Posted in Documentation on August 30th, 2009 by admin
A few shots of the almost-completed Buchla 200e clone synthesizer cabinet I’ve been working on (they are clickable to enlarge). It still needs some internal wiring done, and I have definitely discovered that painting metal evenly is not my forté, but it looks pretty damned good all the same. Now to make more modules to stick in it…
Updates on sommercampworkstation (Berlin, Germany)[Flickr pics] and AVAMAA (Mooste, Estonia) forthcoming. But tonight I’ve got curry to cook and single malts to sip with los amigos Scandinavios Lars, Iben & Halldor!
Now Playing
theodore kaczynski–industrial society and its future[1995 ny times][wikimedia] twowho–kesämaalla/talvikaupungissa cs[2990 ikuisuus] lightning bolt–earthly delights[2009 load] merzbow–kokuchou(13 japanese birds vol 8)[2009 important] velvet cacoon–atropine[2009 full moon productions] (v.e.g.a.)–far from you[2009 vega korperation]
Posted in Documentation on August 4th, 2009 by admin
Just back from Romania…six 5 hour walks in Carpathian forests, several solar/laser noise experiments, avalanches of grilled meat and (unfortunately) about 151,200 sampled kick drum beats later. Yes, that’s four-to-the-floor kicks at 120 bpm for 12 hours a day the whole week long…
Put another way, the Sound Camp was alright, although I wasn’t too sure most of the people there were interested in anything other than the same trendy club music playing on hipsters’ iPhones & MacBooks all across Europe. I did find a couple guys there interested in some electronic experimentation–including Sergiu Doroftei, who took my laser sound transmitter as a cue to build his own light-to-sound converter, and Paul Popescu, who constructed a “Ruben’s Tube” of sound-modulated propane gas flames! And Bucharest physician/Star Dome architect Florin Dobrescu turned out to be exactly the kind of space-case visionary that I love to have good long rant with.
I also had some interesting conversations with Le Placard’s Eric Minkkinenabout the ethics of cracked software, recycling ancient Macintosh computers from the Paris dumpsters and the potential role of “taste making” groups like our hosts Rokolectiv or Belgrade’s Dispatch Festival in getting their respective scenes out of the music-genre-ghettos they may have fallen into (minimal house, glitch idm, yadda yadda yadda) and exposing them to something more challenging. But then a few more carloads of people in Bucharest got wind of the “party in the mountains”, and suddenly it felt like a mini-Ibiza.
24 hour party people forgiven, I definitely want to thank Cosmin Tapu and Mihaela Vasile for their hard work pulling the Sound Camp together and wish them lots of good luck with their next festival in 2010.
Some Synth-pr0n
While the Romanians were busy reliving their 90’s techno childhoods, I got around to editing some videos from earlier this year. Here’s the first one:
Synth-pr0n from my trip to London during March 2009.
Somehow, no matter what machine I sit down in front of, I always try
out the same patch–a big VCO feedback system, with a little
sample-and-hold noise thrown in for good measure.
Thanks to Mick Grierson and Ian Stonehouse at Goldsmiths University for access to this fantastic piece of gear!
[Sound is from built in camera mic and is pretty low, anybody know some simple tool to normalize volume of a Quicktime clip?]
Now Playing
black flag–live ’84[1985 sst] burial hex–blood between her lakes[2008 turgid animal] ellen fullman–body music[1997] filth–live the chaos[1990 lookout] invernomuto–quiet village mixtape[2009 infernomuto.blogspot.com] kevin drumm–alku tape[2009 alku] z’ev–schoenste muziek lp[1986]
Posted in Announcement on July 12th, 2009 by admin
Neanderthal Vocal Computer
Saturday 18 July 2009 2PM
_____-micro_research, pickledfeet, Linienstrasse 54, Berlin 10119
U2, Rosa-Luxemburg-Pl.
U8, Rosenthaler Pl.
Telephone: 3050187482.
Cost: EUR 10-15?
Please email m@1010.co.uk to reserve a place (strictly limited)
This workshop combines three of the basic building blocks of the longer Neanderthal Electronics workshop (TL072 op-amp comparator, 4093 gated oscillator & LM386 audio amplifier) to create a very crude, caveman-style analog computer for the processing of vocal input through a microphone. Participants will learn some analog and digital electronics basics to create an experimental prototype on the solderless breadboard, then recreate the circuit with permanent connections. They are also expected to bring their own box, case or other object in which to construct the final circuit. The last part of the workshop will touch on how this circuit can be expanded later on to include all kinds of mixers, modulators, distortions and filters through the use of other cheap, easily obtained parts.
For more information and videos from the Neanderthal Electronics workshops, see:
Ring of Fire
Due to popular demand, and as a way of saying “thank you” to Ingo Froelich who helped me with some woodworking for my new synthesizer, I’ll be cooking another transcendental(ly hot)chili at the amazing courtyard gallery at Torstrasse 111 for the opening of Erling TV. Klingenberg and Marcin Szydlowski. Also showing from th eprevious opening is the highly recommended “Return of the Art Zombies” video by Veronika Schumacher and the rather Texas-style paintings of Silke Thomas. Kickoff is at 19.00.
Friday 17 July 2009 19.00
Torstrasse 111 Berlin
Erling TV. Klingenberg and Marcin Szydlowski
Veronika Schumacher and Silke Thomas
http://www.tor111.de
Now Playing
anthony pateras & robin fox–end of daze[2009 editions mego] iannis xenakis–metastasis pithoprakta eonta[1993] va–black mirror:reflections in global musics 1918-1955[2007] z’ev–sum things[2009 cold spring]
Rokolectiv Soundcamp
Star Dome, Rucar, Romania
27.07 – 02.08.2009
Artists:
Suzana Dan, Sergiu Doroftei, Camil Dumitrescu, Ion Dumitrescu, Derek Holzer, Catalin Matei, Eric Minkkinen, Paul Popescu, Daniel Stanciu
With support from AFCN – Romanian Ministry of Culture
Partners: MNAC Lab, Ableton Live, Collectif Mu, CTM Berlin, Star Dome s.r.l.
Rokolectiv Soundcamp is a seven days artistic residency for sound experiments and field recording. Ten artists will work out of the urban context in a studio hosted by the prototype of the Star Dome in Rucar, an innovative house turned into a space for artistic residency. Star Dome is a modular dwelling, one of the few sustainable architecture structures in Romania.
Rokolectiv Soundcamp promotes an artistic and cultural research, an investigation of the natural landscape with its acoustic and language peculiarities. The project consists of individual field recording sessions, as well as workshops, panels and debates for and with the artists involved. The works realized during the residency will be gathered on a promotional CD.
Rokolectiv Soundcamp is the follow up of European Sound Delta, a broader sound art project co-organized by Rokolectiv in summer 2008, when international artists took part in a mobile residency navigating upstream on the Rhine and Danube.
If you wish to say hi you are invited to join us at Rucar between July 27th and August 2nd. The access to the Romanian mountain resort can be done by public buses which leave daily from Bucharest or by train to Brasov, and then by local shuttles to Rucar.
For further info feel free to contact us at: info@rokolectiv.ro
Significant Other
An Estonian friend joked with me once that while some people carry around photos of their girlfriends, I have photos of my synthesizers. In keeping with that thought…after my almost completely disastrous weekend in Copenhagen (even the moon let me down), I decided to focus on something real this week. So this is a preview of a new case I’m working on–a clone of the Buchla 200e. Still some things left to do, as you can see, before I start putting the modules in. Big thanks to Ingo Fröhlich for help with the woodwork!
Now Playing
cabaret voltaire–2×45[1982 rough trade] emeralds–allegory of allergies[2007 gods of tundra] hive mind–a feast within cs[2009 gods of tundra] jarboe–mahakali[2008 the end] mircea eliade–shamanism: archaic techniques of ecstasy book[1964] mrtyu!–ornate shroud[2009 fauna sabbatha] nadja & black boned angel–nadja & black boned angel[2009 20 buck spin] neurosis & jarboe–neurosis & jarboe[2003 neurot] swans–children of god+world of skin[1997 young god] swans–filth+body to body, job to job[2000 young god] yellow swans–mort aux vaches[2009 staalplaat]
At 6am this morning, with about two hours sleep the night before, I left Malmö and the Art of the Overhead event and flew to Bergen, Norway. After a quick nap and yet again the price shock (EUR 8 for a beer!), I realized that it was 11 at night and the sun hadn’t really gone down yet. Crazy…
I will post some videos and reviews of the Overheads event later on, but first I must repeat the mantra I learned–quite painfully–during my time in Sweden:
I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again.
Three days lost and a one performance ended after 5 minutes due to stupid technical problems with borrowed mixers. Luckily I borrowed yet another mixer and managed to make it up to the very patient audience on the second night of the festival.
Up and Coming!
Next Life
Snöras
Derek Holzer and John Hegre
21.00, 30 May 2009
Landmark
Bergen Norway
Can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to this one. John Hegre (of Jazkammer) has been one of my favorite people and favorite experimental musicians for years now, so playing a duo with him could end up being the highlight of this tour! Thanks again to Piksel & Ny Musikk for organizing both this and the Neanderthal Electronics workshop I’m doing here this week.
fOO_bar!
w/ macumbista (us/de)
column one (de)
‘Systems Crash’
NEANDERTHAL ELECTRONICS PARTY!!!
21.00, 5 June 2009
WORM
Rotterdam, the Netherlands
‘fOO_bar’ is the public interface of WORM’s medialab moddr_ >> a combination of presentation, installation and performance of digital art and music, showing current interests from the lab without excessive 2.0_fluff – enjoy true interactivity and have a drink while you’re at it…
This night we host the closing event of our ‘Neanderthal Electronics’ workshop by Derek Holzer, with a presentation of the projects created during the week and a Stone-Age style group noise performance.
Live on stage we have COLUMN_ONE and Macumbista, and we start the evening with “Systems Crash” – a new series of public lectures jointly organized by Piet Zwart Institute Media Design and WORM.
Plus earlier in the week I get to see Mudboy open for Lightning Bolt, and on the weekend I go play with the analog synths at the WORM studio. Who says life on the road is all that rough?
Now Playing
Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers – The Power of Myth (TV) Emeralds – What Happened [2009 No Fun] Jana Winderen – Heated [2009 Touch] Jana Winderen – Surface Runoff 7″ [2009 Touch] Jason Crumer – Ottoman Black [2008 Hospital Productions] Mika Vainio & Lucio Capece – Trahnie [2009 Editions Mego] Minsk – With Echoes in the Movement of Stone [2009 Relapse] Nate Young – Regression [2009 Ideal Recordings] Natural Snow Buildings – Daughter of Darkness 5XCS [2009 Blackest Rainbow] Nicholas Szczepanik – The Chiasmus [2009 Basses Frequences] Our Love Will Destroy the World – Stillborn Plague Angels vinyl [2009 Dekorder] Pärson Sound – Pärson Sound [1968] Peter Wright – Snow Blind [2009 Install] Prurient – And Still, Wanting [2008 Hospital Productions] Prurient – The Black Post Society [2008 Cold Spring] Stephan Mathieu – The Key to the Kingdom 7″ [2009 Dekorder] Stephen O’Malley – Keep an Eye Out [2009 Table of Elements] Sunn O))) – Monoliths & Dimensions [2009 Southern Lord] (bit of a dud, really…they are overcome by their own artiness…) Swans – Omniscience [1992 Young God] Unknown 1970s Thai psychedelic orchestra Wolf Eyes – Always Wrong [2009 Hospital Productions]
Slideshow from the Neanderthal Electronics workshop last week in Berlin, photos by Farahnaz Hatam/NK. There are still places for the Norway and Netherlands workshops open!
BERGEN, NO
***DATES: Monday 25 May – Friday 29 May 2009 10.00-16.00 daily
***LOCATION: Lydgalleriet, Østre Skostredet 3, Bergen, Norway
***COST: 500 NOK (approx 56 EUR)
***FINAL PRESENTATION: Friday 29 May, 19.00, Lydgallerie
***REGISTRATION: post@lydgalleriet.no +47 48 23 78 88
This workshop is a collaboration with Piksel.no
I will be in Malmö, Sweden next week to perform the TONEWHEELS set at the Art of the Overhead festival…an event dedicated entirely to sonic and visual arts with the overhead projector!
http://www.overheads.org/
S C H E D U L E
S E M I N A R
MONDAY May 22
10.00 – 12.00 Home Made Media Archaeology at Stapelbäddsparken with prof dr. Verena Kuni (de)
The seminar is presented in collaboration with MEDEA, Collaborative Media Initiative, Malmö University.
P E R F O R M A N C E W E E K E N D
FRIDAY May 22
18.30 Exhibition Opening
20.00-00.00
Junichi Okuyama (jp)
Kunst
& Musik mit dem
Tageslichtprojektor (de)
Derek Holzer (us/de)
170
cm (fr)
Reassemble (uk)
SATURDAY May 23 14 – 17.00
Rune Søchting & Zeenath Hasan (dk)
Maria Karagianni (gr)
Alistair Gentry (uk)
Eva Elander (nl)
Jan Holmberg (se)
20.00-01.00
Goodiepal (dk)
Loud Objects (us)
Katrin Bethge & für diesen abend (de)
Milk Milk Lemonade (de)
Raumzeitpiraten (de)
Martin Haussmann (de) & Desinformation (se)
P S Y C H E D E L I C C L O S I N G P A R T Y
SATURDAY May 30
20.00 Finissage
Ohpia with Mickey Guitar (jp)
Kristian Nihlén (se)
John Wentworth
(se)
VJ Mako Ishizuka & DJ (jp/se)
“OH-istory! A Genealogy of The
Art of the Overhead” by Kristoffer Gansing & Linda Hilfling
O H P e n S u r f a c e W o r k s h o p
17-21 May The Ohpen Surface workshop is an artist driven workshop. It works as an artist-knowledge-exchange where participating artists are developing their own projects for the festival, but also with the possibility of artists showing a specific technique to oth
ers. The workshop is co-organized and supervised by “Kunst und Musik mit den Tageslichts-projektor”.
ADDRESS:
Stapelbäddsparken – the large concrete building along Stora Varvsgatan, West Harbour, Malmö.
Now Playing
Hecker – Acid in the Style of David Tudor [2009 Editions Mego] Peter Rehberg – Work for GV 2004-2008 [2008 Editions Mego] Pita – Get Out [2008 Editions Mego version] Whitehouse – Erector [1981 Susan Lawley] jgrzinich – Time’s Arrow Landing [1998/2009 Maaheli Editions] Saint Vitus – Saint Vitus [1984 S.S.T.] Earth – Sunn Amps and Smashed Guitars Live [2006 No Quarter]
20-24 Apr: Queen St. Studios, Belfast UK
04-09 May: eNKa, Berlin DE
25-29 May: Lydgalleriet, Bergen NO
01-05 Jun: WORM, Rotterdam NL
.:::NEANDERTHAL ELECTRONICS:::.
More than 40,000 years ago, our Neanderthal predecessors invented the first music instruments from simple objects around them (bones and stones, sticks and skins…), without reference to any existing music history, and primarily for their own pleasure rather than that of others.
Nowadays, we use complex audio hardware and software which make it “easier” to make music, so long as we channel our creativity into such socially acceptable avenues as Western Classical or Minimal Techno. As with any established genre, the results are often completely predictable, and therefore quite boring.
But some of us, deep in our wild hearts, still long for the Stone Age simplicity of pure noise!
This 5 day workshop is designed for 8-10 people, possibly with a background in sound, but with no previous electronics experience. They are shown how to use simple objects from our modern environment (resistors, capacitors, transistors, LEDs, integrated circuit chips…) to design and build their own personal, customized primitive noise synthesizers. Each is a tiny world of its own, using primitive analog computers in combination with feedback, sensors and audio inputs to create a unique sound. Even from the same plan, no two are alike!
Participants are encouraged to use found materials for the construction of their personal instrument. The workshop concludes with a group performance and an invitation to the audience to experiment with each of the instruments which have been created.
.:::VIDEOS FROM PREVIOUS WORKSHOPS::::.
.:::ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:::.
Derek Holzer (1972) is an American sound artist living in Berlin, whose current interests include DIY analog electronics, sound art, field recording and the meeting points of electroacoustic, noise, improv and heavy metal music. He has played live experimental sound as Macumbista or Derek Holzer–as well as taught workshops in Pure Data and electronics–across Europe, North America, Brazil and New Zealand.
http://blog.myspace.com/macumbista
http://www.vimeo.com/macumbista
http://www.umatic.nl/info_derek.html
.:::REGISTRATION INFO:::.
Please register early for all workshops, as they are limited to 10 places each! All workshop fees include electronic components + use of tools.
BELFAST
***DATES: Monday 20 April – Friday 24 April 2009 10.00-16.00 daily
***LOCATION: Digital Arts Studios, 37-39 Queen Street Belfast BT1 6EA
***COST: This workshop is FREE!
***FINAL PRESENTATION: Saturday, 25 April 2009 9pm til late. Catalyst Arts, 5 College Court Belfast BT1 6BX. £5 donation welcome.
***REGISTRATION: events@digitalartsstudios.com or phone 02890312900
I was once told by my Butoh teacher, Joan Laage, that there is much more life in darkness than we take for granted. Turn over any stone in the garden and you will find a million living things twisting about, crawling over one another and skittering across the earth–all driven by the basest instinct to escape the light.
An improvised exploration of self-modulating synthesizer feedback. During the soundcheck, one of my Doepfer modules actually caught fire. The first thing which the audience encountered when descending into the small basement of Die Remise was the smell of burnt plastic.
Burned Doepfer A-136 Distortion/Waveshaper module
To those in Berlin: if you haven’t had the chance to enjoy an evening of dinner+concert at Die Remise, I can highly recommend it. Excellent food and great atmosphere. A nice change from the usual smelly bars and squats or sterile white cube galleries.
Video: Pippa Buchanan/Edits: DH
My apologies for the poor audio recording quality. If someone has a small video camera with a proper line/mic input they would like to give up, please let me know!
ps…pls let me know if you get crappy framerate with this clip, I’m still working out my settings for Vimeo…
Posted in Documentation on February 20th, 2009 by admin
Neanderthal Electronics: an instrument-building workshop by Derek Holzer
More than 40,000 years ago, our Neanderthal ancestors invented the first music instruments from simple objects around them (bones and stones, sticks and skins…), without reference to any existing music history, and primarily for their own pleasure rather than that of others.
Nowadays, we use complex audio hardware and software which make it “easier” to create music, so long as we channel our creativity into such socially acceptable avenues as Western Classical or Minimal Techno. As with any established genre, the results are often completely predictable, and therefore quite boring.
But some of us, deep in our wild hearts, still long for the Stone Age simplicity of pure noise!
The Neanderthal Electronics workshops are designed for approximately 8-10 people, possibly with a background in sound, but with no previous electronics experience. Over 5 days, they are shown how to use simple objects from our modern environment (resistors, capacitors, transistors, LEDs, integrated circuit chips…) to design and build their own personal, customized primitive noise synthesizers.
A final presentation allows the participants to demonstrate and play their creations, as well as allows the audience to make their own experiments with the newly built instruments.
This workshop has been realized so far at:
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark (Feb 2009)
Tartu Art Month, Tartu, Estonia (Feb 2009)
with future workshops under discussion to take place in Germany, the Netherlands, Estonia and the UK. The workshop is currently available for booking in Europe during Spring and Summer 2009.
Posted in Documentation on January 25th, 2009 by admin
I’ll fill you all in on my new Ouroboros Orchestra project later on, but suffice it to say that the first two test runs will take place in Copenhagen and Tartu (Estonia) in the first two weeks of February. The project takes its inspiration from David Tudor’s “Rainforest”, work with the Buchla 200-series synth at EMS in Stockholm, the graphical scores of Iannis Xenakis, the world of no-input-mixer improvisation and all the feedback-based works that I could simply never realize using the computer.
The heart of the project is an 8×8 matrix mixer, which I completed last week. It allows DC voltage and audio signals to be routed from 8 inputs to 8 outputs. Eventually, 8 players will sit around this mixer, each playing a self-made audio circuit (Schmidt-Trigger square wave oscillators with a vactrol FM input), and their signals will be routed to each other according to a projected graphical score.
Some photos and audio from this new mixer follow. Thanks go to Ken Stone/CGS in Australia for providing some of the PCBs used and Katrin Heidorn in Berlin for help with metal fabrication in the case. The case itself is salvaged from my very first synthesizer, an SN76477 pinballgame-based sound generator that I constructed in 2001 when I was supposed to be writing my English thesis. Metal sourced and cut at Modulor.
My interest in this mixer comes from two areas. One is the ability to create dense interconnected drones, and the other is to be able to cross-modulate tiny, unique sound events. The following track is an example of the latter, and involves 4 oscillators and a digital delay run through the matrix mixer as well as my cheap Behringer desktop console. “Skinned Teeth” is in honor of the mild food poisoning I had at 6am today, and is what my mouth feels like as I write this…
Derek Holzer (USA 1972) is an audiovisual artist, researcher, lecturer, and electronic instrument creator based in Stockholm. He has performed live, taught workshops and created scores of unique instruments and installations since 2002 across Europe, North and South America, and New Zealand. He is currently a PhD researcher in Media & Interaction Design at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, focusing on historically informed audiovisual synthesis.