Architect John Körmeling worked on a system of music, that sets aside familiar Western tuning and is based instead on square roots, areas and volumes. In order to realise this music, he turned back to the harpsichord and adapted its jangling sound to an intonation that literally plays Pythagorean ratios - that's the idea behind the new instrument called Frogsichord. Körmeling then turned to the veteran rule-breaker Charlemagne Palestine, pioneer of long-form improvisations on harpsichord, harmonium and other neglected keyboard instruments. This LP documents Palestine performances on the Frogsichord made in Brussels, Rotterdam and in Cappadocia, Turkey.

The sound is strange, perhaps even estranging, but Palestine has made it his own, and created a music that is rich and detailed, not simply “exotic”. It’s no longer a question of “Western” tonality colliding with “non-European” harmonic systems. Here is music that taps into the universal language of mathematics, one that we are all programmed, however unwillingly, to understand. Meet the Frogsichord. It will change how you listen to music. It might even help you with maths.