Marc Weidenbaum's Blog, page 415
July 16, 2014
July 15, 2014
The Wired Heart
“Heart,” Nick Lowe once sang, “why must you make such a commotion?” Affairs of that particular organ are a common enough matter in music composition. A relatively recent flourishing in inexpensive home-brew electronics has provided a uniquely quantitive approach to field research. The musician known as Papernoise (aka Hannes Pasqualini), based in Bolzano, Italy, has been experimenting with sensors that let his music kit feed off his pulse. His brief description of his efforts is as follows, for those looking to confirm the experiments in their own audio laboratories:
More tests made using the Arduino hearbeat sensor, the LXR Drum synth and the modular. Modules used: Hexinverter.net Mutant Bassdrum and Hihats, Hexinverter.net Jupiter Storm and Galiean Moons, Microbe Modular Equation Composer, Ian Fritz Threeler VCF
The result is a steady percussive sequence in which flares and echoes and other sonic elements seem to be triggered by the musician’s heart, as it goes on, again in Nick Lowe’s terms, “pounding like a hammer.”
That may be the device in question up top, via sparkfun.com.
Track originally posted at soundcloud.com/papernoise. More on Papernoise at papernoise.ne.
via instagram.com/dsqt
A stop at Max Neuhaus’ Times Square, still droning after all these years. #soundart #manhattan
Cross-posted from instagram.com/dsqt.
July 14, 2014
via instagram.com/dsqt
The exposed bit of headphone/earbud connector always confuses me.
Cross-posted from instagram.com/dsqt.
The Sound of Heavy Metal Melting
Given how many drones there are on SoundCloud, the music repository could use more drone rock — more solo chordal dirge guitar work to complement the abstract harmonic textures. More things like “Subsidence” by Radio Free Ul-quoma. Yes, it sounds like Black Sabbath drained of its blood, like Sunn O))) in a particularly reflective mood, like Earth tuning up for a memorial service. And yes, at 6:50, it could be several times longer with no complaints. It’s enjoyably meditative, the sound of heavy metal melting.
Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/radiofreeul-quoma. Radio Free Ul-quoma is Andrew Gladstone-Heighton
of Gateshead, England. His SoundCloud account leaves no further Internet mailing address.
July 13, 2014
via instagram.com/dsqt
Love the sense of poetry lent by the capitalization. #alarm #wayfinding
Cross-posted from instagram.com/dsqt.
Loops and Noise, Grit and Fragments
Much loop-based music has a sense of accrual, a sense of layers being added, phases being shifted. That is very much the mode of Moldbreath’s “Rose Buried in Sand Excision,” except that the layering of sound makes the opposite impression. The compositional approach is accrual, while the sounds are of something being disentombed. There is dirt being shifted, footsteps in nearby mud, crackling and shaking, all manner of low-tech mechanics. It’s dark and scary and morbid, and thoroughly impressive.
Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/moldbreath.
