I have been impressed with the harmonic powers of the number �17�. Its square, 289, is just one off 288 which is twice the square of 12. This means is makes a good approximation of a tritone in the ratio of 17 to 12 � much better than the one which occurs at the start of the harmonic series � 7 to 5. There are actually no whole numbers which satisfy the equation 2xaxa = bxb but 17 and 12 make a good approximation. If you start with the proper square of root 2 and take the sixth root of that number then it is close to the ratio of 18 over 17.

So I was surprised to find that the ratio of 19 to 16 is close to square root of the square root of two. This means for example that the ratio of the cube of 18 divided by the cube of 17 is close to the ratio of 19 to 16. So the four numbers in the natural number series 16, 17, 18, 19 are extremely potent in terms of creating musical intervals. To take just one example 19 times 18 divided by 16 times 17 is close to the cube root of 2 � the frequency ratio of the well tempered major third � much closer than the ratio which occurs early in the harmonic series between 5 and 4. The ratios 16, 19, 24 are quite a good stab at a minor chord.

So lots more fun to have in wavelab building drones! I started to mess around with undertones on the piano.

I am going to Durham today � but I had to go back to Guildford to pick up a few things. I nearly bought a book about Basquiat the Hendrix like artstar of the New York scene in the 80s. I had been looking some reproductions of the autobiographical paintings that D Hockney did in the late 50s and I saw similarities with the stuff that made Basquiat famous � also with other artists that are on my mind. I thought I�d save this for later.

I decided to overnight at Leamington on the journey North. There was something from Amazon � Thinking Beyond Lean � How multiproject management is transforming product development at Toyota. This is timely because the reason for going to Durham is to hear a leading Japanese academic on product development methods. The last time I was in Detroit I got book on the German take on some of these issues.

Talking of Michigan, I have discovered that a keyboard player in the Stooges came to the band via the ONCE group at Ann Arbor. This is the first explicit link between Detroit proto-punk and the new music experiments in the same area that I have been able to find. The person in question started in San Antonio then at 16 got into the Julliard but them too snooty and so he went to Ann Arbor instead and joined the ONCE fraternity. Morton Feldman heard one of his compositions during a visit to Ann Arbor and just could not believe that the composer of this piece was so young.

Bearing in mind that a member of the Stooges joined Destroy All Monsters, the art rock band, which involved video artist Mike Kelly and which experimented with Donna Summer beats in the mid 70s, I am one step closer to linking ONCE to the emergence of Techno. I suppose I need to get a history of the Stooges from somewhere.

For the journey North I bought a record of some live Detroit bass playing � actually it was recorded in 1973 in Paris. The bass-player is the ex Aretha and Stevie Wonder sideman, Michael Henderson, and the rest of the band are very adventurous indeed. About a year earlier Paul Buckmaster had brought Miles some recordings of Stockhausen. Gil Evans said to Miles �Stockhausen sounds like you�. Apparently Miles once asked Berio to give him some chords to which Berio replied �You don�t need them.�

Dave Liebman had just got the call from Miles and he went over to his house (which I think was on West 77th) and found Miles listening obsessively to Sly Stone. In September 72 the Davis Liebman band played Ann Arbor. Liebman says that he gradually worked out that the music was a �polyphonic bizarre combination of Sun Ra, Duke Ellington and James Brown�.

(Actually it was about this point that Bootsy Collins left the James Brown band and joined George Clinton in Detroit).

Miles told Liebman that he was in the band because people like to see saxplayers move their fingers. The record I bought also has Pete Cosey on guitar who was from the Chess house band in Chicago but was also more into weird tunings than any other rock guitar player.

Members of the Stooges recall Miles joining them backstage at Ungano�s club and praising their originality and spirit.

I am listening to Cage�s Sonatas and Interludes � it certainly deserves its reputation.