Sliding Between Lines: The Microtonal Music of Maddie Ashman
Some call it captivating, while others say it’s music for your "sleep paralysis demon." Either way, you’ll be transported to worlds that you didn’t even know existed thanks to the microtonal music of Maddie Ashman. Like many others, I first caught wind of Maddie during a fateful night of doomscrolling. She had posted a video of herself playing one of her singles titled "dark," a song that would be perfect for an eerie, fantastical stop-motion movie from Laika studios (the brains behind Coraline). As uncanny as it can feel on the first listen, it eventually became a new vocal stim for me exactly because of her ethereal voice and resonant layers of microtonal harmonies. This led me down a rabbit hole: who is Maddie Ashman and what other otherworldly sounds is she capable of?
Maddie Ashman is a U.K. based artist who has had a passion for music from a very young age. The daughter of scientists, Maddie has proven she has no fear when conducting her own experiments with music, and it's clear she truly revels in the creative process. In an interview with Island Magazine, Maddie revealed that the first instrument she learned to play was her mother’s guitar. When the cello grabbed her attention, her parents paid for cello lessons, then “the same happened with the piano and the electric guitar, I was always curious from a young age.” A multi-instrumentalist, Maddie started writing songs as early as seven years old in her spare time and began skipping class in high school to get as much practice time in as she could. Her dedication and desire to express herself authentically eventually led her to win the YouthMusic NextGen Fund; a grant for young, aspiring U.K. musicians between the ages of 18-25 years which allows access to the funding they need to bring thought-out projects to life. Empowering her to explore her own sound and curiosity surrounding microtonality and intonation, Maddie’s ability to create music with a wide range of textures and enchanting atmospheres flourished.
“I found it so fun to explore my own tunings that used Just Intonation (pure tuning) and how they could feel shimmery, warbly, buzzy or completely pure and still. There was so much to play with texturally, emotionally and melodically and I found it really inspiring.” (YouthMusic).
Microtonal music uses “tones in intervals that differ from the standard semitones (half steps) of a tuning system or scale” (Britannica). Instead of your typical “do-rei-me” major scale, microtonal notes often bleed into its neighboring sound which can create more of a natural sliding effect (like one’s voice can) via the instrument. Microtonal artists do not confine themselves to standard scale melodies but instead subvert expectations using note progressions that you don’t often hear together, creating a less structured and a more liberating, organic sound. Microtonal music has been around for centuries. Countries like India, Indonesia, Thailand, Bermuda, Myanmar, and Africa all utilize greater, sub-divided scales. For example, Indian microtonal music uses twenty-two shruti, or śruti [ɕrʊtɪ]; “the smallest interval of pitch that the human ear can detect and a singer or musical instrument can produce” (Wikipedia). This allows music to delve into a wider range of tonality, texture, and emotion that flow through the listener like an incantation. As a result, microtonal music can be used to create a greater atmosphere in diverse works such as video games, fashion shows, film scores, and more. Kirby Super Star, as an example, uses microtonal music in the song "Trees in the Depths of the Earth" to create a sense of mystical ambience and suspenseful action. Movies like There Will Be Blood and Arrival utilize microtonal sounds in their scores to create uneasy, psychologically intense, or (literally) alien ambience.
“otherworld is a narrative of half memories and lost voices, which draws on fragments of oral history, family stories, Welsh legends and fairytales to piece together a story across three generations of women and their relationship with their lands, their languages, and themselves.” (Bandcamp)
Maddie collaborated with Welsh lyricist Jessa Brown to create their digital album otherworld. You can listen to “dark” on her Bandcamp, along with the four other songs from the album. Her range of hushed tones, rapidly alternating sharp sounds, and a crescendo of instruments create a sense of weight and moving storytelling. In “dark”, the guitar-slide on Maddie’s nylon stringed guitar oscillates between sharp and flat notes to create an eerie ambience. Combined with her soprano voice, Maddie harmonizes with the fluctuating intonation of the guitar. The contrast of a soft, lilting voice combined with the sporadic fingering of notes on the guitar result in a playful unease. The plucking mimics the speech patter of the song, making the guitar sound as if some dark entity’s voice is harmonizing along with the narrator and has a power of its own. The lyrics describe the ambivalent relationship between a mother and daughter. The way the mother figure calls out to her daughter and states that the daughter is “late to [her] hearth,” conveys her disapproval of her daughter's wild and careless nature. The daughter wants to be her own person and rebels by running boundlessly in the cold, hoping to find her own identity away from her mother, but always ultimately returns. Such inspiration was pulled from Jessa Brown’s own life and the distant relationship between her mother and grandmother.
The versatility of Maddie’s ethereal voice and unpredictably harmonized notes, combined with Jessa Brown’s emotional lyrics makes for an album that is just that: otherworldly. When writing otherworld, Maddie Ashman makes the guitar and voice switch roles. The guitar’s interchanging of rhythmic playing to swinging, melodic plucking as the notes slide up and down the neck creates a sense of motion within the song. The lower-toned frequencies make me feel as though I could sink into another dimension, and, when sliding up the neck of the guitar, she makes me feel like I could rise to the clouds in levitation. Maddie Ashman is creating old folk songs for the new generation. With her masterful hands and voice, I feel as though I am transported to the Celtic folklore and Wales of past legends.
Each song in otherworld is named justly and reflects the essence one hears in it. In “horizon” the song begins with the fluttering strum of the guitar. Each note is rhythmically stroked with a gentleness that creates a sensation of lightness that reminds one of a soft breeze flowing through the leaves of a beautiful morning sunrise. The slow, descending notes of "moonlight" evoke the sensation of a cool, lonely night under the stars. The song “bonfire” embodies the sound of a dancing, crackling bonfire. With this album, it’s as if Maddie Ashman created a film score for the movie that is your life: each song a catharsis for a struggling and enduring protagonist.
Maddie Ashman released her EP Her Side on February 6, 2026, and it is available on Spotify at the link below, along with her single "dark" from otherworld. To support Maddie Ashman's sonic experiments, you can preview or purchase the full otherworld album on Bandcamp.
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