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]

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]

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!!!)

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.

Now Playing

boris morgana–muuan sali cs[2010 self release][kiitos juuso!]
opec/jazzkammer–monilinien/we forgive you lp[2005/2009 posh isolation][tak jonas!]
roberta settels–isolation! (meinhof in memorium) lp[1985 music in conflict/2007 BIN records][tak jonas!]
silvester anfang ii–commune cassette[2010 blackest rainbow]

The following is an interview I completed this evening for the Bent Festival in New York City, where I’ve been invited to perform TONEWHEELS and give a workshop over the weekend of 23-25 April 2010.

> *Bent:* /Before you got into electronics, what type of music or art were you into?/

I’ve been involved in electronic, media and net art for the past 10 years, and although I make “electronic music”, I don’t listen to any contemporary dance or pop artists at all. A look through my record collection might turn up electro-acoustic composers from the 1960’s, old African funk 45’s from the 1970s, hair metal from the 1980’s or hardcore from the 1990’s, plus folk music from any number of East European, Middle Eastern or Asian cultures. Just no techno.

Right now, some elements of the noise scene like Daniel Menche or Kevin Drumm remain pretty exciting, as well as more conceptual people like John Wiese or Florian Hecker. On the historical side, composers like Eliane Radigue, Maryanne Amacher, Iannis Xenakis, Bernard Parmegiani and David Tudor have been big inspirations to me. I also listen to shit-load of drone, doom, death and black metal.

It’s good to remind yourself that nothing is really ever new or original, you can find the roots of anything if you look deep enough into the past.

> Bent:* /How did you get into electronics?/

Long ago, in a previous lifetime, I was studying writing in the university. Some things in my life changed dramatically as a result of my first stint living abroad, and when I returned to the States my new path was clear: doing sound, and in a place where there is genuine support for the arts (i.e. Europe)!

Instead of completing my thesis, I attempted to build my first synthesizer from an SN76477 chip, probably liberated from a pinball machine somewhere. It was a failure, and I spent the next several years doing digital audio instead. I finally came back to electronics about four years ago, when I was so sick of laptop “performances” I couldn’t stand it anymore, and soon after began the process of building my own modular synthesizer as well as designing the TONEWHEELS optoelectronic synthesizer.

> Bent:* /Where do you find inspiration for your work?/

The TONEWHEELS project was inspired by some of the pioneering 20th Century electronic music inventions, such as the ANS Synthesizer (Murzin USSR 1937-57), the Variophone (Sholpo USSR 1930) and the Oramics system (Oram UK 1957). With the help of Andrei Smirnov of the Theremin Center in Moscow, I did an incredible amount of research into the history of drawn sound and optical synthesis while I was designing the TONEWHEELS synthesizer. The experiments made with “painted soundtracks” in the Soviet Union during the 1930’s in particular are mind-blowing, and without the work of Mr Smirnov they would be unknown to the rest of the world.

I also spent several days at the Daphne Oram archives at Goldsmiths University in London, reading the letters between her and the engineer who helped her build the Oramics machine. It was fascinating! The same concerns she had, and the same learning process, were the hurdles I had to jump in my own work.

You can see the results of my historical research here:

http://www.umatic.nl/tonewheels_historical.html

> *Bent:* /What is your take on the circuit bending community at large? Where are you in it?/

I’d have to say that I don’t consider myself a “circuit bender” exactly. It’s very rare that I take an existing consumer gadget and try to hack it. My approach tends to be to start with the most basic parts I can understand and work up from there. In the case of the TONEWHEELS project, that part is called a phototransistor, and my first experiment was simply to run 5 volts through it into a mixer channel and start flickering the lights in the room!

This might be where I part company from Reed Ghazala’s “antitheory” approach, which seems to be very popular among benders. For me, the possibilities come not from blindly sticking my fingers in things, but instead from understanding the materials I am working with and their specific properties. That said, I failed every math class I was ever forced to take and still maintain a rather intuitive relationship with those materials, which is hardly the way a “real” engineer might work!

I’ve always maintained that the only thing that separates artists using technology now from the electronic art pioneers of the 1960s and 1970s–such as Steina & Woody Vasulka, Don Buchla, Serge Tcherepnin, Dan Sandin and David Tudor–is the internet. Whereas they had much more limited channels to find the information they needed, we have an almost limitless supply. Which is of course the other half of the problem–trying to get the signal out of the noise.

> *Bent: *Is there anything you want to accomplish while you are in New York?/

Finding a place to stay during the week I’m there is a good start!!!!!

But seriously…I’m negotiating to do a field recording workshop at Harvestworks as well as a couple talks at the Electronic Music Foundation on the history of optoelectronic synthesis and a project related to sound and architecture I’ve been involved in called Tuned City.

Besides that, I’m trying to look up the current locations of some of the old original audio and video synthesizers produced in the 1960’s and 1970’s, so I can see them up close. Every university I’ve been invited to speak at in the US and the UK all seem to have some analog treasure locked up in a closet somewhere!!!!

> Bent:* /Who are you most excited to see at Bent? Why?/

I’m quite excited to meet Eric Archer, from Austin Texas. He is performing as part of Handmade Music Austin. Eric and I have been writing for a year or two now, and his Light2Sound device is totally awesome, a really nice introduction to optical synthesis for beginners. I have a huge amount of respect for Eric and his creations–maybe because I have a suspicion he aced his math classes and actually had an idea what he would do with it later!

Now Playing

daniel higgs–devotional songs of daniel higgs[2009 open mouth cassette]
david tudor–three works for live electronics[1996 lovely]
godflesh–merciless[1994 earache]
jaques dudon–lumieres audibles[1996 mondes harmoniques](Thanks to Jonas Olesen, who pointed Dudon’s work out to me when I had overlooked it all this time…)
julian jaynes–the origin of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral mind[1976 book] (Thanks to Professor Anthony Moore of the KHM who reminded me of the longest title on my mother’s bookshelf when I was a child…and to my mother for digging it up for my birthday!)
nik raicevic–the sixth ear[1972]
ruth white–seven trumps from the tarot cards[1969]
steve birchall–reality gates: electronic meditations by steve birchall[2006 creel pone cdr]
various artists(andrzej dobwolski, bob cobbing & annae lockwood, daphne oram, eric nordgren, frederick charles judd, henri chopin, jean-luis brau, john mcclure, various junior & senior high school students, vladimir ussachevsky)–creelpolation 1 – 7″ singles[2006 creel pone] (Creel Pone, I fucking love you!)
yellow swans–being there[2010 type]

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.

Now Playing

Lars von Trier–Antichirst[2009 film] (fucking wow!)

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!

Now Playing

francisco lópez–machines[2010 experimedia]
pussygutt–gathering strengths[2010 olde english spelling bee]
tolerance–divin[1981 vanity]
yellow swans–going places[2010 type]
zbigniew karkowski-choice of points for the application of force[2000 ytterbium]

Almost too late for making “best of” lists now. Nostalgia for the old year is running dry and it’s high time to get on with the new. So, for what it’s worth, here’s 50 releases that did it for me in 2009.

aluk todolo–finsternis[2009 v2]
anthony pateras & robin fox–end of daze[2009 editions mego]
barn owl–from our mouths a perpetual light[2009 digitalis](***pictured above***)
baroness–blue record[2009 relapse]
ben frost–by the throat[2009 bedroom community]
bodychoke–cold river songs[1996/2009 relapse reissue]
bohren und der club of gore –latitudes[2009 southern]
coalesce–ox[2009 relapse]
daniel higgs–hymnprovisations for banjo by the A.I.U. with piano and raindrops[2009 ideal]
drudkh–microcosmos[2009 season of mist]
eleh–retreat lp[2009 important]
eliane radigue–vice versa, etc….[2009 important]
elm–nemcatacoa[2009 digitalis]
emeralds–emeralds[2009 hanson]
evan caminiti–digging the void[2009 students of decay]
expo ’70–psychic funeral 2×3″cdr[2009 ruralfauna]
greymachine–disconnected[2009 hydra head]
habsyll–MMVIII [2009 psycheDOOMelic]
hecker–acid in the style of david tudor[2009 editions mego]
hildur gudnadottir–without sinking [2009 touch]
isis–wavering radiant [2009 ipecac]
jana winderen–heated[2009 touch]
jason crumer–walk with me[2009 misanthropic agenda]
john wiese–circle snare[2009 no fun]
josh lay–heirophant[2009 sentient recognition archive]
kevin drumm–imperial horizon[2009 hospital productions]
kinit her–glyms or beame of radicall truthes[2009 hinterzimmer]
kk null/john wiese–mondo paradoxa[2009 aufabwegen]
lightning bolt–earthly delights[2009 load]
merzbow–13 japanese birds series(vols 1-12)[2009 important]
mika vainio & lucio capece–trahnie[2009 editions mego]
mika vainio–aineen musta puhelin/black telephone of matter[2009 touch]
mudboy–mort aux vaches[2009 staalplaat]
nate young–regression[2009 ideal recordings]
natural snow buildings–daughter of darkness[2009 blackest rainbow]
nicholas szczepanik–the chiasmus[2009 basses frequences]
om–god is good[2009 southern lord]
oneohtrix point never–rifts[2009 no fun]
oren ambarchi–a final kiss on poisoned cheeks vinyl[2009 table of elements]
our love will destroy the world–stillborn plague angels vinyl[2009 dekorder]
pan sonic & keiji haino–shall i download a blackhole and offer it to you[2009 blast first petitie]
peter wright–an angel fell where the kestrel hover[2009 spekk]
phill niblock–touch strings[2009 touch]
prurient–rose pillar 11″[2009 heartworm]
stephan mathieu–the key to the kingdom 7″[2009 dekorder]
tiny vipers–life on earth[2009 sub pop]
wolf eyes–always wrong[2009 hospital productions]
wolves in the throne room–black cascade[2009 southern lord]
yoga–megafauna[2009 holy mountain]
z’ev–sum things[2009 cold spring]

Coming soon: dates in New York, Pure Data book sprint, Helsinki workshops, new Particlechamber, analog synthesizer updates and everything else that’s so long overdue.