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MUSIC

New Release

Latest Albums

Whirlpool (2026)

Duo with Matt Lavelle β€” stritch, saxello & flutes against pocket trumpet and bass clarinet

Listen on Bandcamp β†’

Who Does Not Seek The Sky? (2026)

Echo Party β€” with Khari Wynn, Alex Greene, Steve Hirsh; four long-form pieces

Listen on Bandcamp β†’

Memphis Mandala (2026)

with Art Edmaiston, Ra Kalam Bob Moses, Damon Smith, Clifford "Pee Wee" Jackson β€” recorded live at Crosstown Arts, Memphis

Listen on Bandcamp β†’

The Eternal Now is the Heart of a New Tomorrow (2024)

Deep Staria Enigmatica ESP

Listen on Bandcamp β†’

Birdsong (2024)

With Shanyse Strickland, Sana Nagano, Melanie Dyer

Listen on Bandcamp β†’

Embracing the Unknown (2024)

with Ivo Perelman, Reggie Workman, Andrew Cyrille

Listen β†’

Miserere (2023)

with Zoh Amba, George Cartwright, Luke Stewart, Chris Parker, Kelley Hurt, Steve Hirsh

Listen β†’

Old Stories (2022)

With Matthew Shipp - 2CD, 14 tracks

Listen β†’

Listen on Spotify

Live Performances

Instruments

  • β†’ Stritch (straight alto saxophone)
  • β†’ Saxello
  • β†’ C, Alto & Bass Flutes
  • β†’ Baritone Saxophone
  • β†’ Electric Guitar

On Improvisation

15 Questions Interview

"Improvisation is not about playing whatever you want. It's about listening deeply and responding authentically in the moment."

An in-depth conversation about the philosophy and practice of improvisation, the intersection of technology and music, and the creative process.

Read Full Interview β†’

Mahakala Music

Founded in 2019, Mahakala Music is a record label (run by Chad and drummer Steve Hirsh) dedicated to avant-garde jazz and free improvisation. Home to collaborations with William Parker, Matthew Shipp, Eri Yamamoto, Ivo Perelman, and more.

Explore Full Catalog β†’
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{}

TECHNOLOGY

{
  "current": [
    "Partner & CTO @ BlueYard Capital",
    "Building freeq β€” IRC rebuilt with identity",
    "Teaching agents to form institutions",
    "Writing The Phoenix Architecture"
  ],
  "languages": ["Haskell", "Rust", "Ruby", "TypeScript", "Python"],
  "interests": [
    "future of software development",
    "regenerative software",
    ""generative software",
    "programmable organizations and wisdom of crowds",
    "systems that survive",
    "open source everything",
    "localfirst software",
    "context portability and user-owned data
  ]
}
                    

Currently Building

/* things that run, not slides about things that could run */

FreeqWorld

gloriously weird

Proof that Freeq is a protocol, not a chat UI: a 1992-ish multiplayer RPG where rooms are IRC channels, characters are DIDs, and speech bubbles are honest-to-god IRC messages. Idle in a tavern from your terminal.

multiplayerirc-as-game-enginepixel-art

iroh-drop

open source

Decentralized AirDrop. Hand someone a single ticket string and they get your files or directories β€” then re-serve the blobs themselves, so popular things get faster instead of more expensive. CLI, daemon, and a native macOS app.

rustirohp2pblobsmacos

mdsnd

live

Small, complete, finished: Markdown publishing with secret unlisted URLs, editing and history, and optional password protection where the encryption happens in your browser β€” the server never sees the plaintext. Sign in with Google or Bluesky, or don't sign in at all.

markdownclient-side-cryptoatproto-oauth

Phoenix

open source

Not just the essays β€” a working implementation of regenerative, version-controlled software. Spec β†’ architecture target β†’ generated running application, with traceability back to intent and the ability to regenerate rather than repair.

regenerative-softwarecodegentraceability

Freeq Foundry

experiment

A running environment where independently operated agents form an institution: they draft governance, allocate authority and equity, argue, and then actually ship code. Twelve founders across nine model snapshots and three providers, real economic constraints, fully replayable runs. The artifact is the signed institutional history.

multi-agentgovernancereplayableprogrammable-orgs

freeq-swarm

prototype

Distributed PR-review agents coordinating over Freeq: workers race-claim tasks, independently review a SHA-pinned diff, and a coordinator reduces their verdicts to a consensus result. Phases 0–7 implemented, ~180 tests. A shipped prototype, not a product β€” and I'd rather say so.

agentsconsensuscode-reviewfreeq

Books

The Passionate Programmer

Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development

Get Book β†’

Programming Ruby

The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide

Get Book β†’

Rails Recipes

Best-selling 2nd book ever published on Rails

Featured Podcast Appearances

Stop maintaining your code β€” start replacing it. On the Phoenix Architecture and why regenerative software changes everything.

Join Chad on the Snark Chocolate podcast where he discusses the intersection of technology, creativity, and craftsmanship.

Developer on Fire - Being Deliberate

Exploring mindfulness, working at Microsoft, fear of letting people down, and being deliberate in career and life choices.

Listen to Episode β†’

Developing Leadership - An Engineering Leader's Search for Meaning

A heartfelt existential conversation with Jason Warner and Eiso Kant about authenticity, compassion, introverted leadership, and reflecting on what it means to be an engineering leader.

Listen to Episode β†’

Modern CTO Podcast - Microsoft Startup Advocacy

Discussing venture funding, common founder mistakes, and becoming an expert through writing. Insights from leading Microsoft's Startup Advocacy.

Listen to Episode β†’

Maintainable Software - How Small Can We Make This Problem

A candid chat with Robby Russell about building software in small pieces, unit testing perspectives, and lessons from leading Wunderlist.

Listen to Episode β†’

alphalist.CTO - Musician, Author and VC

Transforming Wunderlist from monolith to microservices. A unique perspective on technology from a musician and RPG player background.

Conference Keynotes

Open Source

Ruby Central Co-founder (2002)

RubyConf Co-organizer (2001-2012)

RailsConf Founder, Co-organizer (2006-2012)

RubyGems Co-creator/maintainer (2003-200?)

GitHub: @chad β†’

Venture Capital

As Partner & CTO at BlueYard Capital, investing in technologies that bring us closer to Utopia or farther from Oblivion.

CHAD
FOWLER