Tag: recordings

recordings of recent performances

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“Speculation and Imagination”

New music! 🎛️ 🎵

Check out my latest release “Speculation and Imagination”, combining gentle melodic sequences with harsh, noisy feedback.

These tracks are an edit of my live analog synthesizer improvisation from a online “session” with painter Onozaki Takuya. Onozaki and I meet monthly for jam sessions over Zoom, him in Hanamaki and me in Connecticut, where he paints, and I play my synths, exchanging artistic ideas across our mediums.

If you happen to be around Toyko this week, Onozaki’s works, some of which were created in these sessions, are on display 2/7/25-2/16/25 at “Gallery Camellia”in Ginza.

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Homemade Binaural Dummy Head Microphones

Digging through my closet, I found this binaural dummy head that I made several years ago, and I thought I’d take it for a spin. Perhaps it’s time for me to transition this channel into ASMR content?

I’ve talked before about binaural recordings, but I forgot that I had made this cheap binaural head probably close to 10 years ago. While it’s certainly not of the same quality as professional binaural microphones, give it a listen and let me know what you think about it as a $20 solution!

Ingredients:

  • Syrofoam Mannequin Head (e.g. this)
  • 2x Electret Microphone (e.g. these)
  • Rocker Switch (e.g. this)
  • Battery Holder, 3xAA (e.g. this)

More spatial and immersive audio videos here:


More “creative electronics” videos here:


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New Music! “Hanamaki Sessions 2023”

I’ve collected and edited some recordings I made with my “DAWless” mobile rig in Japan this summer.

It’s been interesting try to set something up that has the flexibility that I want, while still being portable enough not to take up too much space (and weight) in my luggage. Of course, as it’s often said, limitations can often lead to greater creativity.

In this setup I have my 54HP Eurorack (which can be battery powered if I want to play on top of a lookout tower somewhere), and my Arturia DrumBrute Impact. I do mixing with a little Mackie mixer, and recording with a Zoom H4N (which lets me record sound from the microphones at the same time as the line inputs).

Last year, some might remember, I went around with just the Eurorack synth (with some different modules in it–a benjolin in particular) and recorded my three-track “Ihatov MU” album. This year’s sessions were a fun extension of those ideas.

Perhaps I should do some performing out in New England in the next few months.

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Zoomscapes Updates

For the last few years, I’ve been messing around with internet-based, no-input feedback loops in collaboration with Will Klingenmeier.

What does that mean? Why would I do that? What does it sound like? All those questions are answered in the brief PechaKucha below:

Zoomscape Pecha Kucha – Understand it all in less than 8 minutes!

While I’m sure we’ll continue to mess with these ideas in the future, we’ve come to at least a short-term culmination of this project in a tape release of these experiments on bandcamp.

You can also retroactively join our “Tape Release Party” here:

Zoomscapes Tape Release Party from 2/5/23

To catch up on all of the previous experiments, check out this playlist:

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“Only for a Moment”

New music up on bandcamp!

A slow-evolving, minimalist piece for modular synthesizer.

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New Music: “Cybernetics & Feedback”

I’ve released a new collection of pieces, “Cybernetics & Feedback”, available on bandcamp:

Cybernetics & Feedback

Inspired by the cybernetic and feedback works of Roland Kayn, Éliane Radigue, Bebe Barron, and Jaap Vink, and embracing an anything-goes noise music aesthetic, this collection of works from early 2022 explores analog feedback loops and self-regulating patches in Eurorack modular.

In these pieces, audio signals are routed back into themselves, and used to control processes and trigger events. While these are performed improvisations, “performance” in this case does not mean strict control, since these systems influence themselves as much as the performer does.

One of my sketches. I think this is Track 6.

A quick acknowledgement that these noisy soundscapes might not be for everyone. Don’t worry. I won’t be offended.

I do have something a little more crowd-pleasing:

Ambient Chiptune (for Studying)

As a bonus, I’ve put up all the audio tracks from my “Ambient Chiptune” videos as a free/pay-what-you-want download.

(Definitely easier listening on these!)

Enjoy!

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Reviews for “Beneath a Canopy of Angels…”

The Post Haste Reed Duo‘s debut album, “Beneath a canopy of angels… a River of Stars,” which includes my 2011 work, bioMechanics, has been getting some great press.

Check it out:

Post-Haste Reed Duo: Beneath a Canopy of Angels…a River of Stars

“Would that all new music and its performances were this tight and this serious!”

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Sonic Haiku (SEAMUS Electroacoustic Miniatures 2015)

Check out my piece Lübeck Kireji on the new SEAMUS Electro-Acoustic Miniatures CD, “Sonic Haiku”

SEAMUS Miniatures 2015

While haiku are most famous for their brevity and 5-7-5 syllabic pattern, two other elements are necessary for a traditional haiku: an evocation of the season and a juxtaposition of two distinct images. The two images are separated by a “kireji” (a “cutting word”) which indicates a pause, creating a space between the two ideas and inviting the audience themselves to connect these independent thoughts.