«LEINMMA» & «APOTOME» de Khyam Allami

With the release of two free programs that encourage experimentation with global tuning systems, musician and researcher Khyam Allami challenges Western prejudices about music production software.

Music production software (Ableton, FL Studio, Logic, Cubase or many others) has established itself as a common composition tool both for "stricto sensu" electronic musicians, as well as for other styles of popular music, and even classical music. The ease of capturing ideas in a few clicks, establishing rhythmic patterns and in a relatively short time being able to hear the result represents a great advance in productivity for musicians in general.
However: that software is created in the West, by and for Western musicians. This leads to its operating parameters being focused on the scale divisions and rhythmic patterns typical of Western classical music. As any semiotician knows: language influences the construction of the message, so software that establishes Western patterns as standards is potentially a tool that leads to creating “Western” music. Even if the composer wishes otherwise, the medium affects the result.
Khyam Allami, of Syrian/Iraqi origin and raised in the London of punk-rock bands, understood that if he wanted to create music that was related to “what was in his head”, he had to create his own tools. Thus, after 15 years of work and many frustrations, he managed to shape two programs: Leinmma and Apotome.

The first allows you to explore tunings from cultures around the world or create your own tunings. And the second links the tunings created with a powerful sound generation program, which is not closed to Western patterns, but rather accepts many other aesthetic approaches from other cultures.

Leinmma Interface

In this link, you will find access to both software (which are free and online) as well as resources, tutorials and documentation: Apotome Khyam Allami x Counterpoint.

And in this other one, you can find an in-depth article about Khyam Allami and his career: The decolonization of electronic music begins with its software.