Ben Neill’s “Morphic Resonance”: Where Sonic Innovation Meets Philosophical Depth
by A Hyatt
Jun 6, 2025
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A composer, performer and inventor of the Mutantrumpet - a hybrid electro-acoustic instrument - Neill has spent decades re-imagining the boundaries between acoustic tradition and digital experimentation.
His latest release, Morphic Resonance, is a profound new chapter in that exploration. It's one that connects sound, memory, science and global musical consciousness.
Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/track/0PpMnD9tkIB0DkAIv3vRcY
Released in two versions - a meditative original and a glitchier Bifurcated Mix - Morphic Resonance draws its name and inspiration from a theory proposed by British biologist and philosopher Rupert Sheldrake.
At its core, the concept of morphic resonance suggests that memory is not just a function of the brain but is embedded in the natural world, passed on collectively through time. For Neill, this idea resonated deeply with his own layered and process-based approach to music composition.
But what makes this piece truly unique and fascinating from a world music perspective is its organic structure and deep sense of sound continuity. Neill samples and reconfigures Sheldrake’s spoken words, integrating them into the soundscape as both texture and idea. These fragments are then paired with Neill’s signature Mutantrumpet, which live-samples and transforms sound in real time, creating a performance that feels less like a traditional composition and more like an all living and breathing sound organism.
From a global vantage point, Morphic Resonance taps into something universal. The idea that memory can live in sound, passed down across cultures, through repetition, ritual and resonance, is central to many world music traditions.
Neill’s layered approach echoes everything from Indian raga’s evolving modal improvisations to West African polyrhythmic structures and the ambient textures found in traditional Gamelan music. But rather than referencing these styles overtly, Neill seems to channel their logic: a non-linear, evolving, memory-based form of creation.
In the Bifurcated Mix, glitchy, fractured beats disrupt the smoother currents of the original track, embodying Sheldrake’s idea of transformation. There’s tension here, but also a kind of adaptive growth—another nod to natural systems evolving over time. These beats could easily sit alongside experimental electronic music from Tokyo, Berlin, or São Paulo, yet they remain deeply rooted in Neill’s own compositional DNA.
What’s perhaps most compelling about Morphic Resonance is that it never feels like a sterile thought experiment. Instead, it invites the listener, whether they’re a philosopher, raver or folklorist, into a space of open listening and reflection.
Neill’s upcoming album Amalgam Sphere, from which this track is taken, promises more in this vein: globally resonant, deeply personal, and intellectually rich compositions that reflect a lifelong commitment to innovation and interconnectedness.
For fans of ambient sound art, conceptual composition and the ever-widening global dialogue between tradition and technology, Morphic Resonance is an essential listen.
