Motherboard TV: The Father of Circuit Bending: Reed Ghazala & NY Fest

via motherboard.tv

This is part of Motherboard’s Sound Builders series that they are running in celebration of Bent Festival's kick-off in Brooklyn today.

"This particular installment takes the Motherboard team to the 'Anti-Theory Workshop' of Reed Ghazala, the father of circuit bending. It’s a nice timely tease for this awesome New York electronic music and arts fest.

With Ghazala as our guide, we navigate the history of circuit-bending sound art from its accidental beginnings in his childhood bedroom to the discovery's lasting impact on electronic music and art. Host Jordan Redaelli even has a shot on the tinkered toys, creating a duet with the legendary circuit tweaker that is unique to say the least."

"In 1967, Reed Ghazala discovered something amazing just by sitting at his desk.

At the time he was a broke teenager, musician, and experimental artist known to friends for his magnetic sculptures and the sort of pyrotechnic displays that once sent him into emergency surgery. And then one day in 1967, his desk began to emit strange sounds. He recognized their sci-fi whirrs and electronic tones as something like the sound of the expensive synthesizers of the day, and he was sure he wasn’t imagining it.

The source turned out to be nothing more than a toy amplifier he had left in a desk drawer, its wires exposed due to a broken case, its power still switched on. The toy’s innards were short circuiting against the inside of the metal desk, and in so doing were making music that neither its creators nor its owner could ever have imagined. Circuit bending was born.

Today thousands of amateur electronics hackers around the planet follow Reed’s lead, customizing or simply breaking their synthesizers, children’s toys and other easy-to-crack-open gadgets with the hope of generating uncanny and wonderful cacophonies of sound..." Full post on motherboard.tv.

Update: I just created the Bent Fest label and added it to a ton of posts. Check it out for a trip back in time and to get a taste of some of what you can see at the event. Note there are a couple of general circuit bending fest posts as well.

Electric Independence: Morton Subotnick

"In its early days, electronic music wasn’t very musical. Painstakingly put together with wave generators or tiny bits of tape spliced together on splicing blocks by music professors and hobbyists, it was often highly abstract, largely concerned with pitch and timbre, and lacked much rhythm or pattern.

Enter Morton Subotnick.

Back in the sixties, while Robert Moog was developing his pioneering keyboard on the East Coast, Subotnick, Ramon Sender and Don Buchla were toiling away in San Francisco on what would become possibly the world’s first analog synthesizer, the ‘electronic music easel’BUCHLA 100. Instead of a keyboard, it relied on pressure sensitive touch-plates, which controlled individually tuneable keys for limitless micro-tuning possibilities, analog sequencers, and complex waveforms beyond your basic sine, sawtooth, and square waves. You can now find it at the Smithsonian.

Check out more at Motherboard.

See the rest at VBS.TV: Electric Independence: Morton Subotnick - Motherboard | VBS.TV"

Click here for additional posts featuring Moton Subotnick including video of recent performances.
Click here for additional Motherboard TV posts.

Gavin Russom Interview

YouTube embed below. via Motherboard where you'll find the full write-up.
"In this episode of Electric Independence, Motherboard heads to Bed Stuy to visit Gavin Russom in his home studio.

Gavin Russom has been making and unmaking synths since a young age. He thinks of the analog machines as works of art in their own right, blending the aural, visual, and the sculptural."

(1/2)- Motherboard Electric Independence: Gavin Russom

YouTube Uploaded by VBSdotTV on Feb 24, 2010

(2/2)- Motherboard Electric Independence: Gavin Russom

YouTube Uploaded by VBSdotTV on Mar 2, 2010

"Gavin Russom is a wizard, and not just because his long red flowing mane is reminiscent of a medieval alchemist or because he was once a stage magician. The composer and former engineer for dance label DFA (where he earned the Wizard moniker) has been making and unmaking synths since a young age. Gavin thinks of the analog machines as works of art in their own right, blending the aural, visual, and the sculptural.

After living in Berlin, Gavin finally decided to come back stateside and get back to his roots. In this episode of Motherboards fantastical series Electric Independence, we sit down with Gavin and Black Dices Eric Copeland to talk about the state of dance music, 20th century composers and why the Wizards mystical, handcrafted electronic sound is a perfect substitute for controlled substances.

See more at Motherboard.tv"

Motherboard TV: Morton Subotnick, Father of Electronic Music

via Motherboard.TV via Scott Sharon on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge
"What kind of music would robots make? Blips and bloops, most likely, with a whole lot of abstract tones and soundwave manipulation. You know, droning stuff that sounds like auditory binary. I mean, come on. How musical could a robot be?

Such were the early days of electronic music, whose early proponents put much more emphasis on the “electronic” than the “music.” That’s not to denigrate the incredible complexity of wave generators or tiny bits of tape spliced together on splicing blocks. It’s just to point out that what we see as electronic music today was once well and truly the sound of electronics themselves.

So who’s responsible for turning the electro tide towards real music? Why, Morton Subotnick of course.

As is often the case in music, it was a bicoastal thing: Subotnick, Ramon Sender, and Don Buchla spent the 60s in San Francisco developing what may be the world’s first analog synthesizer, the ‘electronic music easel’ BUCHLA 100, while Robert Moog was putting together his incredible keyboard on the East Coast.

BUCHLA 100 was brilliant because, instead of a keyboard, it relied on pressure sensitive touch-plates. Those controlled keys that could be individually tuned, allowing for an unlimited number of sound-producing possibilities. It freed musicians from the sine, sawtooth, and square bonds of the past, and allowed electronic music to flourish.

Subotnick himself was the first to put his creation through its creative paces. Recorded over the span of a year in New York, his album Silver Apples of the Moon stands as the first all-electronic LP, and effectively declared the era of computer music dead. The album has since been inducted into the Library of Congress.

As part of our Electric Independence series, in 2011 we paid a visit to Subotnick at his Lower East Side studio to chat about the past and future of electronic music. Remember one thing the next time you’re in a club with some cyborg DJ poking away at a booth full of weird gadgets: If it wasn’t for Subotnick, you’d be stuck listening to robot chatter."

Sound Builders: "Cyborg" Inventor Steve Mann Builds Instruments Out of Water

via motherboard.tv
"In Episode 4 of Sound Builders, we travel to Toronto, Ontario to visit the amazing Steve Mann. While at MIT, where he earned a PhD in Media Arts & Sciences, Steve founded the Wearable Computers Group at the Media Lab, and built musical instruments using brainwaves and compressed hydraulic fluids. Lauded by some as the world’s first cyborg, and the initiator of the mobile blogging movement, Steve is now a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto.

For this episode, Steve volunteered to be both guest and host, using his human/cyborg first-person perspective to show us his studio, talk about his past inventions, and ask members of the circus to play the latest of his inventions: the hydraulophone, a highly tactile and mellifluous water-based instrument that Steve hopes can offer the blind and deaf a new method of music-creation.

To submit your own instrument idea, and win $1000, visit www.motherboard.tv/contest."

Electric Independence: Ulrich Schnauss

via motherboard.tv

"When post-shoegaze magician – the peerless electronic wunderkind – Ulrich Schnauss invited us to his apartment in London, he specified it would have to be at night due to his predilection for ‘nocturnal’ activities.

We thought that seemed mostly normal for a musician until he came to the door (clad in leather jeans) and dragged us up to his pitch-black attic.

Thankfully all of our Warhol-period Udo Kier fantasy/nightmares were unwarranted the moment we walked into his studio: an impressive collection of synthesizers and effects units used to layer hundreds of manipulated sounds and craft some of the most breathtaking, bombastic records released in recent years.

Ulrich was kind enough to show us some of his favorite instruments and demo the tasty tones from his forthcoming album."

You can find more synth centric Electric Independence posts here. See motherboard.tv for more.

Update via Sonicstate in the comments: "Hi folks, in case your interested in more of Ulrich, he was a guest on our podcast a couple of weeks ago - hope you dont mind me posting the link." Not at all!

Eric Singer and Pat Metheny - Two Takes on DIY Mechanical Orchestration

Sound Builders: Eric Singer Turns Scrap Metal Into Human-Besting Robot Bands

"Eric Singer, founder of LEMUR (League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots)... Despite receiving his music degree from Phil Collins, Eric has gone on to create incredibly innovative music robots that have been used by the likes of Pat Metheny and Mari Kimura."

via Motherboard.tv. Be sure to check out the site for more including the full write-up for this video.
If you are into DIY, check out Motherboard's Sound Builders contest (also posted below).

You might recognize Eric Singer from these two previous posts:
LEMUR Slime-o-Tron: A Slimey Controller
dafnaLEMUR264 2 and The Riot Temple in Miami

Pat Metheny - The Orchestrion EPK

http://www.patmetheny.com/orchestrioninfo/
This one in via Gerard.

Pat Metheny flickr set by joelbrave

"The Singularity of Ray Kurzweil"

via motherboard.tv where you will find the full write-up.
Note the documentary interview with Ray Kurzweil does not cover Kurzweil the synth company, but this should give you some insight on the man behind the company. You can spot some Kurzweil synths in the background. This one sent my way via Fabio Masseti.

Electric Independence: John Foxx

via motherboard.tv
"We went to visit John Foxx deep in the darkest depths of Shoreditch, East London, at the studio of his latest collaborator, Benge. The studio isn’t far from where Foxx’s infamous “The Garden” studio once laid (on top of multiple Roman graves no less) and it’s also the location where the duo cut Interplay, the latest album by John Foxx and the Maths.

The notoriously quiet man sat down with Jordan to wax nostalgic about Foxx’s time in Ultravox, synths (obviously) dub techniques, drinking and eccentric sex. Finally, John was kind enough to demonstrate his infamous drum machine and play us some of the patches from his highly influential first album, Metamatic."

You might recognize Benge from several posts here on MATRIXSYNTH. He runs It's Full of Stars and currently works with John Foxx.

Sound Builders: Peaking Lights Are Teasing Lo-Fi Musical Magic From DIY Gear

via Motherboard.TV
"Our new series Soundbuilders travels to Madison, Wisconsin to visit Peaking Lights, a married musical duo famed for their pulsating looped-rhythm tracks composed on re-purposed scraps, stereos, and lo-fi gear. We watch as husband and wife prepare for tour by paring their studio down to the bare essentials needed to produce Peaking Lights’ distinctive sound.

While we were hanging out, we got a peek into Aaron’s completely untechnical, yet highly rigorous process of Frankensteining long forgotten consumer electronics. Using the most unassuming hunks of wood, metal, and plastic, Peaking Lights produce surprising and highly personal results"
via Matt

Electric Independence: Matmos

Synth spotting with Matmos. See the write-up on motherboard.tv.

Electric Independence: Xeno and Oaklander

some synth spotting via motherboard.tv. via Seema
"Liz Wendelbo and Sean McBride make up the minimal electronics duo known as Xeno and Oaklander. Instead of geeking out on software like much of their Brooklyn brethren, the pair record their songs live in their home studio, playing analog synthesizers and drum machines exclusively. On this episode of Electric Independence, we learn how this handsome duo of Norwegian/French/American heritage fashions a raw, distopian 80’s dance beat that buzzes with a sense of robot horror."
Features the rare Soundmaster Stix ST-305

BOMBsessions: Xeno & Oaklander

BOMBsessions: Xeno & Oaklander from BOMB Magazine on Vimeo.

"BOMBsessions: Xeno & Oaklander

By Clinton Krute

The music of the Brooklyn-based group Xeno & Oaklander seems to come from an earlier time, when the beeps and whirs of the analog synthesizer began to creep up from the underground into the mainstream of pop music (or drag it down to the depths, if you prefer). The late ’70s and early ’80s synth music from which their work draws was a reaction to the sense of the alienation brought about by living in world that was becoming more and more digital. Sean McBride and Liz Wendlbo, the duo behind the project, still find these sounds relevant today, in both theme and means. Xeno & Oaklander excavate a forgotten music, re-imagining its forms for the present with a defiant and romantic nostalgia. Their debut album Sentinelle, out now on Wierd records, is a testament to their skill at “shaping electricity” and is overflowing with icy drones, oscillating tones, and excellent (and danceable) songwriting.

After an epic performance of “Preuss” (a title taken from the particularly noisy auto body shop adjacent to their studio), McBride and Wendelbo sat down with BOMBsessions in their Williamsburg “synth museum,” to discuss the poetics of their songwriting, the relation of their vocal lines to Derrida’s Glas, and moving contemporary music forward by digging into the past. Catch Xeno & Oaklander on March 5th at the Cameo in Brooklyn before they leave for a European tour.

Video by Clinton Krute
with Luke Degnan

xenoandoaklander.com/

wierdrecords.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=67&osCsid=f948f1fd1a18c86b1a325d00028758db"

Also see this interview by motherboard.tv. A search on Xeno & Oaklander brings up a couple of more posts.

via Ryan on FB.

Electric Independence: Emeralds

Synths come in after the three minute mark. Cool miniature moog synth pillow. :)
via motherboard.tv
"It’s not everyday we get to (or want to) go to Cleveland, but when the opportunity came along to hang with one of the most exciting young synthesizer-based acts in the world, we put our snow boots on and headed (mid)west.

Emeralds, made up of Steve Hauschildt, Mark McGuire and John Elliot have only been sculpting their impossibly beautiful and impeccably crafted cosmic drift since 2006, yet have left a bevy of mind expanding, bone shaking cassettes, CD-R’s and LP’s in their wake.

With a rich history of rock’n roll and punk Cleveland might seem a curious place for these three cosmic crusaders to be busting out the synthesizers, but their surroundings are as important to their sound as the electronics themselves.

The guys took us around their studio, showed us the magic of the ‘Emerald Necklace’ and tried to out bowl us at down at the local lanes."

Electric Independence: Vince Clarke and the Temple of Synth

via Pea Hicks and Matt Musick of Motherboard.TV. Click here and scroll for prior posts.
"The new episode of Electric Independence documents a visit to Vince Clarke's incredible home studio that features more analog gear than, well, probably anyone we've ever encountered. The founding member of Depeche Mode, Yazoo, and Erasure is enjoying the country life in Maine but still cranks out the jams, or as he likes to put it 'making something from nothing.'"
Vince Clark of Depeche Mode, Yaz/Yazoo and Erasure.

Vince Clark's studio synth list via here:
ROLAND SYSTEM 700
ROLAND 100M
ROLAND JP8
ROLAND JP4
ROLAND MKS80
ROLAND SH1
ROLAND VP330
ROLAND JP8000
ROLAND JUNO 60
ROLAND JUNO 106
ROLAND SUPER JX
ROLAND D550
ARP 2500 MODULAR
ARP 2600
PPG WAVE 2.2
WALDORF MICROWAVE
WALDORF PULSE
MOOG MODULAR
MINI MOOG
MOOG SOURCE
EMU MODULAR SYSTEM
PROPHET 5
PRO ONE
OSCAR
SYRINX
KORG MS20
KORG MS10
KORG 700
KORG M1
KORG DVP
SERGE MODULAR
POLYFUSION MODULAR
OBERHEIM XPANDER
OBERHEIM SEM SYSTEM
RSF KOBOL
SYNTHI VCS3
SENNHEISER VOCODER

Electric Independence: Growing

"On the new episode of Electric Independence, we head into Growing's practice space to look at their equipment and get the story behind their transformation from effects-heavy drone into the complex, synapse-shifting sound they create today. Oh yeah, they also added a third member (and vocals, kind of) and just released a new album entitled 'PUMPS!' They don't front on their musical prowess. "We couldn't play anything else. This is what we play." How they play "this" is what this episode is all about.

There's also a joint Growing and Korg contest to win a Kaossilator. Enter here to win:
http://www.viceland.com/growing/"
You can find all Motherboard TV Electric Independence videos previously posted here.

The Season Finale of Electric Independence: Chris & Cosey

via motherboard.tv Update via pea in the comments: " matrixsynth spotting at 10:00" There it is! MATRIXSYNTH magnet on the arm of the lamp. You can see it before then, but the close-up is at 10:00.
"It’s not everyday you get to meet two of your honest-to-god heroes. But on a recent trip to Norfolk in the United Kindom, we got the chance to spend some time at the country house and studio of the music making powerhouse and long time couple Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti, better known as Chris & Cosey.

Not only did Carter and Tutti change the entire electronic music game as founding members of the legendary avant-garde industrial group Throbbing Gristle: they continued their love affair with music, gear and each other over the next 30-odd years with their mind-blowing, ahead-of-the-curve approach to drum machines, sampling, performance, and all manners of visceral electronic skullduggery. “It’s really good to get physical with sound,” says Tutti, “because it does reduce people to human beings, and their physicality, rather than them trying to intellectualize about it. The violence of the sound completely bypasses that.”

Between the electro-pop of Chris & Cosey, the spooky ambience of Carter Tutti or their continuing aural experiments under their mysterious ‘CTI’ moniker, the pair have left an indelible, beautiful bruise on the face of electronic music.

They took us for a spin around the home studio they’ve been recording in for 25 years, demonstrated some of the bits and pieces they’re using in their current incarnation, performed a special improvised track for us, and taught us how to give an asthmatic cat his daily dosage of medicine."

Electric Independence: Ceephax Acid Crew

via motherboard.tv
"There’s no one quite like our mate Andy Jenkinson, aka Ceephax, aka Ceephax Acid Crew. He’s one of the last great D.I.Y masters working in electronic music and he’s a full-on modern day renaissance man, who still uses the same old school tools (remember Amigas? Me neither) to ply his many trades.

Primarily known for what he’s done for the “acid” genre, Ceephax also dips his toes into hip-hop, breakbeat Italo and even some ambient; always with his trusty Roland analog weapons by his side, creating an impressive and expansive output of material. It’s like a big psychedelic feast for your ears.

He got signed at his first-ever live show at the age of 17 and throws some of the most epic and outrageous parties/raves in the UK. We traveled to East London where he gave us a tour of his bedroom studio and shared some of the influences behind his 8-Bit sound, his curious predilection for ancient video games, arcade carpets and novelty knits.

- Jordan Redaelli"

Also see:

The Season Finale of Electric Independence: Chris & Cosey
Electric Independence: John Foxx
Electric Independence: Emeralds
Electric Independence: Ulrich Schnauss
Electric Independence: Matmos
Electric Independence: Morton Subotnick
Electric Independence: Oneohtrix Point Never
Electric Independence: Chromeo
Electric Independence: RJD2
Electric Independence: Vince Clarke and the Temple of Synth
Electric Independence: Xeno and Oaklander
Electric Independence: Moby
Electric Independence: Growing
Electric Independence: Devo
Electric Independence: XXXChange
Electric Independence: Gavin Russom

Electric Independence: Chromeo

some synth spotting via motherboard.tv where you'll find the write-up.
You can find more synth centric Electric Independence interviews posted here.

Tech : Repaired Hartmann Neuron Synthesizer

YouTube via adiblasi | August 15, 2010
inside a Hartmann Neuron
"http://www.Alfred.TV READ ME FIRST: In this video, we document the amazing kludge job that was beautifully executed by AdamB to get the Hartmann Neuron Synthesizer in working order due to failed capacitors on the motherboard and power supply.

This synthesizer is a great example of how a PC compliant system was used as an 'embedded system' that was at the hart of this synthesizer. I had given Adam constraints NOT to drill through the metal base of the synth -- which would have facilitated mounting and avoided the glueing of screws, but I didn't want a drill taken to the synth.

Without doubt, this is NOT for the 'faint of heart', and there was quite a bit if guesswork, but in the end, it did work.

Visit AdamB at:
http://www.youtube.com/thisisadamb

Follow me on Twitter at:
http://www.twitter.com/adiblasi

I hope this footage helps other Neuron owners!

Warm regards,

Alfred
http://www.Alfred.TV"