Illogical Harmonies is the collaborative project of Berlin residents Johnny Chang (violin) and Mike Majkowski (double bass). Their album Volume presents fifty-four minutes of highly focused, acoustic improvisation - five tracks, each marked by an almost ritual commitment to duration, a fascination with harmonic overlap, and an ongoing search for balance between individual and ensemble sound. Eschewing quick changes or dramatic gesture, Chang and Majkowski operate in a zone of gradual development: tones are sustained, intervals are tested, and the boundaries of pitch drift ever so gently as intonation, bow pressure, and harmonic beating shift moment to moment.
Throughout Volume, the duo moves in and out of near-static soundscapes. Low bass fundamentals and spectral bowing on the violin sometimes lock into haunting unisons, other times diverge into shimmering microtonal frictions and incandescent overtones. The pair’s shared discipline anchors the work - Majkowski’s grounding bass and Chang’s exploratory violin build a field of coherence from the tension and release of ongoing, unpredictable dialogue. The sense of form arises from sonic patience: repetition blends into subtle transformation, and raw sound becomes the foundation for unexpected melodic turns and harmonic convergence.
Rather than following existing models of contemporary string duo, Chang and Majkowski’s practice stands out for its “illogical” refusal of climactic resolution and its embrace of close listening. The duo draws inspiration from both minimalism and spectral music, but reinvents those traditions in a collective language based on live negotiation, openness, and sonic vulnerability. Illogical Harmonies: Volume is an invitation to step inside a musical ecosystem shaped by resonance, time, and the quiet drama of ongoing transformation—a place where harmony is always changing and meaning is always emerging anew.
