05.10 – Vector Synthesis, SIMULTAN Festival, Timisoara RO (pictured)

09-10.10 – Field recording workshop, 7 DAYS of SOUND, Klaipeda LT

13.10 – Vector Synthesis, Meq Festival, Centre Dramatique National de Montpellier, Montpellier FR

14.10 – SoundBoxes workshop, Meq Festival, Centre Dramatique National de Montpellier, Montpellier FR

11.11 – Vector Synthesis workshop + performance, sound art festival, Copenhagen DK

18.11 – Vector Synthesis, Piksel Festival, Bergen NO

22.11 – Vector Synthesis, MuTe Festival, Sibelius Academy, Helsinki FI

24.11 – Vector Synthesis, Noisy November, Viljandi EE

27-29.11 – Vector Synthesis workshop, Piksel Festival, Bergen NO

04-10.12 – SoundBoxes workshop [w/ Björn Eriksson], Hola folkhögskola, Prästmon SE

11-15.12 – Neanderthal Electronics workshop [w/ Jeroen Vandesande], RITCS Academy, Brussels BE

Together with Jeroen Vandesande, I gave my Neanderthal Electronics instrument-building workshop to a group of students of the RITS Winterschool (Erasmushogeschool RITS, Brussels) from 12-23 JAN 2015. Over these ten days, the participants with backgrounds in acting, writing, theater tech and radio production designed, constructed, learned to play and created a composition using their own self-built DIY electronic instruments. A variety of circuits–including CMOS logic chips, amplifiers, portable loudspeakers, contact microphones and opto-electronics–ensured that each instrument gave a unique voice to each player in the piece.

The resulting 16 minute composition (inspired by the works of Alvin Lucier, Pauline Oliveros, John Grzinich, David Tudor and others) was an immersive, surround-sound experience, performed in a darkened room for an eyes-closed audience of 25 people at a time. In the piece, a swarm of individual, simple sound sources such as tones and textures are modulated and moved through the space physically by the performers to create a complex sonic environment. Delicate and intimate sounds pass closely near the bodies and ears of the audience, while stronger, more extreme sounds occur at the edges of the space to give a sense of the architecture of the room and the objects in it.

Composed and performed by Bram Verrecas, Amber Meulenijzer, Jana Rymen, Kimberly Struyf, Francesca Van Daele, Anna Van Hoof, Max Adams, Zoë Bossuyt, Iben Stalpaert, Milan Van Doren, Nils Melckenbeeck, Emma Schiettecatte, and Michèle Even at Kunstencentrum NONA, Mechelen, Belgium on 23 JAN 2015.

Much gratitude to Dieter van Dam for the invitation!

Workshop info here: http://macumbista.net/?page_id=497

PLEASE LISTEN TO THIS CLIP WITH HEADPHONES

I will be giving a series of SoundBoxes workshops in Belgium and the Netherlands next month. This hands-on workshop combines the arts of electronics, noise, sculpture and collage to produce unique, “circuit bent” electroacoustic instruments.

Details here: http://macumbista.net/?page_id=1897

SOUNDBOXES WORKSHOP LIEGE: 09-10 April, L’An Vert
http://www.entonnoir.org/cg/copy/

SOUNDBOXES WORKSHOP DEN HAAG: 12 April, Villa K
https://www.facebook.com/events/1407118902885760/
http://www.stichtingcentrum.org/

SOUNDBOXES WORKSHOP ROTTERDAM, 13 April, WORM
https://www.facebook.com/events/560334607406703
http://www.worm.org/home/view/event/15049

Hope to see some of you there!

Photos of my SoundBoxes from the moddr opening at iMAL, Brussels, plus Matt Kemp’s Nizo Super 8 Analogue Noise Machine which he made during one of my Neanderthal Electronics workshops in Rotterdam a while back. Photos by Yves Bernard, iMAL.

Now Playing

jack london–the call of the wild & white fang[1903/1906]
neil young–live rust[1979]
t.e. lawrence–seven pillars of wisdom[1926]

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!!!!