Drew Flieder (b. 1995) is an American philosopher and composer of instrumental and electronic music. Inspired by the rigorous methods and iconoclasm of Xenakis, Stockhausen, Babbitt, and Cage, he set out to create a universal theoretical basis from which new works could be generated. This project, called Tools for Worldmaking, was completed in 2022, drawing on the works of Mazzola, Carnap, and Aristotle, among others.
Beyond formal experimentation, Flieder’s work is motivated by a spiritual vision. He conceives of music not as the expression of emotion, but as the structuring of the mental conditions that generate emotion, “to sober and quiet the mind, thus rendering it susceptible to divine influences”.