2021 06 14 • Apotome awarded Isao Tomita Special Prize at Ars Electronica

“Apotome is a generative music system focused on transcultural tunings and their subsets (scales and modes), and its sister application Leimma, which allows for the exploration and creation of such tunings. It is so far the most successful and freely available tool that allows one to explore and compose non-Western (electronic) music. It has a clear web-based interface that allows the user to experiment with a pre-selection of ten tuning systems, themselves subdivided into classic or experimental systems according to the options one chooses. In addition, Leimma allows you to create your own tuning system and export it (or play it through the browser, like Apotome). The project has a fairly strong and anti-colonial approach. Not only is it freely accessible to anyone with a computer and internet connection but it allows any user to compose, record, and publish commercially or not the sounds or music created with Apotome. It is a strong project that brings so-called traditional and/or classical knowledge together with digital technology and extend one’s possibilities—a project that tries to be as comprehensive as possible, that invites the composers to explore the music world outside of the western box but also to push them to break the boundaries and be inventive. Due to its online accessibility, it may easily trigger international collaborations and exchanges between artists and lead to more sonic exchanges based on rhyzomatic knowledge rather than pyramidal relationships between the knowledgeable and the disciple.”