About Us
split-notes is an online music label. Our 'netlabel' focuses on music written with a free attitude to intonation.
You could say, we have crazy ideas about what it means to "be in-tune."
We call this kind of music xen, short for xenharmonic, a word which has been used to describe experimental intonations and tunings. If it all sounds a bit unusual, then head straight to the downloads section to hear for yourself.
Xen is not a genre. Over the last few years xen music has been played in all kinds of styles. Blues, death metal, J-pop, avant-garde folk, whatever... If it sounds like music, you could make it xen. No exceptions. The thing that ties xen music together is: The melodies and harmonies sound exotic, as if they came from a lost culture or a tangent universe of the imagination. You couldn't play those melodies on a standard guitar or piano, because those objects don't come from this imaginary place.
split-notes promotes musicians playing a funkier kind of xen - something with a beat. So far we've put out a lot of electronic music releases, though it remains to be seen if we continue to branch out or become an electronic label.
As a side goal, we'd like to encourage musicians to try playing xen/microtonal music for themselves.
Why free?
split-notes has already made available many releases for free. Today, anybody who is discovering xenharmonic/microtonal music for the first time now has a place to go to HEAR many examples of it. This is much better than just reading the Wikipedia page on microtonal music!
The hope is to raise awareness for a style (more a 'mood') of music that more and more artists are getting turned on to.
Contact
Questions and comments can be emailed to Sean at 
.