(Bread-burning synth photo by Terje Toomistu)

I will be playing a live improvisation for DIY analog modular synthesizer next Friday at O’Tannenbaum, along with bareth/stadler (Florinn Bareth–e-violin, Max Stadler–electronics) and Nicolas Humbert.

Info

Several years ago, I largely abandoned the digital sound world to spend time building a modular analog synthesizer which reinterprets and hybridizes the forms and functions of the legendary Serge and Buchla systems from the 1960s and 70s. During my improvisational performances, I summon the chaotic, generative powers of this machine to explore the physical affects of volume, frequency and complexity within a given space. For fans of Maryanne Amacher, Bernard Parmegiani, Eliane Radigue and Slayer.

Friday 18 Jan 2013, 21:0
O’Tannenbaum
Sonnenallee 27
Berlin 12047
Germany

This morning I sat in the Marfa Public Radio studio with Rachel Lindley and talked about my Learning to Listen workshop. Rachel was fantastic, she really has The Voice and from the one-paragraph press release, she asked the most intelligent questions that just about any journalist has ever asked me. I really feel like this interview gives a comprehensive overview of how I present the concept of the soundscape in a workshop situation.

You can listen to the whole interview (approx 30 min) at:

http://marfapublicradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/130107-Derek-Holzer-LONG.mp3

The workshop itself at the Marfa Book Company went extremely well, with at least 25 folks both nights. In the usual style, I played several field recordings from various corners of the globe, and together we figured out what kind of of information–both subjective and objective–we can learn from a recorded or composed soundscape. Thanks especially to Tim Johnson for hosting this experience.

I will play a set for modular synthesizer, locally found objects and SoundBox, at the Michael Strogoff gallery, 124 E. El Paso St, Marfa, Texas at 8PM on Wednesday 09 Jan. Y’alls are welcome!

Now Playing

kevin drumm–relief[2012 emego]
mika vainio, kevin drumm, axel dorner, lucio capece–venexia[2012 pan]
tim hecker & daniel lopatin–instrumental tourist[2012 sstudios]

LEARNING TO LISTEN: an Artist Talk and Workshop with Derek Holzer
Jan 06-07 2013, Marfa Book Company, 105 South Highland, Marfa, Texas 6PM-8:30PM
Jan 09 2013, Michael Strogoff, 124 E. El Paso St, Marfa, Texas 8PM

http://www.facebook.com/events/482451101793088
http://www.facebook.com/events/531958506823249
http://www.facebook.com/events/520745507958609

I do what I do because I never learned to play the guitar. Starting with an interest in field recording and environmental sound, I soon moved to teaching myself to build first digital and then analog non-traditional sound instruments as a way out of the problems of “virtuosity” in music. A great deal of my work involves simply listening, whether to natural or electronically generated soundscapes, searching for that beautiful chaos of birds, hailstorms or cicadas that produce the kinds of dense, arrhythmic textures that I enjoy the most.

As my work is so much about learning to listen, this two day artist-talk and workshop will focus on the art of listening. I’ll start by introducing my history, my practice and the instruments I create. We’ll continue by listening to several field recordings by myself (and possibly others), using these as a springboard to talk about listening from the perspectives of both science (physics, acoustics, psychoacoustics, psychology, etc) and culture (musicology, anthropology, architecture, urban planning, film studies, etc).

There will be opportunities on the second day for workshop participants to play and discuss their own soundscapes, and we will work towards a definition of what “soundscape” actually means. The workshop concludes with an introduction to some of the tools I use to both record natural soundscapes and create my own electronic soundscapes.

This workshop is open to the public and participation is by a donation of your choice. Please bring your own paper and a writing/drawing tool as these will be very important during the workshop!

I will also make an approx 40 minute live performance on Weds, 09 January at 8:00PM in the Michael Strogoff art space, 124 E. El Paso St. The performance is also free or by donation.

DAY ONE – Sunday 06 January 2013 18:00-20:30
Marfa Book Company, 105 South Highland, Marfa, Texas

–Introduction to Holzer’s work: field recordings, digital instruments, analog instruments
–Introduction to Soundscapes: R. Murray Schafer, Pauline Oliveros, Chris Watson, CRESSON, John Cage and others
–Listening Exercises I: field recordings from around the world by Holzer and others

DAY TWO – Monday 07 January 2013 18:00-20:30
Marfa Book Company, 105 South Highland, Marfa, Texas

–Continuing Soundscapes: working towards a definition of the soundscape, the difference between soundscape and “music”
–Listening Exercises II: soundscapes from around the world by Holzer, others and participants
–Tools of the Electronic Soundscape: field recorders, microphones, software, synthesizers, effects

DAY THREE – Wednesday 09 January 2013 20:00
Michael Strogoff, 124 E. El Paso St, Marfa, Texas

–Live sound performance for found objects, SoundBox and analog modular synthesizer

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Derek Holzer (1972) is an American sound artist based in Berlin, Germany, whose current interests include DIY analog electronics, sound art, field recording and the meeting points of electroacoustic, noise, improv and extreme music. He has played live experimental sound, as well as taught workshops in noise art technology, across Europe, North America, Brazil and New Zealand.

http://macumbista.net

Current location = Marfa TX. See you all in 2013!

In other news, I broke down and got a FaceBook account, so see you there perhaps as well.

The Solstice SoundBoxes were intended as small, portable and battery-powered electro-acoustic instruments. They can create a variety of drone and reverb-type sounds through feedback between a small speaker and a resonant piezo-electric microphone. A variety of other features were available, including transparent and backlit speakers, decorations within the box, line-outs and “circuit-bending” body contacts. They could also simply be used as cigar-box amplifiers for whatever other electronic instruments you might have.

On 11 December, I took a huge load to the post office and freed myself for a month-long holiday trip to Marfa, Texas. Out of an edition of 30, 27 were sold or gifted to people, which ain’t too bad for a week’s worth of promotional work. You can see the most of the run below. I plan on another edition in January or February. Stay tuned… and happy Solstice!

The roster of recipients [in no particular order]:

Sonny Rosenberg
Lars Lundehave Hansen
Peter Votava
Carsten Stabenow
Jason R. Butcher
Jonathan Lukacek
Steve Holzer
Juhani Liimatainen
Miki Brunou
David Massey
Walker Farrell
Björn Eriksson
Christian Schiller
Richard Quirk
Gregg Wilson
Rob Appleby
Stefan Paul Goetsch
Luka Ivanovic [not pictured]

Now Playing:

The desert…

I have been working on a series of SoundBoxes for sale and as gifts for the Winter Solstice 2012. These SoundBoxes contain a 1/2 Watt audio amplifier, a small speaker and a resonant contact microphone, all housed in beautiful antique cigar boxes or jewelry/silverware cases. Each box is unique and hand made, and bears the traces of its history as an everyday object before it was transformed into a primitive, intuitive feedback-sound-instrument.

This run of SoundBoxes is quite similar to ones which participants have created in my workshops over the last couple years. They can be used to create self-modulating drones, as seen in this video, or to bring out the hidden sounds within found objects as seen in this video.

Finally, as they run on a single 9V battery, you could make a portable concert with any other kind of sound input, such as a guitar, keyboard or smartphone. Some boxes include an line-output, “circuit-bending” style body contact points or a transparent, backlit speaker providing a window to graphical images or patterns inside the box, as in the Ghost Lockets series from last year.

Please contact me at MACUMBISTA at_the_domain GMAIL.COM (or use the contact page) during the coming week of 3-9 December if you are interested in purchasing one of these before 2013! I will be away from my studio from 12 Dec to 13 Jan. Prices range from EUR 50-90, depending on the box used and features included.

I have several styles of antique boxes to choose from (as seen in the first picture in this post), as well as the different added features mentioned. Some of the following boxes may also still be available, as noted. In addition, I can create made-to-order SoundBoxes from antique boxes in my stock at the moment.

All SoundBoxes come with a resonant spring contact microphone.

SET ONE: R.QUIRK COMMISSION

Set of four SoundBoxes, made in cedar cigar boxes and commissioned by Richard Quirk. The top pair includes a backlit 77mm transparent speaker, providing a view to two different antique Danish photographs from approximately the 1930s. The bottom pair uses powerful speakers to increase the physical resonance of the box and microphone. These boxes are SOLD.

SET TWO: SILVERCASES

This set of SoundBoxes are built into a variety of antique cases for jewelry, pens and silverware which have been found in Berlin and Paris. These feature black 92mm speakers and audio-responsive color LED lights. The textures of these cases are incredible, my favorite being the fountain-pen case in the top middle (which uses a minijack plug and 77mm speaker). The fountain-pen case and the box with the diagonal stripe, both pictured in close-up above, are SOLD. Besides those, all the rest of these boxes are available for sale.

SET THREE: LARGE SPEAKERS

In general, the speakers I use are either 92mm or 77mm wide, however occasionally I find large boxes and therefore prefer to use larger speakers. The top box once contained a set of silverware and now contains a set of six “circuit-bending” body contacts, while the bottom box still contains the aroma of tobacco. These are the only large-speaker SoundBoxes I am currently offering for sale. BOTH SOLD!!!!

SET FOUR: 77mm BOXES

These boxes are available for made-to-order SoundBoxes. They are drilled to use a transparent 77mm speaker. The inside of these boxes is lit by an LED, and images or graphics can be placed inside, as seen below in these examples from last year’s collection:

SET FIVE: 92mm BOXES

These boxes are available for made-to-order SoundBoxes. They are drilled to use a black 92mm speaker. I have several of the box in the rear-middle, marked “Pallas”, as seen below:

PAPER OPTIONS

These Japanese chiyogami 70g/m² patterned papers are currently available for decorating the interiors of the SoundBoxes which have transparent speakers. Other options include vintage photography prints, reflective paper (silver, gold), other found objects (bones, shells, reflective materials…) or custom graphics printed from your digital file.

Thank you for your kind attention.
Derek

Machine Deva Sound Track by macumbista

Original soundtrack by Derek Holzer for the short film “Machine Deva”, by Steve Holzer (19min, 2012, TX, USA). A very abstract love story created directly on 16mm film, using familiar and not-so-familiar direct manipulation. Hand color and intervention on found footage with unusual transfer techniques put the visual experience somewhere between cave paintings and a hand-held video of a dream world.

Tracklist

1.0: brief introductions/those who cannot remember [6:06]
2.0: first mutation [4:34]
2.1: the lecture(“étant donnés”) [1:51]
2.2: take the elevator [1:04]
3.0: second mutation/the dance [4:43]

Recorded April 15-May 15 2012, RSS-82 Berlin.

Derek Holzer: analog synthesizer, electronics, pure data, organ, percussion
Steve Holzer: synthesizer(1.0), guitar(2.1)

I will have CDRs of this soundtrack and DVDRs of the film itself available in late November, and I will try to organize a screening in Berlin to coincide with this. Please note that the film itself will not appear online, due to the detailed nature of the film manipulations which lose much of their impact through compression. Unless you are lucky enough to visit a screening organized by myself or Steve, the DVDR will be the next best thing. Please contact me if interested.

TONEWHEELS France Photos

Photos from Pau performance by Alvaro Ayuso

Photos from Pau performance by Nicolas Godin

Photos from Pau performance by Sandrine Ferrer

Photos from Marseille performance by Pierre Gondard

On the Road Again…

22-26 Oct: Neanderthal Electronics Workshop, Det Jyske Kunstakademi, Aarhus DK
26 Oct: Macumbista live set, SPLAB, Aarhus, DK
29 Oct – 02 Nov: Neanderthal Electronics Workshop, Nordic Sound Art, Copenhagen DK
02 Nov: Macumbista’s 40))) birthday whiskey-sipping session, hosted by Mads Bech Paluszewski-Hau, Copenhagen DK. RSVP for info.
05-09 Nov: Neanderthal Electronics Workshop, Sibelius Academy, Helsinki FI

TONEWHEELS HURDY-GURDY
(VIELLE A ROUE OPTOÉLECTRONIQUE)
DEREK HOLZER for ACCES(S) FESTIVAL
PAU FRANCE, OCT 2012

TONEWHEELS is an experiment in converting graphical imagery to sound, inspired by some of the pioneering 20th Century electronic music inventions, such as the Light-Tone Organ (Edwin Emil Welte, 1936 Germany), the ANS Synthesizer (Evgeny Murzin, 1958 USSR), and the Oramics system (Daphne Oram, 1959 UK). Transparent tonewheels with repeating patterns are spun over light-sensitive electronic circuitry similar to that used in 16 & 35mm motion picture projectors to produce sound.

The TONEWHEELS Hurdy-Gurdy presented at Acces(s) is not an “interactive” artwork in the common sense. While it does not reward the impatient museum visitor with flashing lights and noises at the simple touch of the button, it does invite participation in the process of technological music creation. Although it first appears to be a very traditional instrument known to many folk-music cultures, it functions in a very different way which can only be discovered by playing it.

The artist would like to thank Tobias Traub of Oroborus Customs e.K. and Carlo Crovato for their invaluable assistance in creating this instrument. Circuits designed by Jessica Rylan and Eric Archer are also used within the system.

More information on the TONEWHEELS project can be found at http://umatic.nl/tonewheels.html

INSTRUCTIONS

This instrument functions by turning light into sound. The audience is invited to experiment with it, provided that they read the following instructions and handle the instrument carefully.

—GETTING STARTED

1) Pick the instrument up by the strap and put it around your neck. You will hold the instrument as seen in the painting shown below, “Jeune fille à la vielle”, by Jules Richomme (1882). Please handle the instrument by the edges. Do not handle the triangular area in the middle, this area is very delicate!

2) Activate the power switch and adjust the volume knob at LOCATION A.

3) Using your the fingers of your left hand, locate the pressure-sensors at LOCATION B. When you press these, you will see different lights turn on at the center of the instrument.

4) With your right hand, turn the crank at LOCATION C. This will spin a wheel printed with transparent patterns. These patterns break up the light which falls on several light sensors, creating the basic tone of the instrument.

5) The sound of the instrument passes through a filter which can change its tone. The controls for the filter are marked in green at LOCATION D. The switch controls whether low, middle or high frequencies are passed through the filter. The controls marked “LFO” can be used to modulate the filter, while the controls marked “FIL” are used to affect the frequency and resonance of the filter.

6) There is also a distortion effect, marked in red at LOCATION E. The distortion only works when the large button has been clicked, and the red light is on. The four controls marked “DIS” control different aspects of the distortion.

7) When you are finished, please gently set the instrument down flat on the table and turn the power off.

—TIPS

1) The speed of the wheel affects the basic frequency of the sound
2) The filter and distortion shape that sound, but can also produce sounds of their own.
3) A good place to start is with the distortion off and all the controls set to the middle position.
4) There are some control settings which may not produce any sound at all!

“Jeune fille à la vielle”, by Jules Richomme (1882)

TONEWHEELS HURDY-GURDY(VIELLE A ROUE OPTOÉLECTRONIQUE) from macumbista on Vimeo.

FREIZEIT MACHT FREI

This hurdy-gurdy project might be the most complicated thing I have ever tried to build, involving quite a bit more technical research and development by myself and several others than I expected at first. All in all, we took about two months to build something that really needed a year to do right. Live and learn, unfortunately in that order. So when it was all over, and I finally had my first free day in ages, I took a little walk in les Pyrénées with Vincent Meyer…

I have three dates coming up in France for the TONEWHEELS project:

13 Oct – Acces-s Festival, Pau (with Andrey Smirnov, Toktek / Chapelle des Réparatrices, Conservatoire Musique et Danse)
17 Oct – RIAM Festival, Marseille (with Radian and Hervé Boghossian)
16 Nov – Visionsonic Festival, Paris

Additionally, at Acces-s in Pau,. I will have a new instrument on display which I am furiously trying to finish right now, with the help of Oroborus Customs, Berlin. It will be a TONEWHEELS-style opto-electronic hurdy-gurdy with plenty of extra noisy electronics. I made the mockup you see in the first photo below, and sent it to Tobias at Oroborus who began building a proper body for it… I will properly document this instrument and thank all the other wonderful folks who helped me out once it is completed.

“Catjar in the Rye” (or “Betty”, as she is know to her friends) is an experimental sound instrument built for Swedish composer Andreas Catjar. It combines a chaotic Benjolin synthesizer, extreme fuzz distortion unit, a speaker/contact-mic feedback system and “circuit-bending”-style body contacts into one rugged flightcase. The Benjolin features several modifications, including patchable routing banana jacks, LED lights for the three stages of its analog shift register and an external audio input. I hope to post some sounds and video later on, when Andreas has time to make them.

My thanks go out to Rob Hordijk, who designed the Benjolin circuit, and to Pete Edwards/Casper Electronics for his help in working out the modifications. You can read a few of my thoughts on using analog shift registers for chaotic sound synthesis in this post.

This instrument really represents exactly what I would like to be doing more of these days: customized design and construction of personal sound instruments based on circuits freely available within the DIY electronics community. Please get in touch if you have a project in mind!

“Catjar in the Rye” was commissioned to appear in the Institutet/Markus Öhrn/Nya Rampen theater production “We love Africa and Africa loves us”. The premier takes place on October 5, 2012 at Ballhaus Ost Berlin.

http://institutet.eu/productions/we-love-africa-and-africa-loves-us/

Now Playing

aluk todolo–occult rock[2012 ajna offensive]