With Monument of Diamonds, Kraig Grady offers a singular entry in the field of microtonal composition, crafting a sound world as immersive as it is otherworldly. The piece, composed in 2020 and realized for a small orchestra of specially built or adapted brass and woodwinds, is structured around the Meta-Slendro tuning - a 17-pitch scale pioneered by Erv Wilson. This tuning infuses the entire work with a crystalline, unfamiliar resonance, letting every phrase and chord shimmer with a sense of spatiality and dimensionality seldom encountered in conventional ensemble music. What stands out immediately, compared to other albums in the Another Timbre catalogue, is the sheer physicality of the brass and wind sonorities at play. Grady’s writing invokes sensations of architecture – spaces that feel both monumental and mysterious, grounded in the weight and gravity of the instruments. Over forty-five minutes, textures morph and refract in slow-moving arcs; the music doesn’t rush, instead reveling in a ritual pace, allowing the overtones and subtle inflections to accumulate, dissolve and reappear.

The title refers not only to structural durability and geological imagery, but also to unexpected encounters with “diamond-like” structures within the tuning itself. There is a subtle playfulness as Grady explores the relationship between tuning systems, the passage of time, and the ensemble’s capacity for both ceremonial grandeur and intimate resonance. Dedication to his custom instrumentarium ensures each sonority is felt, not simply heard, producing moments that hover somewhere between ancient folk tradition and post-ambient modernism. Monument of Diamonds stands apart for its refusal of easy lyricism or narrative; instead, it rewards patience, cultivating a sense of immersive, almost sculptural listening. Grady’s approach draws clear lines of influence from composers like Harry Partch and Lou Harrison but remains distinctly his own, shaped by years of exploration on Anaphoria Island and with various microtonal collectives. This release represents a quietly radical expansion not only of Another Timbre’s range but of the ambient potential of microtonal music itself, delivering a meditation on tuning, memory, and the enduring allure of untrodden sonic ground.