I am finally able to offer the last three in the line of thirty Solstice SoundBoxes for sale, which I started in December 2012. The Solstice SoundBoxes were intended as small, portable and battery-powered electro-acoustic instruments. They can create a variety of drone and reverb-type sounds through feedback between a small speaker and a resonant piezo-electric microphone, as seen in this video. Or they can bring out the hidden sounds within found objects as seen in this video. A variety of other features were available, including transparent and backlit speakers, decorations within the box, line-outs and “circuit-bending” body contacts. They could also simply be used as cigar-box amplifiers for whatever other electronic instruments you might have.

I will also begin a new line of Spring SoundBoxes for 2013 very soon!

Solstice SoundBox 9/30 SOLD!

This box features a 92mm black paper speaker, a hi-gain input (silver jack), volume control, audio-responsive LED light, and six “cracklebox” style body contacts housed in a vintage cardboard silverware case. This SoundBox ships with a resonant coil contact microphone. Price: EUR 55 + shipping from Berlin and European VAT (if applicable).

Solstice SoundBox 28/30 SOLD!

This box features a 92mm black paper speaker, a hi-gain input (silver jack), a line out (black jack), volume control, audio-responsive LED light, and six “cracklebox” style body contacts housed in a 1950’s cedar cigar box. The original paper hinge has been reenforced with archival bookbinder’s tape. This SoundBox ships with a resonant coil contact microphone. Price: EUR 75 + shipping from Berlin and European VAT (if applicable).

Solstice SoundBox 29/30 SOLD!

This box features a 92mm black paper speaker, a hi-gain input (silver jack), a line out (black jack), volume control, audio-responsive LED light, and six “cracklebox” style body contacts housed in a contemporary cigar box. The original paper hinge has been reenforced with archival bookbinder’s tape. This SoundBox ships with a resonant coil contact microphone. Price: EUR 65 + shipping from Berlin and European VAT (if applicable). Please note that this box clearly says “Made in Cuba” in several places, therefore I cannot guarantee delivery to customers in the USA.

Solstice SoundBox 30/30

This box has been retained as an artist’s proof.

Contact: macumbista AT_THE_DOMAIN gmail DOT com

The Solstice SoundBoxes were intended as small, portable and battery-powered electro-acoustic instruments. They can create a variety of drone and reverb-type sounds through feedback between a small speaker and a resonant piezo-electric microphone. A variety of other features were available, including transparent and backlit speakers, decorations within the box, line-outs and “circuit-bending” body contacts. They could also simply be used as cigar-box amplifiers for whatever other electronic instruments you might have.

On 11 December, I took a huge load to the post office and freed myself for a month-long holiday trip to Marfa, Texas. Out of an edition of 30, 27 were sold or gifted to people, which ain’t too bad for a week’s worth of promotional work. You can see the most of the run below. I plan on another edition in January or February. Stay tuned… and happy Solstice!

The roster of recipients [in no particular order]:

Sonny Rosenberg
Lars Lundehave Hansen
Peter Votava
Carsten Stabenow
Jason R. Butcher
Jonathan Lukacek
Steve Holzer
Juhani Liimatainen
Miki Brunou
David Massey
Walker Farrell
Björn Eriksson
Christian Schiller
Richard Quirk
Gregg Wilson
Rob Appleby
Stefan Paul Goetsch
Luka Ivanovic [not pictured]

Now Playing:

The desert…

I have been working on a series of SoundBoxes for sale and as gifts for the Winter Solstice 2012. These SoundBoxes contain a 1/2 Watt audio amplifier, a small speaker and a resonant contact microphone, all housed in beautiful antique cigar boxes or jewelry/silverware cases. Each box is unique and hand made, and bears the traces of its history as an everyday object before it was transformed into a primitive, intuitive feedback-sound-instrument.

This run of SoundBoxes is quite similar to ones which participants have created in my workshops over the last couple years. They can be used to create self-modulating drones, as seen in this video, or to bring out the hidden sounds within found objects as seen in this video.

Finally, as they run on a single 9V battery, you could make a portable concert with any other kind of sound input, such as a guitar, keyboard or smartphone. Some boxes include an line-output, “circuit-bending” style body contact points or a transparent, backlit speaker providing a window to graphical images or patterns inside the box, as in the Ghost Lockets series from last year.

Please contact me at MACUMBISTA at_the_domain GMAIL.COM (or use the contact page) during the coming week of 3-9 December if you are interested in purchasing one of these before 2013! I will be away from my studio from 12 Dec to 13 Jan. Prices range from EUR 50-90, depending on the box used and features included.

I have several styles of antique boxes to choose from (as seen in the first picture in this post), as well as the different added features mentioned. Some of the following boxes may also still be available, as noted. In addition, I can create made-to-order SoundBoxes from antique boxes in my stock at the moment.

All SoundBoxes come with a resonant spring contact microphone.

SET ONE: R.QUIRK COMMISSION

Set of four SoundBoxes, made in cedar cigar boxes and commissioned by Richard Quirk. The top pair includes a backlit 77mm transparent speaker, providing a view to two different antique Danish photographs from approximately the 1930s. The bottom pair uses powerful speakers to increase the physical resonance of the box and microphone. These boxes are SOLD.

SET TWO: SILVERCASES

This set of SoundBoxes are built into a variety of antique cases for jewelry, pens and silverware which have been found in Berlin and Paris. These feature black 92mm speakers and audio-responsive color LED lights. The textures of these cases are incredible, my favorite being the fountain-pen case in the top middle (which uses a minijack plug and 77mm speaker). The fountain-pen case and the box with the diagonal stripe, both pictured in close-up above, are SOLD. Besides those, all the rest of these boxes are available for sale.

SET THREE: LARGE SPEAKERS

In general, the speakers I use are either 92mm or 77mm wide, however occasionally I find large boxes and therefore prefer to use larger speakers. The top box once contained a set of silverware and now contains a set of six “circuit-bending” body contacts, while the bottom box still contains the aroma of tobacco. These are the only large-speaker SoundBoxes I am currently offering for sale. BOTH SOLD!!!!

SET FOUR: 77mm BOXES

These boxes are available for made-to-order SoundBoxes. They are drilled to use a transparent 77mm speaker. The inside of these boxes is lit by an LED, and images or graphics can be placed inside, as seen below in these examples from last year’s collection:

SET FIVE: 92mm BOXES

These boxes are available for made-to-order SoundBoxes. They are drilled to use a black 92mm speaker. I have several of the box in the rear-middle, marked “Pallas”, as seen below:

PAPER OPTIONS

These Japanese chiyogami 70g/m² patterned papers are currently available for decorating the interiors of the SoundBoxes which have transparent speakers. Other options include vintage photography prints, reflective paper (silver, gold), other found objects (bones, shells, reflective materials…) or custom graphics printed from your digital file.

Thank you for your kind attention.
Derek

In what seems to be a time-honored tradition, I’m staying up all night before a 6am flight to my Electric Spring gig making new instruments. These I have named after both the festival and the resonant coil microphones they employ. Each one is a beautiful drone machine by itself, and when placed together they have a natural tendency to harmonize. This time I actually managed a line-out to connect to the mixer as well.

The performance is likely to be a live version of Nonlinearity III, as seen in this video, using all three SoundBoxes instead of clever editing to make the polyphony. My first SoundBox from Nonlinearity I may also make an appearance…

These three new Electric Spring SoundBoxes became available for sale after the concert in Huddersfield, 15 February 2012. Number one of three is already sold. Inquire via the Contact page.

UPDATE: SOLD the whole edition to a collector in the States. I will be doing future runs of SoundBoxes soon, watch this space or get in touch to reserve yours.

I wanted to remind my dear readers that the three SoundBoxes of the Ghost Lockets series are still for sale. Price is EUR 120 each plus shipping (and USt for German buyers). The Ghost Lockets are enhanced SoundBoxes, incorporating a circuit based on a fancy boutique guitar fuzz with a spring-mounted contact microphone, 9V battery, 1/2 Watt audio amplifier, transparent speaker and audio-responsive lighting. Each one also contains a Danish ghost.

You can see more detailed photos of each here. Videos of two other SoundBoxes can be viewed here (similar design, no distortion) and here (different design, but recorded with distortion pedal), and these should give you an idea of how they can be played and what they sound like. I can shoot specific photos and videos next week for interested buyers. Handstamped nameplate on request.

Contact: macumbista AT THE DOMAIN gmail DOT com

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.

Here.

As part of my ongoing studio cleanup process, I’ve put a number of experimental (and not so experimental) CDs, records and books online. (Yes, I’m a bit broke now since the Cologne fellowship is over…)

Let the games begin!

http://macumbista.net/?page_id=1634

(click photo to enlarge)

Still available:

Doepfer Pocket Control 16 knob MIDI controller, early version with black/blue paint and yellow lettering SOLD
Doepfer A-128 Fixed Filter Bank  SOLD
Doepfer A-135 Voltage Controlled Mixer SOLD
Doepfer A-175 Voltage Inverter SOLD
Doepfer A-198 TRC Trautonium Ribbon Controller SOLD
Doepfer A-199 Spring Reverb SOLD
Doepfer A-174-1 Joy-Stick SOLD
Doepfer A-136 Distortion/Waveshaper SOLD
Doepfer A-138 Mixer (exp) SOLD
Doepfer A-100P6 Suitcase 220V SOLD
Dual Lag Processor (DIY Livewire Dual Bissel Generator) SOLD
Dual Lag Processor (DIY Livewire Dual Bissel Generator)  SOLD
Dual Tonepad Rebote Delay (DIY digital delay) SOLD
Dual Tonepad Rebote Delay (DIY digital delay) SOLD
Assortment of Patch Cables 11 x 25cm (black), 7 x 50cm (gray), 9 x 75cm (red) SOLD
Analogue Systems RS-30 Frequency To Voltage Converter/Envelope Follower SOLD
Analogue Systems RS-40 Noise / Sample & Hold / Clock SOLD
Set of 31 undrilled blank aluminum panels SOLD

This Eurorack system is located in Berlin, Germany. All modules are in perfect condition unless noted, and all modules are fully functional. Prices do not include shipping, I will send a quote for that once we have agreed on what you would like to buy. I would be happy to show the system to anyone in town, or make additional photos for those in other cities/countries. I can offer a discount to anyone purchasing several modules at once, and the best price would be for the entire remaining system. This page will be updated to include any changes in availability or pricing.

Financial circumstances compel me to re-list this mic, which I previously decided to keep. It’s a Sennheiser MK40 Cardioid Condenser Microphone + mic clip + nice wooden case. Click to enlarge the photos.

SOLD!!!