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-matrix_events(skinned_teeth).mp3

The day I took down the 12 Meter Power Chord installation from Styx Project Space Berlin (03 Dec 2008):

Photos by Pipstar

A couple MP3 samples:

12 Meter Power Chord @ Styx Berlin, edit 1 (no effects)

12 Meter Power Chord @ Styx Berlin, edit 2 (wall of distortion)

New Year’s plans:

Forests, fires, vodka, saunas and….

…ice in Estonia!

See the rest of John Grzinich’s cold winter morning here.

Black Trashhhhh! DJ set 28.04.08

Next Monday I’m DJing some FUCKING METAL for a noise show organized by my favorite Attention Deficit Disorder victim in Berlin, Pato.

[click pic for big]

28/04/08 Black Trashhhhhh!

* xxxxx/mh/others
* Stupidity
* Penelopex
* Ent
* Macumbista DJ

+ guests

Madame Claude
Lubbener Str. 19
Kreuzberg Berlin
UBahn Schlesiches Tor
19:00

PD Sensor Workshop 26.04.08

April 26th 2PM: AVR/HID Sensor Input into Pure Data with Derek Holzer & Martin Howse

We will continue last month’s investigation of quick and cheap ways of getting sensor input into the Pure Data programming environment, using either USB game controllers or ATmega8 microcontrollers and the HID (Human Interface Device) protocol. Participants should bring the AVR/HID boards and/or hacked joysticks from the previous workshop. Those who did not attend the previous workshop are welcome, and ready made sensor boards can be purchased as part of the participation fee. Please RSVP to m@1010.co.uk if you plan to attend, and indicate whether you will need a sensor input board for Saturday.

A few (!) sample sensors will be provided, but participants are encouraged to bring their own sensors (light, pressure, motion, etc…) for experimentation. The Pure Data programming environment will be used to get the sensor information into the computer and map it to different parameters, ranging from MIDI to direct control of audio or video.

Windows users should be aware that the possibilities for input on their systems may be more restricted. GNU/Linux and Mac OS X users should not expect any problems.

Some links for those interested:

http://1010.co.uk/avrhid.html (AVR/HID board documentation)
http://puredata.info/downloads (install PD-Extended 0.39 from here!)
http://www.sensorwiki.org/index.php/Main_Page (comprehensive list of
sensors for musical use)

—What to bring:

Essential:

1) Laptop running Linux, OS X or Windows (be advised that Windows users may have fewer possibilities)
2) Pure Data Extended 0.39 installed from: http://puredata.info/downloads (please mind that it is Extended and 0.39!!!!)
3) Soundcard (internal or external, quality a non-issue)
4) Headphones
5) EUR 10 participation fee (+ 8 euros if you need a sensor board)

Recommended/Suggested:

1) Sensors of any kind
2) USB game controller of any kind
3) Microphones or other sound inputs
4) Your own project ideas for discussion

xxxxx_workshops

A (more-or-less) weekly series of constructivist workshops emphasising making and connection within the field of the existent. Workshops led by field-expert practitioners extend over realms of code and embedded code, environmental code, noise, transmission and reception, and electromysticism. Workshops solely utilise free software and GNU toolbase.

xxxxx, pickledfeet, Linienstrasse 54, Berlin 10119

Telephone: 3050187482.

http://pickledfeet.com

Other News: blackdronoisemetalove in Copenhagen

This past month I’ve been on the road quite a bit. First I went to Copenhagen to play a couple sets for the very cool folks at the Co-Lab Gallery with my friend Morten Skrøder. For the curious, I’ve posted some rough MP3s here, and I’ll be meeting Morten again in CPH on 5 May to do some more jamming and recording! Each recording is approx 25 min long…

Macumbista & Skroeder, blackdronoisemetalove I, Co-Lab Gallery Copenhagen, 22.03.08 (33 Mb)
Macumbista & Skroeder, blackdronoisemetalove II, Co-Lab Gallery Copenhagen, 22.03.08 (41 Mb)

Sorry, still waiting for photos… Listen for the part in the first set where the irate upstairs neighbor came down to bitch us out! The mics were next to the drinks, so you might also hear the occasional Kroner getting tossed in the box…

Other News: Pure Data in Croatia

Then I spent a crazy week on the Croatian island of Korcula to work on a beginner’s manual for the Pure Data software with Luka Princic and Adam Hyde (remotely). Results to be published soon at FLOSS Manuals. Here’s me, hard at work on my sunburn during one of the days we managed to escape the laptops…

Other News: Tuned City Performances

And for the next couple months I’ll be super-busy organizing the performance program for an event about sound and architecture called Tuned City, which will take place in Berlin from 1-5 July 2008. So far, we are very happy to be able to invite Randy H.Y. Yau & Scott Arford, Thomas Ankersmit & Antoine Chessex, BJ Nilsen & Chris Watson, Mark Bain, Staalplaat Sound System, Martin Howse, Jacob Kirkegaard, Leif E. Boman, Harold Schellinx, Lasse Marc Riek and many others… you can subscribe to the Tuned City news list via the website and get updates. Hope to see some of y’all there!

Now Reading

J.G. Ballard – War Fever
Phillip K. Dick – The Eye of the Sibyl: The Collected Stories of Phillip K. Dick Volume 5
Denis Johnson – Tree of Smoke

Now Playing

Daniel Menche – Glass Forest CD [Important Records]
Daniel Menche – Bodymelt LP [Important Records]
BJ Nilsen & Stilluppsteypa – Passing Out CD [Helen Scarsdale]
Dead Black Arms – Like the Night of Thunder and Rain MP3 [Archive.org]