Somehow, I had it in my head that I was flying to Zagreb tomorrow. So today was a great day to assemble a new instrument! I was almost disappointed when I realized I have another day to spare still. This time, I set up the Macumbista Mini case with 2 x Thomas Henry VCOs, one CGS Digital Noise, one Serge Smooth/Stepped Generator and 2 x Analog Multipliers, as well as two built-in, padded line-outs and a new LED gooseneck mount. The first test-patch I made with it settled any doubts about the choice of modules. This one rocks. Incredible chaotic feedback possibilities from what I would like to (lovingly) think of as a cross-modulated-cluster-fuck. Roll that one in your textbooks of academic electronic music and smoke it…

[Macumbista modular at CTM Touch night via CTM Fest Twitter]

I had the chance to rescue an artist whose work I appreciate immensely last night at the CTM Festival, when his gear ended up in Tel Aviv instead of Berlin. I knew I kept this heavy metal monster around for some reason….

All in all, it was a wonderful festival. Personal highlights include Chris Salter’s Just Noticeable Difference installation, Anke Eckhardt’s Between You and Me, Supersilent + Stian Westerhus vs Joshua Light Show, two works and a talk by one of my hugest inspirations Eliane Radigue and of course the entire Touch Spire closing evening program.

Big thanks to CTM organizers and artists for an awesome week!

When people ask me “so what do you do?” these days, I usually reply that I build musical instruments that no-one has ever seen before. And then I teach myself how to play them. The benefit of this is that, if nobody has ever seen the instrument played before, they have no way to tell you you are playing it badly!

During my last couple weeks in Aarhus, I worked on three small instruments with various degrees of success.

INSTRUMENT A: LAKRITS-KALIMBA

I have always loved Ranjit Bhatnagar’s Instrument-a-Day project, so when time came to bring a small, throw-away gift for the traditional Danish Julefrokost at DIEM, I took an hour to whip up this lakrits-box kalimba. The keys are made from streetsweeper bristles found in the gutter. I have no idea who ended up with it.

INSTRUMENT B: SOUNDBOX(GLAM EDITION)

Quite a few of these SoundBoxes have been rolling out of my studio lately. This one in particular was made for my friend KT, and was played at the 09.12 gig with Krishve. It has a sound-responsive silver-lining, so to speak. Some really incredible drones happen when using the spring-reverb-contact-mic, and I’ll be posting a sound-video soon of what that is like.

INSTRUMENT C: SERGE GATOR CLONE

Slightly more complicated than the previous two, this is my attempt to clone a Serge Gator synthesizer module, mainly using circuit boards provided by Ken Stone. The Boolean Logic and Pulse Divider sections work perfectly fine, the Divide-by-N Comparator section works about half-way, and the VC TimeGen Clock section doesn’t really function at all yet. However, I ran out of time so the next free moment to look at this will be in mid-January when I return to Berlin from Helsinki. Expect updates and sounds then…

Current Location:

Happy New Year from south-east Estonia!!!

Now Playing

ättestupa–begraven mot norr[2010]
barn owl–lost in the glare[2011]
barn owl–shadowland[2011]
sunn o)) + nurse with wound–the iron soul of nothing[2008]

nonlinearity II from macumbista on Vimeo.

Continued studies in nonlinearity, this time using cross-coupled oscillators, smooth/stepped generators and random voltages from the Wogglebug run through a series of Buchla Low Pass Gates and plotted on the oscilloscope. Recorded 14.09.11 at the Danish Institute for Electro/acoustic Music, Aarhus. Reminiscent of Jackson Pollock’s action paintings, mid-century Modernism and a time before the information machines took over. A sketch quickly realized in the dark with improvised tripod and bad, in-camera microphone. To be expanded. Watch with the lights off.

I finished this in a beautiful last-minute rush before packing the studio for my move to Denmark. Behind this panel live two members of the Wogglebug species: random voltage generators based on the famous Buchla Source of Uncertainty, coupled with a very bizarre ring-modulated tone oscillator. The only thing which could possibly be more fun than having one source of uncertain electricity is having two of them. When they talk together, they make each other even more uncertain, like two nervous nerds in the kitchen at a party. Samples later, I’m still building up my studio at the Music Conservatory.

Now Playing

cut hands–afro noise 1[2011 very friendly susan lawly]
ellen fullman–through glass panes[2011 important]
keith fullerton whitman+ben vida–required wreckers[2011 amish records]
mika vainio–life (… it eats you up)[2011 editions mego]
motion sickness of time travel–dreamcatcher cs[2011 hobo cult records]
quiet evenings–taped sounds for night listening[2011 discrepant]
sutekh hexen–alters[2010]
t.e. lawrence–the seven pillars of wisdom[1922]
tucker martine–broken hearted dragonflies: insect electronica from southeast asia[sublime frequencies 2004]]

The Burning House blog asks the simple question:

If your house was burning, what would you take with you? It’s a conflict between what’s practical, valuable and sentimental. What you would take reflects your interests, background and priorities. Think of it as an interview condensed into one question.

Here is my as-of-yet unaccepted submission:

Name: Derek Holzer
Age: 38
Location: Berlin, DE
Occupation: Sound Artist
Website: macumbista.net

This actually wasn’t too difficult considering that most of the things listed get taken on tour with me almost every month. Far more difficult was getting a picture that wasn’t too dark as most of the things I own are still black…

* Horsehide motorcycle jacket
* Analog modular synthesizer (built by hand over two years)
* Diamond Bluff field bag (“borrowed” from my father)
* Leather Goods Connection Ponderosa wallet
* Passport of the Beast
* Cheap “Viking” silver ring (bought in Malmo)
* Victorinox Swiss Army knife
* Whatever raw denims I am living in at the moment
* Sound Devices 722 recorder (with six years of sound recordings on it)
* Fuzz Factory-clone distortion pedal (self-made)
* Pueblo Indian handmade silver bracelet (gift from my father)
* Boss Heavy Metal pedal
* Jessica Rylan Multimode Voltage Controlled Filter (self-made)
* Redwings Iron Rangers
* Annelise Williamson skull buckle with turquoise eyes (gift from AW)
* De Santis basketweave gunbelt
* Antique Bulgarian hand-woven blanket (purchased in Bansko)
* (not pictured: beater old Powerbook containing the rest of my life…)

Mathesis (early edit) by macumbista

Recorded Dec 2009 at the CEM studio in WORM, Rotterdam NL with their Serge modular and ARP2500 synthesizers, my own pedals and a nice big mixing console. Edited in Ardour. An early sketch, which may be returned to at a later date.

Derek Holzer live at Musrara Mix #11 Festival, Jerusalem, IL 25.05.11 (edit) by macumbista

Now Playing

bj nilsen–vinyl 12″[2011 white label][thx benny!]
kevin drumm–ghybbrish 2xcdr[2011 self-released
valerio tricoli & thomas ankersmit–forma II cd[2011 pan-act]

Musrarmix #11 Festival, The Naggar School of Photography, Media, New Music, Animation and Phototherapy, Jerusalem IL

PERFORMANCE 25.05.11, 20.30
More than just noise, a Macumbista live performance summons the chaotic, generative powers of a self-made, analog modular synthesizer in an improvisational setting which explores the physical affects of volume, frequency and complexity. For fans of Maryanne Amacher, Bernard Parmegiani, Eliane Radigue and Slayer.

TALK/WORKSHOP/PRESENTATION 26.05.11, 14.00
A few years ago, I largely abandoned the digital sound world to spend time building a modular analog synthesizer which reinterprets and hybridizes the forms and functions of the famous Serge and Buchla systems of the 1970s. In this presentation, I will explain the different functions of this Macumbista Modular as well as give attendees the chance to create generative sound patches on the instrument.

Plus some other stuff I will write about on my return for security reasons.

Recent Travel

Spent last week (16-20.05.11) in Riga, teaching  Pure Data lessons to the video students of the Riga International School for Economics and Business (RISEBA)–or trying to, at least. Sometimes it’s hard to get very far when MTV clips are the height of sophistication for most of the workshop participants, but we did alright. The school had this amazing “professor’s apartment”, done up with the remainders of the wood furniture factory which used to occupy the building. Probably the only time in my life I will be in possession of a penthouse suite!

Previous to that, there was a series of TONEWHEELS gigs in Brno, Prague and Orleans. The Brno one was probably the best, and with it came the chance to talk lasers and sound with Australia’s “ZZ Laptop” himself, Robin Fox. Great set, friendly bloke, enthusiastic audience. All-in-all a good night.

Although this sounds absolutely nothing like what people in the room actually experienced, I’m posting this mixing desk recording of my set at the UH Fest just to give an idea. Get ready for slooooooow development…

www.fest2010.uh.hu/music/recordings/406_derek_holzer@uh2010.mp3

Now Playing

en–the absent coast[2010 root strata]
expo 70–where does your mind go[2010 immune]
jazkamer–failed state of mind[2010 pica disk]
locrian–territories[2010 at war with false noise]
merzbow+z’ev–spiral left/spiral right[2010 cold spring]
mv & ee–bollywoe[2010 child of microtone]
seth nehil–tracing the skins of clouds[1998 orogenetics]
sun araw–on patrol[2010 not not fun]
supersilent–10[2010 rune grammofon]
supersilent–11[2010 rune grammofon]
the fun years–god was like, no[2010 barge]