Regenwald2011 at Club Transmediale from macumbista on Vimeo.

By Derek Holzer & Mads Bech Paluszewski

Regenwald 2011 was a contemporary re-interpretation of David Tudor’s series of compositions from the 1970’s entitled “Rainforest”. It used different types of sonic transducers to play sounds through a series of resonant metal objects suspended in the space. Additionally, two 8×8 matrix mixers allowed the sound from any of the objects or performers to be sent to any other node in the network, making the whole piece an experiment in generative chaos.

Regenwald 2011 was developed prior to the festival in a workshop format over a period of five days. The opening night presentation featured a live session with the system,
while the installation running during the week employed recordings made with the system. The audience was free to move around the performance space, engage in conversations and explore the sonic objects, thus adding new life to the rainforest.

Regenwald 2011 was coordinated by Derek Holzer and Mads Bech Paluszewski, and was a joint production of CTM.11 and Tuned City / DOCK e.V.

The Players:
DIANA COMBO [PT]
ALAN GLEESON [IR]
LARS LUNDEHAVE HANSEN [DK]
DEREK HOLZER [US/DE]
MACDARA Ó MAOLBHUAIDH [IR]
JOÃO MIGUEL PAIS [PT]
PETER VOTAVA [AT]
CHRISTIAN ZOLLNER [AT]

With Thanks To:

Robert Dahlke, Jan Rolf, Carsten Stabenow, Oliver Stabenow, West Germany

nonlinearity I

nonlinearity I from macumbista on Vimeo.

After touring 3 weeks with 25 Kg of heavy metal synthesizer in a suitcase, I came home wanting something a bit lighter and simpler. My back-to-basics approach uses one SoundBox built for workshops with gypsy children and Afghan refugees in Hungary a few months ago, one contact mic, a Germanium transistor distortion pedal and 10 years worth of found objects collected on trips around the world.

At the heart of this video lies the concept of nonlinearity, that most basic building block of chaos theory and the wonderful complexities of our natural world. The microphone/speaker loop forms a system into which the nonlinear irregularities of 9V electronics, beads, springs, moss, shells and bits of bone produce unique bifurcations and attractors. Shaking things up a bit resets the system and new chaotic patterns begin to emerge…

SoundBoxes in Brussels

Three Neanderthal Electronics works of mine will be shown as part of the moddr_* showcase at iMAL in Brussels this month:

* BlueLightSpecial (2009)
* SoundBoxOne(“handmade”) (2010)
* SoundBoxTwo(“indianblanket”) (2010)

The show runs 13 November – 12 December 2010 and also features far more computer-oriented works by Gordan Savicic, Danja Vasiliev, Walter Langelaar, Julian Oliver, Martin Howse, Jonathan Kemp, Matt Kemp, Philip Lammer and Florian Cramer.

asbl iMAL vzw – 30 Quai des Charbonnages/Koolmijnenkaai 30 – 1080 Bruxelles/Brussel 1080
Opening on Saturday 13th of November, 15:00 – 23:30
with moddr_ workshop and performances, check the complete program! Finissage on Sunday 12th of December.
Opening hours:
Wed > Sat, 12:30 – 18:30. Free admission

BlueLightSpecial + SoundBoxOne("handmade")

SoundBoxTwo("indianblanket")

Thanks to Walter Langelaar for the invitation!!!!

Regnskog Bergen 2010 from macumbista on Vimeo.

Regnskog 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 the assortment of resonant metal objects suspended by wires in the performance space. Additionally, an 8×8 matrix mixer allows the sound from any of the objects to be sent to any of the performers, making the whole piece an experiment in generative chaos.

The structure of the piece is improvisational, shifting between relatively static installation-like moments and performative sections where the artists seek new relationships with the objects and each other. The audience is free to move around the performance space, engage in conversations and explore the resonant objects, thus adding new life to the rainforest.

The performers: Harald Fetveit (Oslo), Gisle Frøysland (Bergen), Derek Holzer (Berlin), Ryan Jordan (London), Jørgen Knudsen (Bergen), Signe Lidèn (Bergen), Julien Ottavi (Nantes), Jørgen Træen (Bergen)

Produced 10-16 October 2010 in Bergen, Norway by Piksel.no. Video by Derek Holzer and Elisabeth Nesheim.

Photos courtesy of Elisabeth Nesheim, Signe Lidèn and svennevenn

Reflections

After some years working in this experimental music scene, you realize that even if you put a bunch of performers in the same room and tell them they are working on the same thing, they all remain soloists at heart. Regnskog suffered initially as any group project might from egoistic hotdoggery, with some artists unable to look past the object in front of them as their own personal PA system. Once we got past that phase, things opened up quite a bit on the second night with many of us experimenting with the entire room as instrument and system, much as I originally intended. A small but highly engaged audience explored the room as well–listening, looking, touching and even singing with the pieces! It was a massive learning experience for me personally, which I hope to benefit from with the next two prospective versions of the project in Berlin and Tallinn during 2011. Details as soon as they are confirmed…

Videos from the first two days of the UH Fest Go Social! Tour by Jackie Triste

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robedoor–pacific drift 7″[2010 not not fun]

One video from my Neaderthal Electronics workshop in Malmo last week, and a roundup of the UH Festival night where I played last Saturday. Enjoy!

Neanderthal Electronics: Kajonimba (Electric Cajon Kalimba) by wihle

Here’s a small presentation of my newly built electric rhythm instrument I made in a workshop by Berlin-based sound artist, Derek Holzer. The result sounds something like Tom Waits with semi-constant feedback.

The box includes a primitive spring reverb, two piezo-mics, a broken baby monitor set (a send and a receive unit), two super simple amplifiers and a built-in speaker for acoustic performance. I’ll add an output later to be able to play my kajonimba through external speakers.

UH FEST DAY #4 Oct. 9 by UHFEST
Featuring Bartha Mark & Takacs Borza Akos, Valerio Tricoli w/ Robert Piotrowicz, Piotr Kurek, Derek Holzer, Kria Brekkan, Lasse Marhaug and Thomas Fehlmann, but sadly no Lau Nau…

The Ultrasound Festival organizers took special tour of Hungary, covering for a week the country’s most marginalized people. They visited the market Devecser, and afterwards the Bicske refugee camp.

Click the image to visit the page with the video You should probably let the video load completely before playing, it’s rather slow outside Hungary.

Direct link:
http://index.hu/video/2010/09/18/zajzene_a_menekulttaborban/

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Images from a Pure Data + Arduino motor & sensor workshop I taught for students of the Media Lab at TAIK (Taideteollinen korkeakoulu/University of Art and Design) Helsinki, 8-12 March 2010. Thanks to Antti Ikonen for inviting me!

Photos by Liisa Tervinen

Nu Fest 2010 – Derek Holzer interview for RadioBlue.it

A somewhat silly interview with the Padova student internet radio and television at Nu Fest, 19.02.10.

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silvester anfang ii–commune cassette[2010 blackest rainbow]

Hypnotized by the unfolding synchronicities of [The User]‘s Coincidence Engine One: Universal People’s Republic Time, at the Transmediale Festival 2010 (Collegium Hungaricum Berlin). Inspired by György Ligeti’s Poème Symphonique For 100 Metronomes, the work features hundreds of cheap plastic clocks, each with its own imperfect little heart. Seconds come like a light rain, and minutes like brief hailstorms. Photo by Elena Kaludova.

This piece reminds me of another, Ligeti-inspired work which I helped Helsinki-based composer Libero Mureddi realize using Pure Data in 2006. Déploration pour la mort de G. L. is a rhythmical canon with 88 voices for Disklavier. Each key plays a constant tempo, the lowest being 40 bpm, with a 0.3 bpm increase per key, starting from low A.

The effect of this piece on the player piano is that dynamic ripples and reflections are created up and down the keyboard as keys move in and out of phase with each other. I think Libero was as startled as I was when we “performed” it for the first time during the Pd workshop!

Video by Egle Oddo.

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Nizo Super 8 Analogue Noise Machine from Matt Kemp on Vimeo.

Matt Kemp was in my Neanderthal Electronics workshop at WORM in Rotterdam last summer, and worked on one of the most original case/interface designs of the whole thing. Inspired by Eric Archer’s Sound Cameras and a Nizo Super 8 camera found at the flea market, Matt got busy making a light-controlled sound machine. Matt writes:

It has a few simple analogue circuits including two oscillators, a high pass filter and a band switch, mounted where the original camera controls were. There’s also a light sensitive resistor mounted behind the lens, so the sound changes as you move the camera or zoom into objects. I just have to make a replacement nameplate for it now, I’m thinking Noizo 801..

Thanks for posting this Matt!

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