Along with my current and ongoing composing for TV and Film - I’m on the faculty this Fall at CalArts, teaching both film scoring and private composition students! #calartsmusic

Improvising on the Ableton Push. When I just want to let rhythms rip in the form of melodies :) Some of my favorite music is music that constantly ornaments melody. A generous amount of notes is out of fashion! Sometimes it’s harp or a mallet, but this is a good warm up and “palette cleanser” for me. Apologies to my melodic musical heroes like Toumani Diabate, Goksel Baktagir, Ngoni Ba, etc. !!! #ableton #abletonpush2 #fingerdrumming

The full trilogy now available on all streaming services! “Environments for a Burning Planet is ambitious and intimate at once — a series of slow-burning, emotionally complex soundscapes that explore both environmental anxiety and artistic restraint.” - Magnetic Magazine #newmusic #newalbum #ambientmusic #filmmusic #atmospheric #soundscape #filmcomposer #losangelescomposer #jonathanthomasmiller #environmentsforaburningplanet #heddaudio #exmachinasoundworks #chordelectronics

Coming on Friday - “Environments for a Burning Planet III…” Music for a place that still exists, but not for long. Here’s a club in Mérida where this music would likely never play, but this might be the music you would play reflecting upon the previous evening! Composed in solitude, mixed in reflection, these pieces were originally born of subzero silence, vast landscapes, and the quiet perseverance of life on the edge. Environments for a Burning Planet III is not a score. It’s a requiem in fragments. It’s what remains when the camera stops rolling and the wind is the only audience left. Listen with good headphones. Or somewhere with weather. Recorded in Los Angeles and memory. #composer #filmmusic #tvmusic #ambientmusic #idontknowthecategoryofmymusic#hashtagsaretyranny #losangelescomposer #nolabelsneeded

If I ever decide to do a dance record, this will certainly be the cover? Actually, I wouldn’t normally post something like this, but ever since getting Covid in 2023 - there’s been some health challenges. Nothing major, but challenging nonetheless. Shout out to @fitbycarpendale - for the past few years I’ve been online training with Steve in New Zealand, and recently returned to swimming at @losangelesathleticclub This is last week at an obscure Cenote near Homún 90 minutes southeast of Merida, Mexico. I love Mérida! Visited Mom in Florida, then the 2 hour flight to Cancun and 3.5 hour drive to Merida. “I do not believe in the kind of cinema that is based purely on cerebral ideas. I believe we have to be physically fit, we have to be physically brave, we have to be able to cope with real life, and we have to be able to look directly into the collective soul of things.” - Werner Herzog

“Environments for a Burning Planet” I,II,III were composed in multiple locations on different systems - DTLA in my Arts District studio; at home in Highland Park -both at the kitchen table and studio; while teaching in Chicago in a hotel…the abundance of different technologies leads me to a rather agnostic approach. Pieces were composed in Ableton or Logic - various mixing systems, including everything from Bose earbuds to my Ex Machina Pulsars; everything from tweaking mixes on Apple Airpods to the very bespoke HEDD Headphones. A bulk of the pieces were done on the HEDD speakers with a Trinnov system. Everything was mastered via Softube and Izotope - I did two versions of every master, one on the Heddphones 2 and one on the Ex Machinas, and chose freely for warmth, detail or focus, depending on the piece. My last check for impact is the walk in the neighborhood with the Apple AirPods Pro. Just a bit of technical notes from a mixing and mastering prospective. I suppose the most important factor is getting the ideas down quickly, as all of these in this collection were written in my long standing frame for music for media of 3 pieces a day. #newmusic #filmcomposer #heddaudio #exmachina #trinnov #ambientmusic #studiocat #appleairpodspro #softube #izotope #ableton

Thanks to @toucharchive for including me on their Bandcamp collection!

I still have my 4-track cassette masters from the early 90s…It was my world in high school and college. Between composing pieces in music school, I would challenge myself to write a record of music on the breaks. In some bizarre way, this subsequently turned into my work, as it proved to be the training ground for writing quickly for TV and film. Flash forward to 2004, when I landed my first gig for Discovery Channel (Big!)and the challenge was amplified. After 1000s of pieces, 20 years later - it’s about the daily practice of writing something and setting limitations - what I learned from using the mighty (and noisy and distorted!) 4-track recorder :)

Shifting Clouds and Mystery : Environments for a Burning Planet I Available November 1! This introductory piece asks how Hitchcock-inspired chords can be placed within the realm of electronic music. With string music in film scoring often reduced to a cliché, I wanted to use those familiar sounds in a fresh way, building tension in a circular, inevitable fashion. The result is a piece that feels like it goes in circles, returning to the same unresolved point. #newmusic #ambientmusic #atmospheric #soundscape #losangelescomposer #filmcomposer #jonathanthomasmiller #environmentsforaburningplanet #heddaudio #exmachinasoundworks #chordelectronics

I began composing these pieces in 2020 as speculative work for the National Geographic series Life Below Zero. However, it was during the early days of the pandemic that I started crafting more desolate and emotional pieces, working from home with limited equipment and space. Having spent years composing rhythmic and comedic music for television, this period allowed me to delve into what I considered my “emotional” music. I began to explore sonic textures that conveyed the obscure, abstract feelings of isolation and the uncertainty of a world in flux. #newmusic #ambientmusic #atmospheric #soniclandscape #losangelescomposer #filmmusic #jonathanthomasmiller #environmentsforaburningplanet #heddaudio #exmachinasoundworks #chordelectronics

I only own a few things in multiples - sunglasses and headphones. (I suppose cats, too - but they own me…) #heddheadphones #heddaudio

I am back from Spain and Morocco, with a stop in London…Back in Los Angeles. It’s such a joy seeing friends around the world. LA-London-Alicante-Granada-Ronda-Seville-Marrakech-London-LA. This summer was my first real break from music. The recharge was super important, and now I’m looking forward to new releases of music and the next wave of projects.

Link in bio. I’m releasing a ton of new music this month. During Covid I made this little collection of sounds from around the garden and garage. Inspired to write “off the grid,” both rhythmically and socially - I wanted to make some pieces that didn’t quite “work.” There’s one constant - only recordings I made with my Sony D100 field recorder. #chordelectronics #heddheadphones #fieldrecording #foundsound #musiqueconcrete

My cameo in Alexander Rybak’s new video. Check it out on YouTube! Such a fun day, getting pummeled by water balloons :)

Quick few days in Oban, Scotland before returning to LA. I’m 1/4 Scottish, but perhaps I generally feel much more than that? The changeable weather, diffuse light and sense of humor suit me. (When checking into a hotel - “This is where you sign your soul away, presuming that you ever had one!”) haha

So thrilled with the performance tonight at Iklectic in London. An amazing group of eclectic artists and shall I say “thunderous” sound system! #touchactivities #electronicmusic #improvisedmusic #somapipe #ableton

Spent the day with Chris Watson, field recording/location sound extraordinaire (whose sound work you’ve heard with David Attenborough, among countless others); a tribute to composer Philip Jeck.

Must admit that I’m addicted to playing(singing?) the Soma Instruments “The Pipe.” Begs to be played through a giant sound system…Like his other instruments, it can sound like dogs barking from the gates of hell, but this one also allows for some emotional and sensitive voice manipulations. (And with a twist of a knob, sound like melting titanium onto your vocal cords…)

Super exciting to play a sold out show in Chicago w/ Olivia Block and Cleared! @touchactivities @_stevenhess @michaelvallera @oliviablocksound

Made it to the BMI Film and TV Awards for another year. My 10th! #bmifilmtv