African music

Shuriken.se has released Eckel – a MIDI-generating VST that creates rhythmic music based on the Euclidean algorithm:

The Euclidean algorithm (which comes down to us from Euclid’s Elements) computes the greatest common divisor of two given integers. The structure of the Euclidean algorithm may be used to automatically generate, very ef?ciently, a large family of rhythms used as timelines (rhythmic ostinatos), in traditional world music. These rhythms, here dubbed Euclidean rhythms, have the property that their onset patterns are distributed as evenly as possible in a mathematically precise sense, and optimal manner.

Euclidean rhythms are closely related to the family of Aksak rhythms studied by ethnomusicologists, and occur in a wide variety of other disciplines as well. For example they characterize algorithms for drawing digital straight lines in computer graphics, as well as algorithms for calculating leap years in calendar design. Euclidean rhythms also ?nd application in nuclear physics accelerators and in computer sci%nce, and are closely related to several families of words and sequences of interest in the studq of the combinatorics of words,`such as mechanical words, Sturmian words, two-distance sequences, and Euclidean strings, to which the Euclidean rhythms are compared.

More on Euclidian music here&

via MakingMusic