KHSHK

KHSHK is a series of works exploring musical microtiming as a primary compositional element—particularly how it translates between physical and digital formats, and its relationship to the patterns and shapes of body and environment. The series was developed via residencies and collaborations in Mexico City in 2023-24 and completed in London during 2025-26.

Microtiming refers to timing variations in musical beats, phrases and patterns. It is often linked with human performance and serves as a vehicle for groove, “feel”, expression, unpredictability in a musical piece. In traditional Western music these variations are generally considered part of performance rather than composition. However, in my own experiences microtiming has a significant impact on how I perceive a piece, enough to consider it an essential component of the final work.

Much recorded music has taken advantage of this expressive aspect, particularly in the realm of sampling and groove-based electronic music. These works take the idea a step further, deconstructing and rearranging microtiming as a musical element the way some contemporary composers do with pitch, “macro” rhythm, and timbre. Through a series of live sets and composed pieces, and a variety of genres, the KHSHK series unpacks the different ways microtiming manifests in music, how this is influenced by body, environment and recording mediums, and how these can inform new compositional language with expressive timing at its core.

MTRL

MTRL explores microtiming via sample-based deconstructed club music. It investigates an abstracted, fragmented idea of “groove” beyond pulse. Can the expressive timing embedded in patterns and phrases still make you want to move your body, even without a steady beat?

This work is built from patterns and phrases improvised on a MIDI controller in free time, each with a similar “feel”, but without a common meter or BPM. I translated these via processed percussive samples from the residency space at Radio Nopal in Mexico City. Each section of the track has a limited number of concurrent lines, and each line uses a single sample with limited variation, throwing the timing of the phrases and their relationships into sharp relief—akin to a digital graph of expressive timing. The “material” (MTRL) textures of the samples mirror the humanised timing of the performances, while the use of loops and the dynamic rigidity of the MIDI translation make the digital platform deliberately audible, playing with the tension between that which is touchable and untouchable.

Compared with other works in the series, MTRL is more purely percussive and beat-driven. It places particular emphasis on how expressive performance variations collide with the constraints of digital systems. How are these patterns transformed, and how do we hear them differently? Can “feel” emerge as a unifying characteristic, making microtiming the primary factor in the piece? Over the course of four minutes, can the pleasurable aspects of expressive timing eventually override the irregular time structure, making you want to move?

This work is influenced both by performances I saw at 316 Centro in CDMX and releases by the N.A.A.F.I. label.

SLP (con Elena Solís)

SLP is an electro-acoustic and noise-influenced piece exploring microtiming via handmade ceramic instruments crafted by Elena Solís. It focuses on the textural and gestural aspects of expressive timing through interaction with the material, tactile qualities of these instruments. The composition stretches digitally-generated patterns and phrases between the arcs and shapes of our improvisations, exploring the way variations in embodied performance alter the unfolding of time in a piece of music.

For this piece, we used six ceramic instruments built by Solís. Five of these were clay spheres containing an additional clay ball moving against the inside of the instrument as it turns— both following our gestures and creating some unpredictability to interact with. The sixth instrument was a ceramic chain, which we could fold and unfold against itself as it moved across the floor and surfaces. The sounds coming from these clay instruments are percussive, but also have qualities of continuous movement, presenting a wider angle on expressive timing.

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Some ceramic instruments built by Elena Solís used in the piece.

I approached Elena about working with these instruments after watching her and Daniela Solís perform with them at a gallery. She was interested in having other artists create work with them, and met me at the Radio Nopal residency to record some samples and improvisations. Composer and improviser Gonzalo Biffarella joined us for an additional improvisation session, also producing a composition from the results:

To compose SLP, I selected improvised segments which I felt had an appealing shape and recorded additional improvisations in response. I also used the original improvised clips as a framework to “drape” and stretch new MIDI-based percussion clips, calling attention to “invisible” contours and shapes within the physical performances and how these seemed to shape time. I used samples and effects derived from the ceramic instruments for the new material, further blurring the line between digital and physical.

The title “SLP” is a contraction of “slip” which describes both the sounds of the instruments and their movements.

Como un Bosque

Como un Bosque combines the experiments of this series within a hardware-based live electronics set, enabling deeper exploration of microtiming-based composition language via long-form improvisation. This release merges several of these improvisations into four tracks, each focused on different “themes” within that emerging language, exposing how different aspects of microtiming interact and collide within musical rhythm and texture.

The motivation for this work was to improvise with microtiming-based electronic material in a live context, and to engage with its physicality by not using the laptop. A similar goal motivated A Body Knows the Pattern. I also wanted to explore new possibilities arising from the language via spontaneous experimentation.

The recorded material reflects the range of approaches to microtiming pursued through this series—from splintered, rapid-fire percussive phrasing to more meditative, immersive patterns and textures evolving over time. Rhythmic material includes both live percussive phrases—fragmented, looped and juxtaposed—and MIDI-based patterns stretched in relation to human performance. As with other releases, boundaries between digital and physical are intentionally blurred, and the material takes influences from both embodied performance practice and environmental patterns.

For performance, I uploaded this material to an SP-404SX sampler. I also ran a contact mic through the SP’s FX bank to allow for spontaneous counterpoints and elaborations on the pre-composed material, drawing on a similar language. I used my ears and instincts to navigate this diverse palette and find novel combinations, taking advantage of the sampler’s design for quick, abrupt transitions and rich layering of looped material. I embraced the challenge of differently-timed, overlapping tracks by focusing on how their overall “feel” or mood aligned, leaning into the textural aspects of the material.

The result is a multilayered, multitextured sonic environment where some form of microtiming is worked into every component. It moves closer to a microtiming-based language with enough richness for long-term practice. The title refers to the density of sonic voices emerging in this process, chattering like the animals, plants, and natural elements of a national park, filtered through the physical materials of the human-made environment. A cafe, a bedroom, a studio, like a forest.

Radio Nopal Otoño '23

The starting point for this project: A 2023 Radio Nopal residency set exploring stretched timing, micro-expression, and the borders of the digital and physical through Mexico City’s sound- and music-scape. The recordings presented here encapsulate two months of intensive practice-research on microtiming in an electronic context, originally presented as an interview and radio performance in fall 2023.

In this residency, I was particularly focused on ways of working with non-grid-based timing in popular DAWs. How far can I push expressive timing in MIDI-based production? How does micro-timed musical material change when filtered through sounds associated with grid-based electronic music? What happens when I translate and deconstruct some of the environmental and embodied aspects of rhythmic expression using these tools, and what are some methods for doing so?

To do this, I made extensive use of Ableton’s warping feature, transferring the timing of live improvisations to MIDI material or other recorded tracks. I translated improvised contact mic performances to MIDI, while using lo-fi and processed samples of the residency space to add a level of physicality to electronically generated material—including floors, chairs, plants, and field recordings from the roof. I made particular use of a large metal table, which offered a variety of timbres and textures.

Rooftop in San Rafael, CDMX, metal work table, cactus measurements used for grid-warping, electronic gig in Juarez, residency roof.

This approach let me blur the lines between human, environmental, and digital sources, playing with both the consonance and dissonance that emerged. It also let me speculate on how the sounds of our daily surroundings subconsciously influence our expressive performances—how these environmental patterns can re-emerge, mediated through our bodies. This work allowed me to explore that line of transition in depth, and the musical knowledge which might emerge from it.

Sonically and stylistically, I also incorporated influences from Mexico City’s improvised, experimental, and electronic music communities—including 316 Centro, Jazzorca, Venas Rotas Discos, Volta, N.A.A.F.I., Antimateria Sonora, and the broader community of Radio Nopal in San Rafael. I absorbed these influences from attending as many gigs as I could find, and I’d like to express gratitude to those communities for welcoming me in. I hope the work presented on this page represents some kind of contribution in return.

The final version of Radio Nopal Otoño ’23 references the medium of radio itself, switching frames or channels between these different worlds and experiments. It is divided into 4 movements:

Cajas: Begins with a field recording of the neighborhood, then phrases tapped on the metal table. These are processed or translated to MIDI, gradually transformed while retaining the timing of the original.
Canales: A series of shorter experiments transferring timing, sounds, contexts and genres, arranged like channels on a radio. Improvised phrases warp and jostle each other, or expand and contract from shared “anchors”.
Espinas: A live percussion performance warps a dance track, exaggerating both the groove and the imperfections—interrupted by percussion fragments, with their BPM warped based on variations in distance between the spines of a cactus.
Atmósferas: Rain patterns on the roof are translated to rhythms and arpeggios, and improvised rhythms are translated to rain via digital processing, placing a spotlight on the blurred territory between human expression and environmental influences.