My vocoder-based sound installation DELILAH TOO will open at the CTM Festival, in the Kunstraum Bethanien on 23 JAN 2015, and run until 22 FEB.

I am looking for a number of volunteers to speak, read or sing texts in any language you choose, as well as attempt to communicate with installation visitors (hopefully in a language they do understand) during the entire month of the festival. In the spirit of Alvin Lucier’s “North American Time Capsule”, you could consider these texts as transmissions to other beings in space about what life on Earth is like for you…

I hope that a number of people can take one or two one-hour long slots, and I will try to make a small gathering with snacks/drinks sometime during the festival for people who help out.

You can find a short overview of the project here: http://tinyurl.com/delilah-too-ctm-info

Please contact me by email at MACUMBISTA at the domain GMAIL dot COM with the subject line “volunteer” and I will send more information and a link to the sign-up sheet.

Many thanks!!!! D.

On the invitation of Arcangelo Constantini, I will visit Mexico City from 16-20 December 2014 to give a SoundBoxes workshop and Macumbista live performance at FACTO, in the Fonoteca National. The highlight should be the final participant performance of 100 hand made sound devices. Hope to see some of you there!

Meine Damen und Herren… may I present the last Benjolin I will build in the year 2014.

The Benjolin is a standalone synthesizer designed by Rob Hordijk from the Netherlands. It contains two oscillators (one LFO and one VCO), a voltage controlled filter and a circuit called a “Rungler”, which allows chaotic cross-modulation possibilities between the different parts of the circuit. Hordijk refers to the Benjolin as a circuit which has been “bent by design.”

These hand-made Macumbista Benjolins (produced under licensed agreement with Rob Hordijk) have been further customized with a patchbay, which can be used to interface with other modular synthesizers or to setup further control voltage feedback systems within the Benjolin itself, attenuators on the three control voltage input and LEDs displaying the internal state of the Rungler.

You can see more photos and videos here: http://macumbista.net/?p=3935

This Benjolin is completed and ready to move, and just to get it out into the world a little bit quicker, I am offering FREE SHIPPING anywhere on the planet, this week only (payment must be in by 13 DEC).

Price is EUR 495 (incl 19% EU VAT) / EUR 416 (shipped outside the EU). Contact using the CONTACT page here or email MACUMBISTA at-the-domain GMAIL dot COM.

I am looking forward to newer, bigger and better things in the coming year.

I thank you kindly for your attention.
Derek

Last spring, the Edith-Russ-Haus für Medienkunst, in Oldenburg DE, kindly decided to support my vocoder-based public speech encryption project DELILAH TOO with a working stipend, and if all goes well I look forward to showing it during the next CTM Festival in Berlin at the end of January. You can read the Edith-Russ-Haus jury statement here:

http://www.edith-russ-haus.de/en/stipends/stipends/current.html

From now until 05 DEC, I will be working with the staff and new directors of the Edith-Russ-Haus, Edit Molnár and Marcel Schwierin to give further shape to the piece. And doing a bit of soldering on the way as well…

I have a few public presentations during my time here, as follows:

Präsentation der Stipendiaten 2014 (ERH): 27.NOV, 19:00
Komponist Colloquium (University of Oldenburg): 28.NOV, 20:00
Derek Holzer – Tonewheels performance (ERH): 02.DEC, 19:00

You can read more about the DELILAH TOO project here:

http://macumbista.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/derek-holzer-delilha_too_public.pdf

As part of the Lange Nacht der Bilder Lichtenberg 2014, Juan Carlos Duarte, Darsha Hewitt, and I will host an open studio from 20-00h on Friday 07 NOV 2014 at the Atelier Macumba.

Drop by to try out several of the SoundBoxes, Benjolins and custom modular synthesizer systems I have built, and sip a little fine bourbon while you are at it!

The instruments:

http://macumbista.net/?page_id=4035

Live sets by Seth Zahn + Matthew Burnett, Juan Duarte and Derek Holzer, a demo of the Wurlitzer Sideman tube drum machine by Darsha Hewitt, a live Benjolin+snaredrum set by Andi Stecher, and a very reasonably-priced selection of 10 American whiskeys for your tasting pleasure by Pure of Taste the Doom/Slowlands fame.

There will be many other exhibitions, events and open studios going on that night as well here, see full program here:

http://www.hb55.de/lange-nacht-der-bilder-2014

Atelier Macumba, Room 2.31, Eingang B, HB55 Kunstfabrik Herzbergstrasse 55 Berlin-Lichtenberg.

I just realized that, although it was built more than one year ago, I still have not documented the Apokalypsegerät machine I created for Andreas Catjar and Markus Öhrn‘s theater productions, and which I play in Bis Zum Tod. I was probably waiting to edit some videos for it, but my video backlog is twenty miles long at this point. So here we go….. Please note there are some slight differences in panel layouts (and a couple extra functions added) between the proposal images and the finished system.

FEATURES

* Analog Modular Synthesizer with four Voltage Controlled Oscillators, four switchable Voltage Controlled Filters/Amplifiers, four Output channels and onstage lighting
* Optimized for the creation of apocalyptic doom drones

DUAL XR-2206 VCO

* Rough and Fine manual Tuning Controls
* Manual- and Voltage-Controlled Skew adjusts shape of the waveform
* Linear, Exponential and 1 Volt/Octave Frequency Modulation
* Sync input resets waveform
* Square Wave output
* Switchable Sine or Triangle Wave output
* Low Frequency or High Frequency Oscillator modes
* Circuit design by Thomas Henry, circuit layout by Bugbrand
* Two Dual XR-2206 VCO modules present in system

QUAD LOW PASS GATE 292

* Each of the four independent gates is switchable between Voltage Controlled Low Pass Filter, Voltage Controlled Amplifier or “Both” mode
* Used for Manual- or Voltage-Control over both amplitude and spectrum of audio signal
* High resonance allows generation of percussive sounds as well
* Circuit design by Don Buchla, circuit layout by Thomas White
* One Quad Resonant Low Pass Gate 292 module present in system

QUAD OUTPUT MODULE

* Each of the four outputs converts unshielded banana-jack to shielded 6,3mm audio jack
* Attenuators used to reduce modular synthesizer voltage level (10 Volts peak-to-peak) to line-level audio (3,5 Volts peak-to-peak)
* Female XLR connection provided for gooseneck LED lamp
* One Quad Output module present in system

I would love to do more custom systems like this, please contact me via the CONTACT link or at the email address MACUMBISTA at-the-domain GMAIL dot COM for more information.

26 SEPT 2014. 02:57AM. Peacefully, at home, with family. Small Irish wake. “Take a deep breath and jump” was his greatest advice to me. So I did. Steve Holzer made the greatest jump of all that night. Have a good trip, Dad.

Obituary: http://bigbendnow.com/2014/10/holzer/

Dear friends.

Since last December my father has been battling cancer, and currently the prognosis is not good. You can read more on the issue here.

Now that I am here in southwest Texas with my father and our close family circle, there is a strange calm, as if we all know what must be done. There are small windows of consciousness, through which we can communicate with him. But the greater part of the time, he rests and prepares to let go of the meat-suit.

I am very thankful for the messages of support and kindness coming to me and my family here on various platforms. They do make a difference.

This very necessary last-minute trip takes some resources which are difficult for me to afford at the moment, however, and I am far more comfortable working for them than begging for them. Therefore — and I hope this does not strike anyone as crass commercialism, for that is not the intent — I am offering a 10% discount on any Benjolin, Butterfly Benjolin or FuzzTone SoundBox orders placed before 08 October, to be completed by the end of October with gratitude and love for the man and my mission to be with him here.

You can get an overview of these instruments here: http://macumbista.net/?page_id=4035

Thank you for your kind support.

I am proud to announce my participation as musician in the Markus Öhrn/Nya Rampen/Institutet production “Bis Zum Tod”, premiering at the Volksbuhne in Berlin 20/21 September 2014.

http://www.volksbuehne-berlin.de/praxis/bis_zum_tod/?id_datum=8050

We will tour this production to Poznan (3/4 October), Malmö (7/8 November) and Helsinki (14/15 November).

Pictured: Linus Öhrn and Anders Carlsson

Photo: Christian Kleiner

Please join me in inaugurating the “Atelier Macumba”, my new working space for the construction of handmade sound devices in the HB55 Kunstfabrik in Berlin-Lichtenberg, Friday 29 August 2014 starting 20:00.

There will be a handful of sound toys to play with, and possibly also a few short live sets and random duos by myself, Juan Duarte, Seth Zahn, Andi Stecher and various other kind folks I know, all on our glorious mono PA system. Details to follow.

BringYourOwnBooze. If you’re all very good, I might cook chili…

Herzbergstrasse 55, Berlin-Lichtenberg, Second floor, entrance B.

Google map: http://goo.gl/maps/UW1Go

Please RSVP if you plan to attend by email, and contact me for my mobile number if needed.