24
6, 44/24
7, 45/24
8, 48/24

Used a fixed Tree Hum tuning with live adjustments of gain on the twin delay+feedback network. Soma Lyra 8 layered on top, tuning inspired from Table 1.

****
Track 2: Leaves, 04:14 (Tree Hum , Soma Lyra 8, Soma Pipe)
A leaf shakes, the tree filters the frequency by way of melodically playing the frequency of a low pass filter with resonance.

Table 2: Track 2 Tuning.
Reference frequency:145 Hz x8/1
Voice, frequency ratio
1, 24/24
2, 29/24
3, 32/24
4, 36/24
5, 39/24
6, 49/27
7, 50/26
8, 52,26

As seen in Table 2, the Table 1 tuning has been altered in places. This provided the inspiration but in the end only one voice was played, where as the main melodic content from the Tree Hum came from the low pass frequency adjustments.

Tree Hum provided the inspiration and grounding, this was followed by performances on the Soma Lyra 8 and the Soma Pipe. The Pipe was excited by my human voice through the Filtera and Orpheus Pipe modes.

****
Track 3: Rings, 04:49 (Tree Hum, Soma Lyra 8, Soma COSMOS):
As the tree grows over the years, rings form in the trunk, an imagined echo of vibrations. The limbs sway in the wind and adjust to it's changing environment, reflected in a sway of frequency adjustments at level three of the tuning system, simultaneously transposing the frequency of voices 7 and 8 by small pitch bend messages, leaving the JI frequency ratios in tact.

Table 3: Track 3 Tuning.
Reference frequency 145 Hz
Voice, frequency ratio
1, 24/24
2, 27/24
3, 30/24
4, 33/24
5,36/24 * 2/1
6, 39/24 * 2/1
7, 42/24 * 4/1 *pb
8, 48/24 * 4/1 *pb

pb is the pitch bend applied.

****
Track 4: Vines, 06:43 (Tree Hum, Soma Lyra 8, Soma Enner, Whistling, Soma COSMOS):
The trunk, branches and leaves begin to speak with the vines that grow on the tree, they all join in chorus.

The pitch bends at all four levels of the tuning hierarchy were adjusted by small amounts, live during the performance, all eight voices active at once in a long sustained chord. An evolving cluster chord.

Table 4: Track 4 Tuning.
Reference frequency 145 Hz
Voice, frequency ratio
1, 22/24
2, 25/24
3, 36/24
4, 32/24
5, 35/24
6, 39/24
7, 41/24
8, 4724

Tree Hum provided the grounding harmony and the Soma Lyra 8 provided the melodic parts (improvised tuning). A touch of percussion was added with the Soma Enner, playing it's top face plate by finger drumming, wire drum brush taps and slides, plus some whistling (if you listen carefully).

****
Track 5: Roots, 02:15 (Tree Hum, Soma Pipe, Soma COSMOS)
The roots spread out into the soil around them, taking nutrient from the soil to feed the tree, the tree above the soil responds.

Table 5: Track 5 Tuning.
Reference frequency 145 Hz
Voice, frequency ratio
1, 24/24
2, 36/24
3, 42/24
4, 47/24
5, 53/24
6, 79/27
7, 71/24
8, 79/24 * 4/3

It was time to play with the JI tuning, after a half an hour or so, I came up with a modified tuning for the Tree Hum, ready to press record for the final track of Mesh. All eight voice notes were played interactively, whilst at the same time making adjustments to the frequency sweeps of the low pass resonant filter, plus some overall synthesiser volume swells. Layered on top of this were improvisations on the Soma Pipe using the Orpheus and Filtera modes feeding it my human voice.

References:
[1] Neil Thornock, 13 Nov 2025, FaceBook Group "Microtonal Music and Tuning Theory", Icicle, JI tuning based on harmonics 24 to 48, Link: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14T7Tyhcky3/

Tracklist

1.	Trunk	2:19

2.	Leaves	4:14

3.	Rings	4:49

4.	Vines	6:43

5.	Roots	2:15

Credits

released November 19, 2025

License