Have you ever wanted to go inside a piece of music and look around? Welcome to Polytempo Music by composer Brian Baumbusch, a journey into the multiverse of sounds and the dimensions of listening. This work is not just music; it's a complete work of art (Gesamtkunstwerk) that provides a groundbreaking three-dimensional exploration of sound in order to illuminate a brilliant 48-minute music composition. Baumbusch's massive musical work features multiple tempos running in parallel, creating simultaneous timelines much like the many-worlds interpretation of quantum theory.

This experience offers the innovation of presenting music as a physical entity in 3D space, where sound moves around leaving a visual imprint of its journey. This "liquid architecture," as described by animator John Whitney, transforms the listening experience into an interactive exploration. By using a touch-screen mobile device or wearing VR goggles, you as the listener can navigate through this musical landscape, experiencing changes in sound based on your movement relative to the dance of the instrument “speakers.” This allows you to witness the music from every possible angle; you can even pick and choose which combinations of instruments you want to hear at any time.

In Polytempo Music, every instrumental part is independently recorded yet hyper-synchronized through a master clock of click tracks—one for each musician. This coordination allows for the creation of what Baumbusch refers to as "tempo streams." These are visually represented in Baumbusch’s hand-drawn graphs that show the rising and falling pulse rates, dictating the density of instrumental sounds.

Baumbusch's influences include early American minimalism and ceremonial Indonesian gamelan music, which he intertwines into intricate patterns of sound color and polytempo counterpoint. Much of his music invites listeners to explore heterophony—multiple instruments playing variations of the same melody simultaneously—but with each instrument maintaining its own uniquely fluctuating tempo. If you hadn’t guessed it already, coordinating the counterpoint of multiple instruments playing at different fluctuating rates requires doing mathematic calculus, something that composer Conlon Nancarrow first achieved in his player piano studies in the 1950’s.

This compositional approach challenges traditional listening experiences and changes the listener's perception of music, time, and space. Polytempo Music is both a visual and auditory marvel, allowing for an immersive journey where you can actively participate in shaping your own musical experience.