The title, Tempera Loop, refers both to the egg tempera style of painting p… Read Full Bio ↴The title, Tempera Loop, refers both to the egg tempera style of painting popular in Middle Ages Europe, and to the fact that the composition was written as an endless loop. Building up the song slowly with small musical brush strokes, just as an artist would with strokes of pain, Emdot gradually constructed complexity out of simplicity. The first sound we hear is a sequenced pattern, varied minutely throughout the composition, which acts as the sonic armature around which the rest of the song is constructed. Within the sequencing program Emdot uses to compose, a loop was made the length of this track and then, one instrument at a time, Emdot improvised simple melodic phrases to accompany the song's original pattern. The order in which the sounds arrive was the order in which they were added, so if one listens attentively, the compositional technique here is plain to hear.

The mood of this piece is calm and sweet, contemplative and light. Its bell-like tones and repetitive simplicity, layered into a gentle kind of complexity, is reminiscent of nothing so much as mechanical music boxes.