View source for Sevish

{{Short description|British electronic music composer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name             = Sevish
| genre            = Experimental music
| years_active     = 2005-present
| website          = {{URL|https://sevish.com/}}
}}
'''Sean Archibald''' (born 1988), also known as '''Sevish''', is a British [[electronic music]] composer from [[London]]. Described by [[Aaron Krister Johnson]] as "a well-known creative force in the world of online microtonal music," he is most known for his compositions which combine aspects of [[electronic dance music]] with [[microtonality]].<ref name="Sevish Interview" /><ref name="Biography - Sevish Music" /> As a child Archibald was inspired by music in video games such as [[Chrono Trigger]], [[Streets of Rage]], and [[Sonic the Hedgehog]]. He would then go on to discover microtonality as a teenager by listening to [[gamelan]] music and [[Aphex Twin]]. At age 16 he began officially releasing music online and released his first solo album at age 20.<ref name="Sevish インタビュー　Interview with Sevish" /><ref name="Microtonal Tunings in Electronic Dance Music: A Survey of Precedent and Potential" /> He first gained notoriety in the microtonal music scene with his 2010 release, ''Golden Hour''.<ref name="Microtonal Tunings in Electronic Dance Music: A Survey of Precedent and Potential" /><ref name="Review: Sevish – Rhythm And Xen" /><ref name="Sevish - Harmony Hacker" /> Sevish's 2011 [[Xenharmonic music|xenharmonic]] dance album, ''Subversio'', created in collaboration with Tony Dubshot and Jacky Ligon was described by [[Andrew Hugill]] as "[[Dub music|dub]] meets microtonal tunings."<ref name="Hugill" />
Since most instruments in the [[Western world|West]] are built to play the [[Twelve-tone equal temperament|12-tone equal tempered scale]], Archibald turned to less common instruments and methods of composing microtonal music. He now uses an AXiS-49 hexagonal MIDI controller to play his microtonal music, along with various [[Digital audio workstations|DAWs]] such as [[Ableton Live]], [[Bitwig Studio]] (on a [[Linux]] system<ref name="Making microtonal music on Linux computers" />), and [[Max (software)|Max/MSP]].<ref name="Sevish Interview" /> The tuning systems he uses to create his music include [[22 equal temperament|22-EDO]], [[15 equal temperament|15-EDO]], [[10 equal temperament|10-EDO]], [[Limit (music)|13 limit just intonation]], the [[Bohlen Pierce|Bohlen-Pierce]] scale, [[Pelog]] tuning, and many others.<ref name="Microtonal Tunings in Electronic Dance Music: A Survey of Precedent and Potential"/><ref name="Sevish, Glacier, Louis-Vincent Hamel, Zeitgeber, John Zorn, and Jack Quartet" /> Adam Hart of the [[University of Salford]] said that his compositions "do not indicate a desire to move away from the archetypes of established EDM genres, but rather to explore alternative tunings through familiar stylistic approaches".<ref name="Microtonal Tunings in Electronic Dance Music: A Survey of Precedent and Potential"/>
Archibald has expressed a desire to make microtonality more widely consumed by the public, creating multiple side projects to achieve this goal. He is the creator and host of Now&Xen, a podcast about microtonal music. In 2010 he founded his own record label, [[split-notes]], which is focused on promoting music which uses microtonal scales, [[Musical tuning|alternative tuning systems]], and [[Xenharmonic music|xenharmonics]].<ref name="Sevish Interview"/><ref name="Microtonal Tunings in Electronic Dance Music: A Survey of Precedent and Potential" />
==Discography==
'''Solo Work'''
*''Sevish EP'' (2005)
*''Crowded Images'' (2008)
*''Exposure EP'' (2009)
* ''Golden Hour'' (2010)
*''Human Astronomy'' (2010)
*''Sean but not Heard'' (2012)
*''day:dot EP'' (2013)
*''Rhythm and Xen'' (2015)
*''MK-SUPERDUPER'' (2016)
*''Harmony Hacker'' (2017)
*''Horixens'' (2019)
*''Odds and Ends'' (2020)
*''Bubble'' (2021)
*''Formless Shadows'' (2021)
*''Morphable'' (2022)
*''Murmurations'' (2023)
*''Big Sway'' (2023)
'''Collaborations'''
*''Crack My Pitch Up'' with 9 other artists (2010)<ref name="Various Artists - Crack My Pitch Up - Microtonal music at split-notes" />
*''Subversio'' with Tony Dubshot and Jacky Ligon (2011)
*''2MM2'' (''2 Minute Masterpieces 2'') with 15 other artists (2013)<ref name="[FNet050] Various - 2MM2 : Faturenet Collective : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive" />
*''23'' with Tony Dubshot and Jacky Ligon (2014)
*''Next Xen'' with 18 other artists (2016)<ref name="Various Artists - Next Xen - Microtonal music at split-notes" />
*''3 Remixes'' with Acreil, Brendan Byrnes, and ZIA (2019)
*''STAFFcirc vol. 7 - Terra Octava'' with 16 other artists (2021)<ref name="STAFFcirc vol. 7 - Terra Octava {{pipe}} STAFFcirc" />
*''Maglonia - Remix'' with M F TroniX (2022)
==References==
{{Reflist| refs =
<ref name="Sevish インタビュー　Interview with Sevish">{{cite web |last1=Wakabayashi |first1=Hidekazu |title=Sevish インタビュー Interview with Sevish |url=http://microtonaldiary.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-10.html |website=microtonaldiary.blog.fc2.com |accessdate=6 April 2020}}</ref>
<ref name="Microtonal Tunings in Electronic Dance Music: A Survey of Precedent and Potential">{{cite journal |last1=Hart |first1=Adam |title=Microtonal Tunings in Electronic Dance Music: A Survey of Precedent and Potential |journal=Contemporary Music Review |date=6 September 2016 |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=242–262 |doi=10.1080/07494467.2016.1221635|s2cid=193673867 }}</ref>
<ref name="Biography - Sevish Music">{{cite web |title=Biography - Sevish Music |url=https://sevish.com/biography/ |website=sevish.com |accessdate=6 April 2020}}</ref>
<ref name = "Hugill">[[Andrew Hugill|Hugill, Andrew]] (2018). [https://books.google.com/books?id=WVBtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT197 ''The Digital Musician''], p. 197. Routledge. {{ISBN|1351337386}}</ref>
<ref name="Sevish Interview">{{cite web |last1=Johnson |first1=Aaron |author-link = Aaron Krister Johnson|title=Sevish Interview |url=http://untwelve.org/interviews/sevish |website=untwelve.org |accessdate=6 April 2020}}</ref>
<ref name="Review: Sevish – Rhythm And Xen">{{cite web |last1=Tremblay |first1=Dæv |title=Review: Sevish – Rhythm And Xen |url=https://canthisevenbecalledmusic.com/review-sevish-rhythm-and-xen/ |website=Can This Even Be Called Music? |accessdate=22 April 2020 |date=5 May 2015}}</ref>
<ref name="Sevish - Harmony Hacker">{{cite web |last1=Tremblay |first1=Dæv |title=Sevish - Harmony Hacker |url=https://canthisevenbecalledmusic.com/sevish-harmony-hacker/ |website=Can This Even Be Called Music? |accessdate=22 April 2020 |language=en-CA |date=19 June 2017}}</ref>
<ref name="Sevish, Glacier, Louis-Vincent Hamel, Zeitgeber, John Zorn, and Jack Quartet">{{cite web |last1=Tremblay |first1=Dæv |title=Sevish, Glacier, Louis-Vincent Hamel, Zeitgeber, John Zorn, and Jack Quartet |url=https://canthisevenbecalledmusic.com/sevish-glacier-louis-vincent-hamel-zeitgeber-john-zorn-and-jack-quartet/ |website=Can This Even Be Called Music? |accessdate=22 April 2020 |language=en-CA |date=11 July 2019}}</ref>
<ref name="Various Artists - Crack My Pitch Up - Microtonal music at split-notes">{{cite web |title=Various Artists - Crack My Pitch Up - Microtonal music at split-notes |url=http://split-notes.com/various-artists-crack-my-pitch-up/ |website=split-notes.com |date=11 July 2010 |accessdate=6 September 2021}}</ref>
<ref name="[FNet050] Various - 2MM2 : Faturenet Collective : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive">{{cite web |title=[FNet050] Various - 2MM2 : Faturenet Collective : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive |url=https://archive.org/details/FNet050 |website=archive.org |date=21 July 2013 |accessdate=17 September 2021}}</ref>
<ref name="Various Artists - Next Xen - Microtonal music at split-notes">{{cite web |title=Various Artists - Next Xen - Microtonal music at split-notes |url=http://split-notes.com/various-artists-next-xen/ |website=split-notes.com |date=6 February 2016 |accessdate=20 July 2021}}</ref>
<ref name="STAFFcirc vol. 7 - Terra Octava {{pipe}} STAFFcirc">{{cite web |title=STAFFcirc vol. 7 - Terra Octava {{pipe}} STAFFcirc |url=https://sexytoadsandfrogsfriendcircle.bandcamp.com/album/staffcirc-vol-7-terra-octava |website=bandcamp.com |accessdate=23 July 2021}}</ref>
<ref name="Making microtonal music on Linux computers">{{cite web |title=Making microtonal music on Linux computers |url=https://sevish.com/2019/how-to-make-microtonal-music-on-linux/ |website=sevish.com |date=13 October 2019 |accessdate=7 June 2022}}</ref>
}}
==External links==
*{{Official|https://sevish.com}}
*[http://split-notes.com/ ''split-notes'' website]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sevish}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Microtonal composers]]
[[Category:1988 births]]
[[Category:Experimental composers]]
[[Category:British composers]]