[Macumbista modular at CTM Touch night via CTM Fest Twitter]

I had the chance to rescue an artist whose work I appreciate immensely last night at the CTM Festival, when his gear ended up in Tel Aviv instead of Berlin. I knew I kept this heavy metal monster around for some reason….

All in all, it was a wonderful festival. Personal highlights include Chris Salter’s Just Noticeable Difference installation, Anke Eckhardt’s Between You and Me, Supersilent + Stian Westerhus vs Joshua Light Show, two works and a talk by one of my hugest inspirations Eliane Radigue and of course the entire Touch Spire closing evening program.

Big thanks to CTM organizers and artists for an awesome week!

SoundBox performance at Proximos Festival, Tenerife ES in June 2011. Thanks to Simone for passing these on, I have great memories from my visit there!

Now Playing

daniel higgs–say god [2010 thrill jockey]
eli keszler–cold pin [2011 pan] + live at NK project berlin [29.01.12]
eliane radigue–naldjorlak & psi 847, live at ctm festival [30.01.12 – 31.01.12]
john wiese–seven of wands [2011 pan] + live at NK project berlin [29.01.12]
nicholas szczepanik–please stop loving me [2011 streamline]
supersilent + joshua light show – live at ctm festival [01.02.12]
oneida–absolute II [2011 jagjaguwar]

When people ask me “so what do you do?” these days, I usually reply that I build musical instruments that no-one has ever seen before. And then I teach myself how to play them. The benefit of this is that, if nobody has ever seen the instrument played before, they have no way to tell you you are playing it badly!

During my last couple weeks in Aarhus, I worked on three small instruments with various degrees of success.

INSTRUMENT A: LAKRITS-KALIMBA

I have always loved Ranjit Bhatnagar’s Instrument-a-Day project, so when time came to bring a small, throw-away gift for the traditional Danish Julefrokost at DIEM, I took an hour to whip up this lakrits-box kalimba. The keys are made from streetsweeper bristles found in the gutter. I have no idea who ended up with it.

INSTRUMENT B: SOUNDBOX(GLAM EDITION)

Quite a few of these SoundBoxes have been rolling out of my studio lately. This one in particular was made for my friend KT, and was played at the 09.12 gig with Krishve. It has a sound-responsive silver-lining, so to speak. Some really incredible drones happen when using the spring-reverb-contact-mic, and I’ll be posting a sound-video soon of what that is like.

INSTRUMENT C: SERGE GATOR CLONE

Slightly more complicated than the previous two, this is my attempt to clone a Serge Gator synthesizer module, mainly using circuit boards provided by Ken Stone. The Boolean Logic and Pulse Divider sections work perfectly fine, the Divide-by-N Comparator section works about half-way, and the VC TimeGen Clock section doesn’t really function at all yet. However, I ran out of time so the next free moment to look at this will be in mid-January when I return to Berlin from Helsinki. Expect updates and sounds then…

Current Location:

Happy New Year from south-east Estonia!!!

Now Playing

ättestupa–begraven mot norr[2010]
barn owl–lost in the glare[2011]
barn owl–shadowland[2011]
sunn o)) + nurse with wound–the iron soul of nothing[2008]

DKJ and Splab present an evening of esoteric drones, nonlinear distortion and time travel:
MACUMBISTA (us/de) vs KRISHVE (dk)
20:00 Friday 09 December 2011 * SPLAB Mejlgade 32 – 34, 8000 Århus C
splab.dk * macumbista.net * krishve.com
with thanks to det jyske musikkonservatorium

The Wrapup

After four months of a lovely little house, a good studio and a decent paycheck (all in the same city!!!), the jig is up in a few short weeks. By the time my residency here in Aarhus concludes, I will have done 5 workshops, played 5 concerts, built more than a half dozen sound boxes and a couple synthesizer modules, produced one sound-video and recorded more hours of synthesizer improvisations than I will ever have time to edit.

Here’s Tore “Origami” Boe, mi amigo noruego and proud owner of a brand new SoundBox during his evening for DJM/DIEM:

I leave Aarhus on 21 December, spend a few short days in Berlin and leave almost immediately for Riga, Mooste, Tartu, Tallinn and Helsinki. I had initially planned to do one more Rainforest piece here in Aarhus before I left, but it had to be postponed until the spring. So I will do an informal improvisation with Krishve at SPLAB as a going-away of sorts. Wish us luck and see you all in 2012!!!

Now Playing:

aluk todolo–ordre[2011 ajna offensive]
asva–presence of absence[2011]
bonnie prince billy–wolfroy goes to town[2011 domino]
corrupted–garten der unbewusstheit[2011]
falls of rauros–the light that dwells in rotten wood[2011]
king midas sound–waiting for you[2009]
kinit her–divine names[2010 brave mysteries]
leviathan–true traitor, true whore[2011 profound lore]
oneohtrix point never–replica[2011 software]
pharaoh overlord–out of darkness[2011 ektro]
the skull defects feat. daniel higgs–2013-3012[2011 thrill jockey]
the skull defects feat. daniel higgs–peer amid[2011 thrill jockey]
wolves in the throne room–celestial lineage[2011]

On Friday the 18th of November, 2011 I worked with a group of students from the Jutland Music Conservatory Aalborg to create a collection of simple soundboxes. Each is made up of a contact microphone, a half-watt audio amplifier, a speaker and perhaps some body contacts to “bend” the sound of the instrument.

Much of the day was spent in learning the circuit and construction. Following this, the students began to experiment with integrating their own, personal found objects. At some point, we threw all the boxes into a grand piano and things got a bit crazy. I’ll have to remember that trick for later on!

We also experimented with passing the feedback sound around from box to box, before unleashing the instruments on the unsuspecting student bar that evening. It’s always amazing to see the transition from befuddled audience member hearing someone else’s noise to enthusiastic feedbacker/mic-scraper entranced by sounds of their own making.

Thanks to Christian Skjødt for organizing the whole shebang, and to Edit Emese Vizer for the pancakes!

Thanks to DIEM for inviting me and to all the students for working their asses off. Look at those Danes go! Seems like they had a good time. Wonder if all that beer I bought them had something to do with it?

In other news: I turned 39 last week. A year short of the big four-o))). I spent it in Copenhagen contemplating hard labor with the films of Phill Niblock, getting polyrhythmic with the Afro-noise of Cut Hands/William Bennett and getting my ears good and scrubbed by Lasse Marhaug. Here’s to many more such nights…

Mr. Dykshoorn was buried with his “divining rod,” a thread of piano wire that served, as he wrote in his book, “as an aid to my concentration” during case work.

–Matt Flegenheimer, Marinus B. Dykshoorn, Psychic, Is Mourned in Bronx, New York Times 10.10.11

Many systems of clairvoyance involve the observation of a delicate apparatus–a thin wire,  a stream of smoke, a candle flame or the hiss of white noise–which exists in a borderline state and is thus highly sensitive to the influence of forces both seen and unseen. The non-linear feedback loop between a loudspeaker, microphone and high-gain amplifier circuit responds dramatically to minute changes in its immediate environment, fulfilling the requirements of both a potentially chaotic system as well as the needs of the would-be psychic investigator.

The Ghost Locket Triptych was created between 7-11 October 2011 in Aarhus, Denmark for a battery-powered seance executed by Derek Holzer and Kristian Hverring on the evening of 12 October. These lockets use locally-sourced materials embodying certain historical resonances noted by the artist during his stay here. Internally, each locket contains a hand-built Germanium transistor distortion circuit, a 1/2 Watt audio amplifier, a small speaker, a source of illumination and an antique photograph–the ghost within each machine.

The artist remains indebted to a series of conversations with the estimable Mr. Martin Howse of London and Berlin for inspiration in these and other matters.

The three elements of the Ghost Locket Triptych will be available for sale individually or as a set following the performance in Aarhus. THE EDITION IS SOLD. Please contact the artist for more information.

Regnskog 2011//Full Pull is a contemporary re-interpretation of David Tudor’s series of compositions from the 1970′s entitled “Rainforest”. It uses various types of sonic transducers to play live sounds through a selection of resonant objects suspended in the performance space

The Regnskog installation+performance was created by Mads Bech Paluszewski, Derek Holzer, Kati Linek, Anders Børup and Allan Møller Skov for the Full Pull Festival 2011 Malmö. The initial workshop took place 23-29 September 2011, with live actions on 30 September – 02 October.

We would like to thank Mathias Holmberg of Full Pull, VTM RIV AB, the amazing crew at Stapelbädden and Louise Buenafe Mistén for their support during this project. Photos by Derek Holzer and Kati Linek, audio recording by Derek Holzer.

Regnskog/FullPull 2011 Walkthrough by macumbista

A walk through the Regnskog installation. Guest vocals by Jelena Glazova. Headphones highly recommended.

I finished this in a beautiful last-minute rush before packing the studio for my move to Denmark. Behind this panel live two members of the Wogglebug species: random voltage generators based on the famous Buchla Source of Uncertainty, coupled with a very bizarre ring-modulated tone oscillator. The only thing which could possibly be more fun than having one source of uncertain electricity is having two of them. When they talk together, they make each other even more uncertain, like two nervous nerds in the kitchen at a party. Samples later, I’m still building up my studio at the Music Conservatory.

Now Playing

cut hands–afro noise 1[2011 very friendly susan lawly]
ellen fullman–through glass panes[2011 important]
keith fullerton whitman+ben vida–required wreckers[2011 amish records]
mika vainio–life (… it eats you up)[2011 editions mego]
motion sickness of time travel–dreamcatcher cs[2011 hobo cult records]
quiet evenings–taped sounds for night listening[2011 discrepant]
sutekh hexen–alters[2010]
t.e. lawrence–the seven pillars of wisdom[1922]
tucker martine–broken hearted dragonflies: insect electronica from southeast asia[sublime frequencies 2004]]

The Burning House blog asks the simple question:

If your house was burning, what would you take with you? It’s a conflict between what’s practical, valuable and sentimental. What you would take reflects your interests, background and priorities. Think of it as an interview condensed into one question.

Here is my as-of-yet unaccepted submission:

Name: Derek Holzer
Age: 38
Location: Berlin, DE
Occupation: Sound Artist
Website: macumbista.net

This actually wasn’t too difficult considering that most of the things listed get taken on tour with me almost every month. Far more difficult was getting a picture that wasn’t too dark as most of the things I own are still black…

* Horsehide motorcycle jacket
* Analog modular synthesizer (built by hand over two years)
* Diamond Bluff field bag (“borrowed” from my father)
* Leather Goods Connection Ponderosa wallet
* Passport of the Beast
* Cheap “Viking” silver ring (bought in Malmo)
* Victorinox Swiss Army knife
* Whatever raw denims I am living in at the moment
* Sound Devices 722 recorder (with six years of sound recordings on it)
* Fuzz Factory-clone distortion pedal (self-made)
* Pueblo Indian handmade silver bracelet (gift from my father)
* Boss Heavy Metal pedal
* Jessica Rylan Multimode Voltage Controlled Filter (self-made)
* Redwings Iron Rangers
* Annelise Williamson skull buckle with turquoise eyes (gift from AW)
* De Santis basketweave gunbelt
* Antique Bulgarian hand-woven blanket (purchased in Bansko)
* (not pictured: beater old Powerbook containing the rest of my life…)