Forget that cheesy Pink Floyd stuff from the planetarium. Scientist Elsa Garmire used optic chops to make lasers into a real instrument – and her work holds up today.

Maybe now is a perfect time for a moment of calm contemplation – premiering Jan Wagner’s “Kapitel 36” on the eve of a new album and a spatial planetarium premiere.

A.I.! Good gawd y’all – what is it good for? Absolutely … upscaling, actually. Some of machine learning’s powers may prove to be simple but transformative.

Samplr, one of the best music-making apps on iOS, is getting its first update since 2014.

808 day? 909 day? No, 202 on 0202 2020 comes but once, for real hardcore numerology fans in music – and TM404 is on it.

Borderlands was already a breakthrough – an instrument that lets you explore all the timbral frontiers of granular synthesis. “2.1” sounds small, but it brings major improvements and feature requests.

Don’t miss out on music – speaking of getting Africa back on your listening list, here’s an extraordinary, wide-reaching compilation of some of the most adventurous sounds from Africa and the diaspora.

Bamanya Brian from Uganda wanted to explore modular synthesis – so he turned his electronics skills to making the instruments he needed himself. The gear is DIY; the resulting music is irresistible.

It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that … jacky thing. Noncompliant’s latest remix embodies a certain sound that makes the tuchas move. And hey, evolution is on her side.

The US musical instrument show NAMM dropped the usual amount of gear news on us – now here’s the highlights reel.