No emails from 27 June-16 July!!!! Come find me here… or in a quiet little nameless somewhere near there at least. If you can….

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Even after 11 years, the Europeans haven’t managed to socialize me yet. My deepest ideas of happiness still revolve around living in a wooden house, deep in the forest, with six dogs, three wives and twelve loaded firearms.

Cthonian Cell Observation I (Continuous Pressure Wave for Elevator Car), 2010
A Sound Performance by Derek Holzer in the context of the KHM Heavy Matter exhibition at ISEA 2010, Dortmund

Self-made analog modular synthesizer, guitar amplifier, strobe lights

Opening: Thursday 19 August 2010, 19.00-22.00
Performance evening: Monday 23 August 2010, 19.00-22.00
Westfalenforum, Kampstr. 35 – 37, Dortmund, Germany

Drawing on the underworld mythology of heavy metal and noise music, Cthonian Cell Observation I is a three hour long concert for an audience of one. The performance takes place in the narrow confines of an elevator car filled with an overpowering, physical mass of sound pressure and blinding lights. A single person may be admitted to the space at a time, which is barely large enough to accommodate them, the performer and all the equipment necessary to make the performance. Those outside, hearing almost nothing, may guess at what kind of experience the listener inside is undergoing. But each one is unknowably alone once they step through the door.

Now Playing

kevin drumm–necro acoustic 5cd box[2010 picadisk]

Mal au Pixel, Le Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, Paris • 21h-0h • 3€

Derek Holzer | Circlemakers (Gaël Angelis, Magali Sanheira, Julien Sirjacg) | Jérôme Poret

+ Ars Longa installation by Gaël Angelis, Magali Sanheira, Julien Sirjacg & Jérôme Poret [fr]

Now Playing

alma daaé–wormwood star[2009 mars pyramid]
kevin lynam–tone cloud[2009 mars pyramid]
neun welten–destrunken[2009 prophecy records]
oranssi pazuzu–muukalainen puhuu[2009 violent journey]
paul schrader–cat people film[1982]
vikomt–twilight visions[2009 mars pyramid]
william t. vollmann–you bright and risen angels book[1987]

Macumbista Mini demo #1 by macumbista

This demo is an edit of three settings from the Macumbista Mini synthesizer: http://macumbista.net/?page_id=623 The Mac Mini uses two cross-modulated Voltage Controlled Slopes through an Analog Logic module and a pair of Polivoks Voltage Controlled Filters. Feedback from the audio mixer is returned to the control section of the VCS modules.

Now Playing

georges bataille–the story of the eye book[1928]
hans bellmer-illustrations for the story of the eye[1946]
knut–wonder[2010 hydra head]
nick cave & the bad seeds–tender prey[1988]
pan sonic–gravitoni[2010 blast first]
yellow swans+devillock–split 7″[2007 modern radio]

Neanderthal Electronics workshop presentation
by students of the hfg Offenbach, Elektronische Medien
…plus Macumbista live analog electronics set

Monday 14 June 2010, 19:00-21:00
Waggon am Kulturgleis, Main riverbank near Isenburger Schloß, Offenbach

Neanderthal Electronics

The Neanderthal Electronics workshop involves 8-10 people with no previous background in electronics. 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, with an emphasis on discovering creative and physical methods of controlling the them. The workshop concludes with a group performance and an invitation to the audience to experiment with each of the instruments which have been created.

Info + photos/video: http://macumbista.net/?page_id=497

Macumbista

Macumbista (aka 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 extreme music. He has played live experimental sound, as well as taught instrument building and audio recording workshops across Europe, North America, Brazil and New Zealand.

Holzer is currently a fellow at the KHM (Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln) in Cologne.

Info: http://macumbista.net/

Now Playing: Estonian Doom!!!

karl kello–the pharaoh of the north book[2004]
talbot–eos cdr[2010 self-released]
voog–demo cdr[2010 self-released](aitäh terje!)

Panga cliff is located on the northern shore of Saaremaa, at the end of the Kuressaare – Võhma road, close to Panga village. It is the highest of the Saaremaa and Muhu cliffs, reaching to a maximum of 21.3 metres. The entire cliff is approximately 2.5 km long.

According to folk tradition, Panga cliff was a place of worship and sacrifice for the ancient, Pre-Christian Saarlanders. Local fishermen poured libations of beer and whiskey over the edge of the cliff, especially at midsummer eve, to ensure lots of fish during the coming year until well into the 19th century. One source indicated that children were killed and thrown into the sea here until the 16th Century. Another told that the last animal sacrifice took place during the 1960’s.

Photos taken on a quiet walk with Carsten Stabenow, 23 May 2010.

Now Playing

daniil kharms–today i wrote nothing(book)
dispirit–bitumen amnii/ixtab’s lure(2010 dispirit.org)
gregory jones & roy sablosky–no imagination(1980 vinyl records/2007 creel pone cdr)
john wiese & daniel menche–behold the scathing light 3″(2004 helicopter)
lunar miasma–crystal covered(2010 basses frequences)
thomas lehn–feldstärken(2000 random acoustics)
various artists–serge musician’s tape[1983]

http://macumbista.tumblr.com/

My new Tumblr page: a scratch pad for visual research, a collection of dreams, images, archetypes, ghosts, abstractions and inspirations. Unexpected fingers pointing to the………….

Now Playing

black mountain transmitter–theory & practice[2010 lysergic earwax]
burzum–belus[2010 byelobog productions]
darkthrone–circle the wagons[2010 peaceville]
emeralds–does it look like i’m here?[2010 editions mego]
fell voices–fell voices[2008]
isengrind–modlitewnik lp[2010 blackest rainbow]
olan mill–pine[2010 serein]
oneohtrix point never–returnal[2010 editions mego]
oren ambarchi, jim o’rourke, keiji haino–tima formosa[2010 black truffle]
prurient–palm tree corpse 3xMC10[2009 hospital productions]

Hear Tallinn with new ears! Buildings and architecture are usually described in visual terms. But it is often our sense of hearing which assists us in experiencing and navigating through the spaces of urban cities. There is no sound without space and no space without a sound. In every day life we are surrounded by the sounds of diverse nature and various origins. Language, sounds of nature and civilisation – sound as a carrier of information or as a factor of disturbance permanently encircles our consciousness.

During the month of May 2010, and over the summer of 2011, Tuned City Tallinn will undertake an acoustic exploration of Tallinn. The goal will be to identify and explore the sonic landmarks of the city which define its identity, shape its communication and transform the perceptions of its visitors and inhabitants. A fascinating cross-section of international artists, performers, scientists and thinkers will be brought together to present their ideas about sound and space. In addition, the public will be invited to participate directly through a series of workshops and sound walks and experience diverse site specific installations, performances and demonstrations. Tuned City Tallinn builds on ideas developed during the first ever event of its kind, held in Berlin during the summer of 2008.

Events may 2010

So the TONEWHEELS tour has come to end. Stokes of luck seem to have characterized it… lucky to get out of Europe right before mighty Eyjafjallajökull reminded everyone of what silent skies would sound like, and lucky to get out of NYC right before some nutjob got the idea to try toasting Times Square with a propane-fertilizer cocktail.

Another stroke of luck was that, when The Starlab venue got flooded, mi amiga Jessica Rylan stepped up to the plate and offered her artist-in-residence studio at MIT in Cambridge as a replacement! A small but dedicated audience turned up, and in particular I got to experience the amazing transcendental drones of Benjamin Nelson. Shawn Greenlee‘s set was also smokin’, as was the “final show” of Karlheinz, and I was rather intrigued by Animal Steel‘s collection of drugged-out Judy Garland tapes. His nonchalant delivery of said material came as quite a surprise for those accustomed to his orgies of destruction as one half of Two Dead Sluts One Good Fuck.

Photos by Shawn Greenlee

The Providence show at AS220 was also a complete mental blowout, in particular seeing Human Beast‘s combination of noisy, arty-farty tights, carny sideshow vibes and suspended-upside-down-from-the-ceiling organ playing. Brian Chippendale‘s solo Black Pus project also rocked out, sort of a messier, more freeform version of his Lightning Bolt sets, if you can imagine that…

Photo by Tatyana Yanishevsky

The Rhode Island/Massachusetts leg of the tour would have been impossible without the phenomenal energy and hospitality of Shawn Greenlee. Thanks a million, man!!!!! Thanks also go out to Jessica Rylan and Egan Budd for hosting and organizing the MIT gig, and to all the other acts that played on the two bills (and it was quite a few!).

And finally, one more photo from the TONEWHEELS set at the Bent Fest in NYC, this time by Eric Archer:

Now Playing

antonio russek, raul pavon, roberto morales, vincente rojo–musica electroacustica mexicana 1960-2003[creel pone reissue]
benjamin nelson–live at the piano factory/standing field cs[2009 semata productions]
david behrman–wave trains[1998]
david tudor–live electronic music[1970-1984, leonardo music journal]
gordon mumma–live-electronic music[2002 tzadik]
ivo malec–triola[1978 ina-gram, avante garde project 148)
va–chinese experimental music 1992-2008 4xcd(2009 sub rosa)

1. Can you explain the process of putting together your live performance? How exactly are you making the different forms/colors of light affect the audio output?

The TONEWHEELS performance uses the same technology found in film projectors which use optical motion picture soundtracks. The amount of light which falls on a photodetector modulates an electrical current, which can then be connected to a speaker to make audio. The sounds are created by printing the waveforms I want to play on transparent spinning discs, and placing these discs on motors with a variable speed control. This process was also used for the famous Optigan organ made by Mattel in the 1970’s, as well as by a number of avante-garde composers, filmmakers and instrument inventors such as Daphne Oram, Jacques Dudon, Evgeny Murzin, Norman McLaren and Evgeny Scholpo.

2. What aspect(s) of circuitbending motivate you the most?

I’ve mentioned at other times that I don’t really consider myself a “circuit bender”, since I rarely take commercially available devices or toys and hack them. But the meme of circuit bending is interesting to me–the idea that people can re-purpose things which are normally considered “black boxes” in our electronic culture, that they can break them down into simpler things and reassemble them in new, fantastic ways. I find this idea very challenging to the consumer-industrial status quo of selling us new stupid gadgets every year, forcing us to discard the old ones without every considering how we could transform them into something else–or even build our own new things from scratch. I’d be much more interested in constructing some DIY caveman communications device myself instead of running out to buy the latest iPhone…

Tristan Perich of Loud Objects takes his self-made mobile phone everywhere. No camera, no games, no texting, no BS.

3. Some of the performances at Bent could be described as ‘music,’ while others are better described as noise/sound art. Your work seems to lean toward the latter, but which category do you feel you fall into, if any?

In every kind of music, the art form is in some way determined by the technology. But no where is this more apparent than in electronic music, which is full of gear and software which makes it easier and easier to make music–so long as it fits into a very highly predetermined genre or style. I don’t think of what I do as any less “musical” than europop, trance techno, dubstep or whatever other trend the kids are into these days. The difference is that my work is determined by very different technological choices and processes. As well as by a huge collection of heavy metal and hardcore records!

4. Do you feel like there is a division among circuitbenders who use these different approaches?

I can’t really answer that question except to say that I appreciate it much more when artists try to step outside the box and create something that is unique and personal to them instead of simply playing the kind of sounds they think other people will dance to.

5. What do you hope that someone new to circuitbending will take away from going to an event like Bent Fest?

I would hope that someone coming to Bent for the first time would recognize that there as many ways to do electronics and sound with electronics as there are artists who do those things, and that they might get some inspiration to move beyond being passive consumers of music/technology and become active creators on their own.

Bent Fest Highlights

Bodytronix‘s insane metropolis of self-made gear, :::vtol:::‘s lovely little boxes and warm personality, Peter Edwards/casperelectronics‘ beautifully abstract set (even after some douchebag ripped off one of his $300 creations from the merch table!!!!), KBD‘s weird post-everything space out session, Phillip Stearn‘s incredible neural network of lights as well as his festival photos, Daniel Fishkin of LÖWENZAHN’s magick-bent electronic folk, hearing a few minutes of Todd Bailey‘s Analog Video Synthesis and Bending lecture (although it sucked to have to miss most of it!) and finally figuring out WTF a Brass Monkey is late Saturday night (although I regretted it the next day)… Thanks again to Brendan and Suzanne and all the volunteers for pulling this thing off!

Update!!!!

The Sommerville show at the Starlab next Saturday has been relocated due to flooding! The new location is in Cambridge, MA at MIT Building N52, 265 Massachusetts Ave. Get there before 9pm or you will have to phone a number posted on the door to come inside. The door will look like this:

Now Playing

frank popper–origins and development of kinetic art book[1968 new york graphic society]
guy brett–kinetic art: the language of movement book[1968 studio vista]
joe colley and jason lescalleet–annihilate this week[2006 korm plastics]
kevin drumm–second reissue[1999/2010 perdition plastics]
mudboy–impossible duets lp[2010 hundebiss](thx raphael!!!)