Welcome to electro-music 2010
The electro-music festival is now in it's sixth year – having moved from the Cheltenham Art Center in Philadelphia, the Renaissance Center in Kingsport, Tennessee, and the Star Lake Camp in Bloomingdale, New Jersey to Huguenot, New York at the Greenkill Retreat Center. We have seen an increase in participation each year, until electro-music has become the premiere event of its kind in the world. This year we have many old friends returning, and even more new artists appearing for the first time. The diversity of talent and expertise is outstanding. We have high expectations for three days of innovative music, fascinating seminars, demonstrations and rousing jam sessions.
In organizing this event, we have tried to give opportunities to participate and perform to as many people as we can. In order to accomplish this, music and seminars will run almost continuously without breaks. Several events have been scheduled to run simultaneously. It will be impossible for anyone to see and hear everything. A primary purpose of this meeting is to renew old friendships and make new ones, to share ideas and experiences - to network. We expect that people may not attend all of the sessions as they take opportunities to participate in jam sessions, or just to schmooze.
The musicians presenting at electro-music 2010 are generously sharing the gift of their music. But live music involves both the performers and the audience, and there is generosity in being a listener too, especially when the music is experimental and not mainstream. Most of the music presented in these three days is not a commercial product to be purchased and consumed, but rather a personal expression done strictly for the joy of it. At this event, all of the performers are also listeners, and listening is just as important as performing.
The electro-music festival is an outgrowth of the electro-music.com internet community, which has grown in seven years to more than 14000 members. This event provides a unique opportunity for the community to support and nurture each other as we explore new ideas and develop our music. We hope that electro-music 2010 will be a positive and fulfilling experience for all who attend. Everyone working on this event is a volunteer. All of the performers, speakers, the graphic artists, and the event staff are contributing their time, skills and resources because they believe in our community and they want to be a part of it. Every piece of equipment we use is loaned as well. We can't possibly thank you enough. This is indeed a community event. Thanks to everyone, we will all be stronger for it.
- Howard and Greg
++0+
Well,
"that thing over there" seems to be some sort of
improvisational/electronica thingy. It is comprised of pseudo
guitars in altered states along with a myriad of electronic
percussion gizmo's, and when successful in its goal of spontaneous
composition, sometimes within a world beat context, or not, one would
be hard pressed to know who is doing what, even when one is standing
right in front of them, which of course would put the listener
somewhere over there, as
well.
http://www.thatthingoverthere.blogspot.com/
5turns25
Formed
on the 25th anniversary of the Landsat 5 satellite launch [3.1.2009],
5turns25 is a ambient/folktronic duo from Connecticut [USA], focusing
their approach to music making in a live looping, improvised
environment. Their primary tools include violins, mandolins, guitars,
banjo, clarinet, toy piano, modified wooden cane, kalimba, melodica,
bent circuits, didgeridoo, various percussion, and
voices.
http://www.myspace.com/5turns25
Abuse
Tactics
Experimental
Synth Project featuring Matt Coffey and Jennifer
Schmiedel.
http://noisenik.com/
Ace
Paradise
Ace Paradise
is Ed Aceto - artist, musician, DJ, live performer, producer,
specializing in the production of electronic music. Ace enjoys
working and collaborating with DJs and musicians to preserve and
promote many genres of Electronic Music. His approach toward
electronic performance stems from his many years spent as a DJ,
developing his own techniques for combining and mixing sequencers,
synthesizers, samplers, DJ mixers and effects controllers. These
techniques have enabled Ace to combine multiple elements "live,"
creating a spectacular and unforgettable
sound.
http://soundcloud.com/ace-paradise/tracks
Acoustic
Interloper
Acoustic
Interloper, a.k.a. Dale E. Parson, is a folkie at heart. It all goes
back to that weekend at the 1971 Philly Folk Festival, after which he
cut the two bass strings off of his electric guitar and retuned the
other four in order to learn banjo chords until he could afford to
buy a real one. These days a laptop is just another folk instrument
lying around the house waiting to be picked up and played. Most of
Dale's electronic music consists of computer-assisted phrase
restructuring and sonic treatment of acoustic instruments, vocals,
and found sounds. His 2010 electro-music piece is taking shape, and
it is sure to include some treated
vocals.
http://faculty.kutztown.edu/parson/music/
æther
generator
aether
generator is music for futuristic science fiction movies that have
yet to be made. it is a soundscape that decimates and regenerates and
reverberates and punctuates and personifies machinery lost in
glorious mating rituals. it is shifts and skisms and bleeps and
drones and static and pulses and modulations and beats and
antigravity ambience. it is whatever this improvisational duo reads
live from one another as they twist knobs and slope faders and adjust
frequencies. it may fail. it is translucent in space and opaque in
structures. it is akin to chamber music for people who like science
filmstrips. it is an electrical substation crackling in solitude. it
is an ornate temple in the jungle canopy for the many-handed
elephants lounging in thrones constructed from thatched leaves.
aether generator:music as white gloves:rave as silence:the potential
of canvas as set deconstruction:theatre as fingerpaint:math. it is
entirely composed from (mostly) effects pedals and handsonic and
samplers and various noisy things by two musicians who are humbled by
the fact that someone out there is listening to us breathe together.
it is a loving use of midi. it (ununderstandingly) feels its way
through the evening and may not comprehend or remember where it has
been, much like dreaming. it lacks capital letters. it is an
invention purported to create limitless energy from the simplicity of
air. it does not register as important. most of all, aether generator
wishes to be blessed by your presence at 4:30 pm before dinner on
saturday. and until then...
http://www.coloringpad.blogspot.com
Azimuth
Visuals
Azimuth
Visuals is the artistic partnership of Greg and Hong Waltzer. They
create video performance art to accompany musical events. Using a
combination of computer-generated abstract images, animations, Greg's
artwork, Hong's nature photography and video clips, these images are
processed and mixed in real time by various effects software and
video hardware. The intent is to provide a colorful and dynamic
visual experience that is inspired by and complements the
music.
http://gregwaltzer.com/azimuth/azimuth.html
Atmosphera
Atmosphera
is a live performance journal of solo ambient artist Shane Morris
streamed on radio.electro-music.com twice monthly and rebroadcast
weekly on stillstream.com. The Atmosphera series explores ethereal
soundworlds and spatial relationships in the ambient, space,
psychedelic domains. The music is a combination of composed and
improvised pieces that segue together in a continual immersive
composition. Atmosphera at EM2010 will be extended into a quintet of
veteran electronic musicians. Following in the tradition of Space
Port Zero Nine, last year’s collaboration, Atmosphera will be a
30 minute improvisation of ambient, experimental, space music with
Richard Lainhart, Dan Minoza, Jez Creek, Dr. Steve Weinstock, and
Shane Morris.
The Bent
Doctors
There are certain
evil manifestations in the psychic realm to which we are impervious
as long as we are unaware of them. Caught in the crossfire between
two worlds, only the Bent Doctors have a foot in both dimensions,
instantaneously stitching through time at all points along time,
simultaneously. Featuring Rebecca "Doc" Mercuri, formerly
of the Electronic Butt Bongo Orchestra and Rev. Doktor Kevin S
Meredith of the Subgenius Foundation. Group augments with
'assimilated' sound drones as space-time permits. Time travelers may
bring their own instruments from the Circuit Bending workshop on
Sunday.
Brainstatik
New
Jersey-based Brainstatik is best known for their improvised live
concerts, where they perform long-form jams combining ambient, world,
progressive rock, and space music, liberally shifting and mixing
genres within each piece. Every song is a spontaneous exploration of
diverse musical themes, rarely rehearsed or planned beforehand, so
Brainstatik always sounds completely different each time they play.
Brainstatik has been together for 15 years and the four musicians in
the band are all certified electronic gear junkies, each choosing
from a huge sonic palette from which to make sounds. The music heard
at their shows is always organic, with each piece constantly
evolving and morphing into something new. Brainstatik can sound
ethereal and quiet, complex and orchestral, or experimental and
edgy. The resulting performances often sound rehearsed and composed,
but they honestly have no explanation as to where the musical muse
will lead them during a live performance.
http://www.brainstatik.com/
Delicate
Monster
“Four legs and two voices: a most delicate
monster!” —Shakespeare, The Tempest. Both Art Cohen
(guitar) and Steve Bowman (synths) love to argue about what makes
good music. They argue with each other and with anybody else who
feels passionate about music. Through Delicate Monster, they make
their arguments in sound. Art and Steve agree that music created in
the flow of the moment is the ultimate experience—tempered by
the paradox that structure and planning are necessary to keep the
music real. They agree that music is about ideas, not covering other
artists or showing off technology. Delicate Monster leads the
listener through the paradoxes of musical language, from delicate
(open modal harmonies, tuneful melodies, precious sounds) to
monstrous (dissonance, brute cacophony, noise). When Art and Steve
disagree it’s a consequence of their divergent musical
backgrounds. Art is rooted in psychedelic guitar, Berlin-school
spacemusic, and American folk. He’s been a fixture on the
Philly music scene for 30 years—you may know him as one half of
The Ministry of Inside Things (with Chuck van Zyl). Steve has a
degree in Music from Harvard, where he first encountered the Buchla.
He draws inspiration from classical music and radical composers like
Ives, Stockhausen, Bach, Palestrina, and Ligeti. (Art and Steve do
agree on the Grateful Dead and Captain Beefheart.) Art pushes Steve
to create music that is clear and simple, to groove on repetition for
its own sake. Steve pushes Art to surrender to his weird side and
luxuriate in complexity and dissonance. Playing together off and on
for 20 years, Art and Steve merge their stylistic differences into a
kinky musical language that is Delicate Monster. Audiences share in
the musical adventure as Art and Steve reach for the ultimate
agreement—the magical space where two prepared and practiced
musicians connect in musical conversation.
Jeremy
dePrisco
Jeremy dePrisco (aka Shivasongster) is a
Bloomsburg, PA producer and songwriter who has released several
collections of original music in the Folk-rock genre, drawing also
from Blues and Progressive Rock. Jeremy has created sound design for
a number of university and local theatre productions, performed with
a Hungarian folk group and with a Bengali tabla player. Yet, it is
not likely that much of that will matter at EM. Growing up listening
to Echoes and Hearts of Space on public radio, and after being a
closet sound experimentalist for 15+ years, Jeremy is attempting to
bring his "after midnight" studio experiments to the stage.
These improvisational electro-acoustic sound paintings (?) include
looping, effects pedals, and Jeremy's distinctive voice and rely on
too much technology for most venues. So EM seemed like a good choice
- and audience - for this debut. It may be a complete disaster.
Jeremy's latest CD "Chaos Rise Up" - based on themes of
technology and media influence - will also be available. Influences
include Tom Waits, Beck, Bjork, NIN, Bill Laswell, Jethro Tull, Cat
Stevens, Rumi, Buddha, Joseph Campbell, Songlines Magazine, Turkish
music and Lowe's Home Improvement.
http://shivasongster.com
Robert
Dorschel
Robert
Dorschel (Syracuse, NY) has been using synths, guitars, tape decks,
and computers since circa 1983 to make various incantations of sound
and music. He decided in 2006 to make the leap to use (primarily)
software synthesizers and effects in a Mac/Logic Pro based rig.
However, some hardware tools might come along for the ride, including
basses, guitars, hand percussion, nose flute, and the Zen Tambour.
Robert's current style is eclectic and amorphous. His latest foci are
downtempo, looping, drone, and dark ambient. These aural scribblings
tend to be Peter Gabriel-esque in nature, peppered with a sense of
humor or wonderment; soundtracks for movies that play in his mind; or
a handful of simple orphaned segues adopted into one
theme.
http://soundcloud.com/robertdorschel
dRachEmUsiK
Who
or what is dRachEmUsiK? dRachEmUsiK is a moniker used by Charles
Shriner. Who is Charles Shriner? Charles has been making music full
time for 37 years and likes to think of himself as an accomplished,
creative musician in spite of extensive formal training and years of
commercial experience. What does dRachEmUsiK mean? It's nonsense and
doesn't mean anything. How do you pronounce dRachEmUsiK?
Pronunciation is left to the discretion of the user. What does
dRachEmUsiK sound like? George Shearing, Frederick Delius and Tom
Jenkinson meet at a circuit party. Rhythmic, swirling, emotional,
spontaneous. Tradition twisted, shaken & stirred. Excellent
sound-design & bizarre structures. Keeps the ear's attention
focused. -- Bob in Chicago. What instruments are being
used?Electronic Wind Instrument, various controllers and
soft-synths.
http://www.drachemusik.com/
Earthgirl
Earthgirl
is the musical persona of Jeannie Allen, an experimental electronic
musician based in Indianapolis, Indiana. She combines analog
synthesizers, digital analog modeling, field recordings and vocals to
create a sense of traveling through space and time. Inspired by
musicians who use sound to evoke feelings and thoughts, she
continually explores all genres of electronic music. Jeannie is
currently working on several ambient and electronica projects, with a
focus on raising awareness for the needs of the earth and all who
live here.
http://www.myspace.com/earthgirlvibes
Robert
Edgar
Robert Edgar will
perform with his Simultaneous Opposites engine, which he has been
developing in MAX/MSP/Jitter since 2007. The engine loads a video
file and initial parameters for loop length, center frame # of loop,
and frames per second. The program uses these parameters to play
through the loop away from and back toward the center, one frame at a
time, simultaneously in opposite directions. The opposing movements
through the video file fit together like a zipper. The center frame
between the two ends of the simultaneous opposites loop becomes a
temporal focal plane, with the length of the loop a temporal depth of
field. The flow of the original images is shaken down, and the
surfaces and tendencies are brought forward as subject. Depending on
how objects appear and move in the frames, one finds both new ways of
noticing, and new contexts to explain how we notice. Against the
looping algorithm Robert deflects the automation with commands from a
Fender MIDI Stratocaster. Audio is from the original video frames, as
well as audio triggered and modulated by the Strat, during the
SimultaneousOpposites' Engine's traversal of the source
videos.
http://www.robertedgar.com/
Ben
Fleury-Steiner
Ben
Fleury-Steiner's music features electric kalimba and oscillating
synth sounds played through a slew of hardware effects boxes to evoke
a kind hypnotic and minimalist ambient (and sometimes dubby) sound.
Althugh he doesn't use computers or electric bass guitar live his
music has been compared to Tim Hecker, Loscil, and early Stars of the
Lid.
http://www.infractionrecords.com/audio.html
Paul
Harriman
Paul Harriman (EdisonRex) is a regular contributor
to radio.electro- music.com, with a twice monthly 2 hour experimental
ambient electronic exploration called Edison's Ephemera, and a weekly
showcase of contributed experimental electronic and electro-acoustic
music called Edison's Electronic Review. Paul has been working with
electronic synthesis since the 1970s and continues to explore musical
styles and timbres using a collection of analog, digital and hybrid
synthesizers, and alternative controllers. The Ephemera series, now
in its second year, explores ambient environmental sounds accompanied
by various electronic and electro-acoustic instruments, as vignettes
changing over the course of the show. Moods change regularly. Each
show is mostly improvised, live, onto a pre-arranged (just before the
show) series of sequences, loops, and timbre sets. The Ephemera
Collaborative continues this exploration of ambient sound with
electronic accompaniment, only with more artists!
Glenn
Henriksen
Glenn is from Norway , and he plays melodic synth
music, If you like Jean Michel Jarre, Klaus Shulze, Kitaro ... you
should definitely be at his performance. Glenn has released two
albums, "Electronic Secret" and "Message" and he
hopes to bring his third album to Electro-music 2010 for pre-release.
http://www.myspace.com/glennhenriksen
Hylantown
Hylantown
is Leo Hylan, a Composer/VJ/and DJ from the Baltimore area. The name
comes from a play on Leo's last name an and the infamous Baltimore
neighborhood- "Highlandtown". Hylantown's music ranges
from ambient to techno, from pure electronica to electro-acoustic.
Coherence in these styles is maintained through an emphasis on
melodic tones. Influences include- Boards of Canada, NIN, Orbital,
Underworld, and Brian Eno. The video perfomance is based more on the
work of the Abstract Expressionists including Mark Rothko, Gerhard
Richter, and Jackson Pollock. Hylantown is a member of Time
Travelers Never Die and The Nexwork in the Baltimore area.
Leo Hylan has a B.F.A. in New Media from The School of the Art
Institute of Chicago, and has been a performing and visual artist as
well as arts educator in the Maryland area for many years.
Kevin
Kissinger
Kevin Kissinger is a classical organist,
composer, and electronic musician from Kansas City, Mo. His most
recent interest is to compose and perform works for the theremin --
an instrument that was invented in 1919. Kevin composes tonal music
for theremin that utilizes the theremin, laptop-based looping,
effects, and surround-sound. He creates both live-looping works and
works for theremin and pre-recorded tracks. Kevin's theremin
compositions can be described as neo-classical, minimalist, and
mildly avante-garde. Kevin explains: "I want to create tonal
compositions that are intellectually challenging yet accessable to
many listeners. I find the theremin to be a haunting and expressive
instrument. In my imagination, I can hear its "voice"
echoing from all directions. My surround-sound looping compositions
are an attempt to realize the sound that is in my head." Kevin's
program for 2010 includes some works from previous years and will
unveil a new, never-before-heard composition for theremin and live
looping. Kevin is active in the Electro-music.com, Thereminworld.com,
and Loopers-delight.com online communities. He co-hosts (with Shane
Morris) the Kansas City Regional Electro-music festival now entering
its third year. His theremin performances include the Electro-music,
Y2K International Live-Looping, 60x60, and the Ethermusic festivals.
In 2011 he will perform on the One Thousand Pulses and the Composer's
Voice series.
http://kevinkissinger.com/
Andrew
Koenig
Andrew Koenig is a computer scientist and
(originally) acoustic musician who has come to electro-music through
the classical, rock, and folk worlds. He started playing recorder as
a child and guitar and bass as a teenager, and studied music theory
in college. He is a member of an early-music ensemble
(www.earlymusicplayers.org) and a folk/country band
(www.storynsong.com/musictown).
His music often starts with traditional melodies and musical forms,
which he then twists around, such as by using a looper to help sing
an Elizabethan round, writing what sounds like a polka in 7/8 time,
or using a sampler to build a drum kit from the sounds of doors
closing and flatware jangling.
Richard
Lainhart
Richard Lainhart is an award-winning composer,
filmmaker, and author - a digital artisan who works with sonic and
visual data. Since childhood, he's been interested in natural
processes such as waves, flames and clouds, in harmonics and harmony,
and in creative interactions with machines, using them as
compositional methods to present sounds and images that are as
beautiful as he can make them. At electro-music 2010, Lainhart will
perform realtime improvised soundtracks on his Buchla 200e/Haken
Continuum system to accompany his high-definiton abstract digital
films. Lainhart studied composition and electronic music with Joel
Chadabe at the State University of New York at Albany. Recordings of
his music have appeared on the Periodic Music, Vacant Lot, XI
Records, Airglow Music, Tobira Records, Infrequency, VICMOD, and
ExOvo labels. As an active performer, Lainhart has appeared in public
approximately 2500 times. Besides performing his own work, he has
worked and performed with John Cage, David Tudor, Steve Reich, Phill
Niblock, David Berhman, Rhys Chatham, and Jordan Rudess, among many
others. In 2008, he was commissioned by the Electronic Music
Foundation to contribute a work to New York Soundscape
(http://www.arts-electric.org/stories/081005_newyorksoundscape.html).
In 2009, he was one of 200 electric guitarists who performed in the
US premiere of Rhys Chatham's "A Crimson Grail" at Lincoln
Center in New York City. In July 2010, he performed as a featured
electronic artist at Avantgarde Festival Schiphorst 2010 in
Schiphorst, Germany. Lainhart's animations and short films have been
shown at festivals in the US, the UK, Canada, Portugal, Italy,
France, Spain, Germany, and Korea, and online at Souvenirs From
Earth, ResFest, The New Venue, The Bitscreen, and Streaming Cinema
2.0. In 2009, he was awarded a Film & Media grant by the New York
State Council on the Arts for "No Other Time", a
full-length intermedia performance designed for a large reverberant
space, combining live analog electronics with four-channel playback,
and high-definition computer-animated film projection. In January
2010, he performed as a featured Live Media audio-visual artist at
Netmage 2010 in Bologna, Italy.
http://www.otownmedia.com/
the Last to
Sleep
The Last to
Sleep invites you to join us for our debut performance at Electro
Music 2010. We make music with computers and instruments and little
humanoid talking things that we grew from a kit purchased at some
voodoo shop in Memphis. We thought we were buying sea monkeys. In the
middle of the night when you're snoring, or you can't sleep because
someone else is snoring, or you're out drinking way too late again,
there's ectoplasm oozing out of our ears. Sometimes we get lazy and
just wipe it on the carpet. It's disgusting. We make music that
glistens, bristles, heaves, screams, whispers and coos like a
cleverly ornamented reflection of the blisteringly fascinating,
crushing mundanity that is life. Plus there are robot sounds. We
encourage you to visit us online where you can listen to our work and
download our free EP, "1000 Voices."
http://thelasttosleep.com/
Mayakara
Mayakara,
Sanskrit for Conjurer of Illusions, is an acoustic/electronic duo
consisting of Bill Fieger and Mike Hunter. They weave acoustic
elements such as Bill's custom built "Lunatar" and Mike's
Didgeridoo styling's with various electronic instruments and
processors. Together, the unworldly sound invites the listener to
join the shaman's dance and see through the illusion that is
"reality." Bill can also be heard performing with "Stares
To Nowhere" and solo as "Oblivious Solitude." Mike
performs solo as Ombient, with Brainstatik and also hosts
a WPRB 103.3FM Ambient/Electronic/Experimental music show called
"Music With Space" out of Princeton, NJ
http://www.mayakara.net/
D.
Minoza
Dan Miñoza
is an electro-acoustic musician and composer. Drawing inspiration
from a diversity of genres including: Indian Classical Dhrupad,
Ambient, Spacemusic, Jazz, Avant-garde, Classical, Noise and
Progressive Rock he incorporates 8 string extended-range Warr guitar
and laptop processing to create unique atmospheric
soundscapes.
http://www.myspace.com/dminoza
Logan
Mitchell
I've had an
interest in Electronic Music since the late 1960's & 1970's when
I first listened to the albums of Walter Carlos (Switched On Bach) &
Dick Hyman (The Electric Eclectics of Dick Hyman), Paul Bley &
Peacock and Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon. I 'm also inspired by
groups such as Emerson Lake & Palmer, Yes, Tangerine Dream,
Kraftwerk, Triumvirat and numerous individual synthesists such as
Keith Emerson, George Duke, Bernie Worrell & Don Preston, all of
whom I've had the pleasure to meet & take photos with, as well as
inspiration by Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Rick Wakeman, the late
Billy Preston, etc. In November of 2007 I decided to put together an
electronic music equipment users group called Baltimore SDIY Group
(http://sites.google.com/site/baltimoresdiygroup) for those of us who
live in the Mid-Atlantic region & collect music synthesizer
equipment. Some of us in the group, including myself, have been
performing with other musicians or as soloists for quite a long time.
We perform together publicly as the Baltimore SDIY Group as well as
individually under our own performance names. For public performances
I use the name "Synth Tech
Project".
http://sites.google.com/site/synthtechproject/Home
Modulator
ESP
Modulator ESP = Modulator Experimental Synthesis
Project = Jez Creek from Nottingham, UK. Jez performs improvised
music that explores the boundaries of dark ambient, drone, Berlin
school sequencing and noise using modular synthesis, real-time
sampling, sound manipulation and live looping. Modulator ESP has been
described variously as ‘vintage synth overload to propel you
into the outer reaches of the cosmos’ and ‘one man will
descend to (this) earth in a hail of analogue synth tones; called
upon from the singular consciousness of John Carpenter and Vangelis -
like a 2046 dystopian dream with the optimism of Jean Michael Jarre.
Jez has a fortnightly show on radio.electro-music.com called
Adventures In Sound and will be leading a collaboration of the same
name at electro-music 2010, his website is at
www.modulator-esp.co.uk
http://www.modulator-esp.co.uk/
Shane
Morris
Shane Morris is an
ambient electronic multi-instrumentalist and composer residing near
Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA. Shane forges his sound from a variety
of electronic, acoustic, and electro-acoustic instruments and field
recordings to create compositions that are attentive to mind, body,
and soul. For the performance at electro-music 2010, Shane will be
sojourning through a vast cloud forest of sounds that peak with
hyper-groove velocities through a transcendent spiraling tunnel to
the 22nd dimension. This will be Shane’s third year to perform
and participate at the electro-music festivals. Shane is an active
contributor to electro-music.com as radio master, moderator of the
streaming radio and field recording forums, and with his Atmosphera
performance broadcasts at radio.electro-music.com. In conjunction
with Kevin Kissinger, Shane also coordinates the Kansas City
electro-music festival, a regional event that just celebrated its
second year.
http://www.myspace.com/shanemorrismusic
Howard
Moscovitz
Howard Moscovitz has been involved in electronic
music since 1967 when he started making tape music using a short wave
radio as a sound source. Never satisfied with commercially available
musical instruments, Howard began designing his own while studying
with Robert Ashley at Mills College. After working with his mentor,
Stanley Lunetta, designing some of the very first digital
synthesizers, Howard worked with Donald Buchla on the infamous
Electric Symphony Orchestra which gave its one and only performance
in 1974 at Berkeley, California. He has designed several unique
electronic instruments, including signal processors and sequencers.
Some of these were manufactured by Electronic Music Associates in the
1970's, and are highly desired today among collectors. In 2003 Howard
founded electro-music.com as an interactive web site dedicated to
furthering the art of electronic music.
Mark
Mosher
Mark Mosher is an electronic music composer, sound
designer, and performance artist based out of Boulder, CO. He has
been creating and performing electronic music for the past 20 years.
Mark's use of technology assists in creating an entertaining,
visually intriguing performance of his original music. Mark also
inspires and educates other electronic music artists by blogging and
lecturing on state-of-the art digital music technology &
technique. Mark is currently performing a unique live show built
around the songs from his latest electronic/experimental music album
"I Hear Your Signals." In this show Mark performs using
keyboards, matrix controllers, the exotic Theremin, and unique visual
and tangible controllers such as the Tenori-On and Percussa
AudioCubes. The performance is intended for "black box"
theatres, artistic venues and electronic music festivals for audience
members interested in instrumental electronic music and visual arts.
Mark’s use of visual controllers offers feedback of his
movements in the form of light, making it possible for the audience
to connect the performance with the music coming from the
speakers.
http://www.markmoshermusic.com/fr_events.cfm
Mosquito
Gita
Mosquito Gita is a music of contrasts. Acoustic and
electronic. Analog and digital. Melodic and noisy. Echoes of the
recent and distant past. Bill Fieger plays acoustic instruments:
guitar, koto, bouzouki, etc., plus instruments of his own design such
as the Lunatar. He is also a member of the duos Stares to Nowhere and
Mayakara. Wyman Brantley electronically and digitally manipulates
field recordings, guitar, and electronic instruments. He has played
in numerous improvising ensembles, including Operators and
Things.
http://www.myspace.com/mosquitogita
MusicMan11712
MusicMan11712
(aka Dr. Steve) is Steve Weinstock (mild-mannered High School Special
Ed. Office Clerk by day). He has dabbled with various aspects of
electronic music for years, including work with tape manipulation,
555 timers, the Moog, the Synclavier, assembly language midi
programming (Commodore 64 and 8086/8088-based computers). He
currently uses some combination of midi controllers and routers,
sound modules, and software (sequencers, patch editors, softsynths,
custom ChucK midi processing scripts, etc.) to create electro ambient
experimental music sometimes laced with beats. Over the past year
Steve has been developing a real-time performance modality after
years of primarily doing multi-track midi compositions. EM2010 is
Steve's first face-to-face performance since the early 1990s, though
he has had an active presence streaming live sets via
radio.electro-music.com (seasonal on-line festivals, guest
performances on Atmosphera and Adventures in Sound, as well as
performing and/or mixing international internet-based latency jams on
electro-music.com's Open Port). Steve's performance at EM2010 will be
based around midi controllers (primarily midi keyboards with sliders
and knobs) tapping into the power of synth engines found in older
synth gear and will be representative of the current state of his
real-time performance modality using layering techniques.
MyOwnYoko
"MyOwnYoKo"
is an exploration of Dub Inspired, Electro-Improv Live Sound Looping.
Performances are always improvisational, featuring multi-instrumental
layering of sound on sound loops creating a spontaneous sound scape
portrait unique in it's originality, and a reflection of the time and
the place of creation. The result is music unique to the moment and a
true interactive collaboration between artist and audience.
"MyOwnYoKo" originated as a member of the Philadelphia
based performance arts troupe, "TRIBAL KNOWLEDGE".
Influenced by Dub Reggae, Trip Hop, Progressive Rock, Electro-Music,
and gadgetry of all shapes and sizes. "MyOwnYoKo" offers a
relaxed but compelling journey of musical creativity and joyful
noise.
NEOREV
Neorev
is Michael Matteo, an electronic music producer from Long Island, New
York. In 2003, he took on the alias to showcase his own blend of
electronica. Combining in your face riffs and dirty breakbeats, he
has created his own modern take on dance music with the spirit of the
old school warehouse rave scene. For almost a decade, Mike has been
retooling, reshaping and mastering his formula of adrenaline pumping
electro power anthems. A year after the release of his last album
"Lines & Shapes," Mike is ready to introduce the world
to the next stage of NR with the brand new album "Renegade
Radio." Taking the tempo down to a hip hop strut, Mike has once
again reinvented himself while maintaining an aural assault of
energy-fueled big beats and circuitry. A weapon of mass destruction
against your sound system. Dark. Brutal. And most important...
Booming. This is the second coming of
Neorev.
http://www.neorevmusic.com/
Northern
Valentine
Northern
Valentine is a Philadelphia based ambient/drone collective anchored
by husband and wife, Robert and Amy Brown. The music they create is
largely improvisational and is often set to films or visuals that the
collective has created in order to sink deeper into the the visual
aspect of the music. Coaxing sounds from electric and acoustic
sources, they weave meditative drones and soundscapes with "barely
there" post-rock instrumentation to create a tapestry that Phil
McMullen (Terrascope Online) refers to as "minimalist ambiance
at its best. Heartfelt, soulful and affecting, like gazing into a
scrapbook of memories". Writing about their most recent album,
The Distance Brings Us Closer, released on Silber Records in 2008,
Jeff Penczak (Foxy Digitalis) says..."Northern Valentine’s
music delivers a sense of floating in space or a communion with
nature where the listener is enveloped in clouds of billowing sonics.
The listener’s imagination can run wild, creating images to
accompany this ambient soundtrack... In sum, an awesomely hypnotic
listening experience." They have drawn comparisons to a wide
range of artists; from Labradford, Windy and Carl, Flying Saucer
Attack, Fennesz and Eluvium, to Mogwai, Godspeed You Black Emperor!
and Earth. They have been playing live as a collective since 2006,
having toured periodically throughout the Eastern/Southern US, as
well as in Iceland in 2008.
http://northernvalentine.com/
Norton
Antivirus
"I Don't Know What I'm Doing." This
phrase has become the mantra for my life. Whether I'm shopping for
groceries, cleaning up the studio, (which face it, is NEVER gonna get
cleaned http://www.flickr.com/photos/35418898@N00/4898558103/ ) or
setting up for a gig. I thought at this point in my life I'd be
gaining wisdom, not fumbling it. Because it is my life, it is also my
art. It is constantly on the verge of falling apart, but it never
quite does. Bill Wyman said the same thing about The Stone's timing;
"It always feels like it's going to fall apart by the next
measure, but it doesn't. It kinda grooves that way." I don't
think Norton Antivirus grooves. But, y'know.....maybe.
Michael O'Bannon
Joo
Won Park
Joo
Won Park is a composer/researcher of music within several genres. His
recent interest includes soundscape composition, improvisation with
found objects, and electronically enhanced performance. In this
festival, Joo Won will perform live interactive pieces for mbira,
melodica, bicycle bell, toy cars, rubber bands, umbrella, and many
other sounding objects. Joo Won was an associate director of Florida
Electroacoustic Music Festival, and currently teaches music at the
Community College of Philadelphia. His music is available on ICMC
2004 DVD, Spectrum Press, and MIT Press.
http://joowonpark.net/
Kip
Rosser
Kip Rosser has
been performing on the theremin for over eight years. His full-length
production, Unholy Secrets of the Theremin in Manhattan’s 2005
New York International Fringe Festival received overwhelming critical
acclaim. In 2006, Rosser received Moog Music’s artist
endorsement, demonstrating their theremins at the annual AMTA
convention. Appearances at places like New York City’s famed
Cornelia Street Cafe, and the exclusive Coffee House are earning him
the reputation as one of the most accomplished thereminists in the
country.
http://performancekr.com/
Project
Ruori
project ruori
is an art terrarium, a microcosm in which artists collide, cohere,
and break apart again, all within the project ruori unstructure
paradigm. this means that it sometimes is a band, and sometimes is a
collective of individual artists, and sometimes is a vehicle for
sub-bands like 24 hours the girl, and sometimes is all these things
at once, and sometimes more and sometimes less. it has no manifesto,
no leader, no fixed member list, no genre. if you aren't sure
whether you are or have ever been part of project ruori, it's safe to
say you have. past perpetrations at electro-music events by project
ruori co- conspirators include last year's ahistorical meditation on
the loneliness of the six foot roller man, a 2008 audio-culinary
exploration of the meaning of bastille day, a 2007 treatise on female
benignity, the 2006 dramatization of the fraudulence of presidents'
day, and a 2005 existential unvertisement for life insurance. project
ruori has also publicly claimed responsibility for several
metaphysical assaults at notacon, including public abuse of a
nintento soundcard, a dramatically-coiffed exposé connecting
soviet espionage to einstürzende neubauten, and placement of a
sinister found-noise gameshow machine. future plans include a
celebration of the inexorable progression of entropy.
http://ruori.org/
recompas
Travis
Thatcher is a musician, instrument designer, and programmer. Having
been part of the Atlanta music scene since 2000, he has performed in
many cities, among them: New York, Chicago, London and Jerusalem.
Currently 1/3 of Judi Chicago and 1/? of recompas, a live collective
of sorts stemming from solo work, Travis has also been active in
recording and remixing artists in the Atlanta scene. Travis is also
the designer behind the Voice of Saturn line of electronic musical
instruments. Working together with Scott Driscoll of Curious
Inventor, Voice of Saturn kits and modules have been shipped all over
the world to many ambitious noise-makers and experimenters. Both have
been working on new designs and kits and hope to grow even more as a
part of the DIY musical community. As a computer programmer, Travis
received a BS in Computer Science from Georgia Tech in Spring 2005.
His graduate work was in the field of music technology, specifically
in human computer interaction for live performance and interactive
sonification. Concentrating on mobile applications for networked
collaboration and on controller design, he has been involved with
projects including: Brainwaves, a sonification installation that
allows a group of players to interact with an auditory display of
neural activity, Iltur, a series of musical compositions featuring a
novel method of interaction between acoustic and electronic
instruments with new musical controllers called Beatbugs, and
Listening Machines, a concert series exploring concepts of machines
listening and improvisation and musical human-machine interaction.
Post graduate school Travis had teaching positions at both Savannah
College of Art and Design (Atlanta) as well as at the Art Institute
of Atlanta. After a brief stint in the corporate world where time was
spent helping to develop a Flash-based interactive meeting place,
MeetSee, he decided to focus his efforts on music, instrument design,
and freelance interactive programming (Flash, PHP, MySQL, JQUERY).
Travis now resides in New York City and is working as a freelance
musician, artist and programmer.
http://www.recompas.com/
redgreenblue
Electro-ambient
music that evokes the romance of travel and wanderlust of living.
Using keyboards and drum controllers, redgreenblue's performances are
sonically rich and visually absorbing, engaging the eyes, the ears
and the imagination. The synthesizer is my instrument, not a
substitute for 'real' instruments. With influences ranging from
Kraftwerk to Jean-Michelle Jarre, Pink Floyd to Vangelis, Gary Numan
to William Orbit, redgreenblue's music is engaging and has a
narrative. This is not musical wallpaper nor is it for 2 a.m.
head-pounding at a club. Combined with tasteful videos my
performances are compelling and the technology is there to serve me,
not the other way around. There is no e-mail checking onstage with a
redgreenblue
performance!
http://shanekingweb.com/Site/redgreenblue/redgreenblue.html
Siebert
and Lepre
Our music is a unique blend of electronic
improvisations and jazz rhythms. We have incorporated melody and
noise in place of the usual concept of consonance and dissonance.
Through the use of improvised melodies and rhythms, we seek to tell a
story in sound. Our program this year consists of jazz standards and
original pieces. These will include “Night in Tunisia” –
by Dizzy Gillespie, “Footprints” – by Wayne
Shorter, and Milestones” – by Miles Davis. New original
music will include “Fluorescence”, “Innocence”,
& “Reticence” – music for outer space from our
CD “Ride the Current.” Both Bob and I have been
performers in the Metropolitan area for the past 40 years.
Spinning
Plates
Spinning
Plates is an electro-improvisational music project. Spinning Plates'
sound is eclectic and evolving; from chilled-out ethereal soundscapes
to funky experimental grooves. SP begins each piece with a clean
slate, improvising, looping, remixing, layering sound on sound,
resulting in a unique sonic design every
time.
http://www.spinningplates.us/
SPITZNAGEL
James
Spitznagel’s work was described by novelist J. Robert Lennon as
"making the ordinary seem alien and alienation seem ordinary".
With 30 years experience in music, Spitznagel brings a broad
perspective to the worlds of electronic, experimental and sample
based music. CADENCE, the world-renowned music magazine, has stated:
"Spitznagel negotiates a unique solo performance using
electronics as his paintbrush and an extra-wide soundstage on which
to splatter his creation." This year at Electro-Music 2010,
Spitznagel’s performance gear will include: An iPod Touch, a
Tenori-on from Yamaha and two Dave Smith synths (the Evolver and the
Mopho). The music will be a combination of glitch-tech rhythms,
galactican ambience and improvised
melodies.
http://www.levelgreen.com/
State
Machine
“State Machine” is Bill Manganaro from
Long Island, New York. Bill has been composing original,
electronically generated music for over ten years. Bill utilizes his
over thirty years of electronics design & troubleshooting
experience by channeling this knowledge into creating instruments and
keyboards of his own designs. This will be Bill’s third
appearance at this annual, multi-day, electro-music festival. This
year, Bill’s theme will be “music creation using table
top synthesizers” or what he likes to call “table top -
electro pop”, the making of music using commercially available,
some handmade, very compact, analog and digital synthesizers. State
Machine will drive these interconnected sound sources via human and
computer control to create 45 minutes of hypnotic, flowing, machine
like drones, ticks, rhythms, and melodies that will be woven into
each another seamlessly.
Symmetry
Symmetry
is Jose Eduardo Murcia (principle composer, keyboards, percussion,
effects), Richard Lee Sisco (acoustic/electronic saxophone,
keyboards), and John P Rivera (keyboards/logistics/transport (Captain
of a small fleet of Starships manufactured by the Hyundai Corp.)) Our
music blends elements of electro-jazz, rock, music concrete and
hip-hop harnessing the energy from both urban inner city and suburban
forest lifestyles. We hail from the Fiorello H Laguardia High School
of Music and Art(1979) and have participated in both paid and
charitable offerings for various organizations throughout our lives.
We are for peace and the liberation of those in bondage everywhere.
Jack Tamul
Technicolor
Travel Agency
Technicolor Travel Agency is the musical duo
of Greg Waltzer (synthesizers and sequencers) and Johnny Doyle
(guitar). Their improvisational excursions take the listener on a
journey of the mind, fusing world motifs with psychedelic guitar and
spaced-out electronics.
http://technicolortravelagency.com/
Tantroniq
Tantroniq
is the moniker of Tanya Thielke, a classically and academically
trained musician/composer turned sound and noise artist. Tantroniq’s
sonic conception is to bring forth expressive beauty in sounds
ranging from “noise” “ugly” “gritty”
and “low tech” and use these as expressive as well as
structural elements, sometimes in the context of contrasting
traditionally beautiful and organic sound qualities. Expressively,
these compositions create a sort of sonic narrative, both direct and
implied, of the human experience in the digital
age.
http://www.tantroniq.com/
Transistor
Club
Mel Morley is a Keyboardist, Bassist, Zendrummer and
Music Producer from Miami, Florida/Zurich, Switzerland. "Part of
the pleasure of doing what I do is working around the world with some
of the finest artists who groove like crazy." I have performed
and recorded with Paul Schaeffer, A Flock of Seagulls, Ron
Wood,Yngwie Malmsteen, Inner Circle, Pretty Ricky, Buddy Miles, Pablo
Moses, The Cornelius Bros and Sister Rose, The Platters, Drifters,
Coasters, Bronski Beat, CCCP, and am one of 2 American Artists to
perform at the entire Montreux Jazz
festival.
www.myspace.com/transistorclubmusic
The
Tronic
Formed
in 2008 as an improvisational live jazz-tronic band w/ DJ
sensibilities and instrumental proficiency. Gregg Jarvis (nyc)
utilizes drums and electronics along with Thomas Bell (nyc) on basses
and synthesizers to create soundscapes, grooves and other worldly
nastiness. Their unique approach to improvisation blurs the lines
between the live musician, the composer and the dj. The Tronic is
truly a forward-thinking modern jazz
ensemble.
http://www.oxygenmusiccollective.org/
Twyndyllyngs
Before
forming Xeroid Entity with Greg Waltzer, Howard Moscovitz and Bill
Fox were already playing together under the name Subspace. The duo
was put on hiatus since they were playing exclusively as Xeroid
Entity. But in early 2010, Howard and Bill realized that they had
made a resurgence as a duo. Meanwhile, the old band name had been
plastered all over the internet by other acts. So using a new name,
Howard and Bill returned to the spotlight with (mostly) weekly
internet broadcasts called Chez Mosc, originating from Howard's
living room. In Twyndyllyngs, Howard and Bill maintain their
predilection for improvisation. One never knows in what direction the
music will go. Ambient, noise, sequencer, looping, Classical, Moog
Modular, Rock... These are just some of the tools and influences to
be crafted into the emotion of the
moment.
http://myspace.com/twyndyllyngs
Harvey
Valdes
Harvey
Valdes is interested in expanding the musical capacity of the guitar
through the sensitive use of pedals and loops. He sees pedals as an
extension of the instrument. His compositional process includes
unearthing the musical color in effects and highlighting texture as a
distinct compositional element. Improvised overtones from East and
West blend with rhythmic structures. This experimentation results in
sensitively layered sonic canvases one of which, “Listen”,
was recently chosen as Editor’s Pick by Guitar Player
Magazine.
http://www.myspace.com/harveyvaldes
VJ Cargo
VJ
Cargo blends and projects live camera feeds, video clips, computer
graphics and digital photographs using soft and hardware video mixers
and effects processors. While cargo visuals are reminiscent of
psychedelia, they are also contemporary and eclectic incorporating
whimsical mash-ups, simple animation and imagery evocative of sci-fi
and the glory days of disco. VJ Cargo is currently combining video
with DIY and pro lighting effects and multi-plane scrims to create
his scenic “Ayana Luna” light show designs.
Waked
Lunch
Waked Lunch is
the side-project of Rosemary Haskins, featuring Josh Esref Guntel.
Born from the ventromedial frontal cortex of the brain, Waked Lunch
is an experimental project that utilizes atmospheric sounds,
samplers, strings, and other more common instruments such as drums,
guitar, and synths. Inspired by William Burroughs and Angelo
Badalamenti, the music is dark and melancholy, though somewhat
frenzied, and often edited using Burroughs' writing technique "the
Cut-Up Method.” Waked Lunch has been privileged to score
several independent films over the past year, thus the music reflects
the use of sound to conjure mental images.
http://www.wakedlunch.com/
Laura
Woodswalker
I've played many instruments and styles over
the years, including blues guitar, bluegrass banjo, and grateful dead
bass. A few years ago I fell in love with ambient, trance and
electronica. I set a goal of learning to play the keyboard and
understanding all there was to know about synths, MIDI, audio,
equipment and recording. That is a lot to learn all at once and I am
still working on it. (Grin!) I would like to create music that is
spacey and imaginative, but also rhythmic and energetic. I love the
spontaneous jamming aspect of music. Right now I am jamming with a
Korg Electribe, but someday I hope to upgrade to human jam partners!
I'm still a newbie, so please be patient with me.
xeroid
entity
xeroid entity is
constantly exploring new musical territory by going beyond the
barriers of standard conventions while still drawing upon classical
influences. Their music ranges from light and whimsical to dark and
aggressive, often within the same piece. Much of it is ambient in
nature; without a discernible beat. When they do play rhythmically
based music, there are often complex counter rhythms giving the music
a poly-rhythmic flavor. The results can be subtle and spacey without
being boring, noisy without being harsh, dynamic yet continuous. The
members of xeroid entity are Howard Moscovitz, Bill Fox, and Greg
Waltzer. Combined they have more than 80 years of experience making
electronic music. They all program their own sounds, and refuse to be
bound by conventional scales or rhythms. The parts are freely
improvised, though they occasionally have structures based on the
concerto forms of Mozart and Bach. This allows for maximum
expressiveness and interaction between group members, while avoiding
predictability.
http://xeroid-entity.com/
Intermediate
Analog Synthesis – Richard Lainhart
Building on his
successful introductory seminar at Pocono Skies, veteran synthesist
Richard Lainhart will demonstrate and explain intermediate concepts
and techniques of analog synthesis for modern electronic musicians.
Richard will help you understand the fundamentals of sound, how
analog synthesis works, and techniques for creating your own unique
and powerful analog sounds through clear, detailed descriptions of
the standard analog synth modules, what they do and how they sound,
and how to connect them all together. Beginners and intermediate
synthesists alike will find useful information in this seminar and
come to a new understanding of the sometimes confusing world of
analog synthesis.
Introduction
to MIDI – Steve Weinstock
This talk on midi will
range from introductory to intermediate concepts, depending on
attendees background and interests. Topics will include: the basics
of midi (what it is, what it can do, how to connect midi gear), a
brief overview of hexadecimal numbers (which midi communication is
based on), types of midi data and how to use them with gear and
software (including midi clock data), processing midi data on the fly
using the ChucK programming environment, and a brief report on using
midi over the internet to control a softsynth in the Netherlands from
a usb keyboard in Upstate New York. Building DIY midi interfaces or
CV-midi converters will not be covered. Focusing on practical
performance, Steve will demonstrate midi communication concepts
through performance techniques he uses. His gear will include a
Proteus 2500, a midi router, some midi thru boxes and some extra midi
cables in case attendees at the talk are interested in syncing their
midi clockable gear to a single source.
Mapping
Language Structures to Musical Phrases – Dale Parson
"Mapping
Language Structures to Musical Phrases" is a seminar about
translating written and spoken natural language to music at various
levels of structure and translation. Both language and music provide
a rich set of processes and structures including vocalization,
syntax, semantics, discourse, double entendre, counterpoint and
repetition. This seminar is about work in progress in using software
to map the processes and structures of language to the processes and
structures of instrumental and vocal music.
Introduction to Ableton Live – Andrew Koenig
Spatial,
Visual, and Matrix Controllerism with Ableton Live – Mark
Mosher
In
this one hour session, Mark Mosher will discuss practical methods for
using various spatial, visual and matrix controllers to go beyond
clip launch in Ableton Live. Specifically Mark will offer a
conceptual overview of controllerism in Live using built-in MIDI
Mapping features. This will be followed by more in-depth demos
utilizing the Novation Launchpad, Tenori-On, Theremin
(pitch-to-midi), and Percussa AudioCubes along with some middleware
layers to control device parameters for instruments and effects, play
notes, control playback, and route visual feedback back to
controllers. Lastly, Mark will recommend best practices and
demonstrate coordinating the control of multiple devices working
together in live performance.>
Mark Mosher is an electronic music composer, sound designer, and performance artist from Boulder, CO with over 20 years of experience. For 5 years he’s been blogging on Electronic Music Tech & Technique at www.ModulateThis.com. Mark started using Ableton Live version 3. Since 2006 he’s been using Ableton Live exclusively for composition, sound design, and performance and has released 2 albums using nothing but Live, virtual instruments, and controllers. He is a regular contributor to the Ableton Denver users group.
Getting Started with Quartz Composer: Visualist Tools, for Free, Already on your Mac - Steve Mokris
Creative
Process – Tanya Thielke
This seminar will explore
techniques and strategies for better understanding, shaping and
streamlining the relationship to one’s own creative ideas.
Internet
Marketing and Promotion – Rosemary Haskins
Are you
still looking for a major record deal? Are you still hoping somebody
else is going to make you a star? If so, stop it! The days of label
superstars are drawing to a close, and the major record companies
are packing their bags. Don't worry, the dream hasn't ended, it's
only just begun. With indie music rising in popularity and indie
artists' CD sales soaring, there is plenty of room for you on the
world wide web. This seminar will discuss digital distribution,
digital promotion, social networking for the musician, and how YOU
can get your music out there. We will explore how to get your
songs/CDs available in iTunes, Amazon, Napster and other online
retail outlets; the importance of an EPK; how to get your band on
facebook, myspace, reverbnation and other online music hosting
sites; as well as why you should be hosting your own website. There
will be time for a short Q&A afterwards, so have your questions
ready.
Dr.
Harry Olsen and Audio Research at RCA – Rebecca Mercuri and
Kevin Meredith
During 2009, Kevin Meredith and Rebecca
Mercuri took on the daunting task of digitizing over 25,000 documents
from the archives of RCA's audio research, as the David Sarnoff
Library was being packed for long-term storage. In this talk, they
present a fascinating, never-before-revealed glimpse of early
contributions by Dr. Harry Olson and his colleagues, to electronic
music and audio engineering, including their theory of why the RCA
Synthesizer was never commercialized. Rare documents from composers
(such as Milton Babbitt, Ernst Krenek, Max Brand, Percy Grainger,
Vladimir Ussachevsky, Charles Wuorinen), recording studios, music
industry firms, and even Chet Atkins and a young Bob Moog, will be
featured, along with some illustrative audio clips.
Rebecca Mercuri is the President and CTO of Notable Software, Inc.<www.notablesoftware.com> a computer forensics firm in Hamilton, NJ. Rebecca earned a Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania's Engineering School where her work was based in the Center for Human Modeling and Simulation, and also holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Classical Guitar from Philadelphia's University of the Arts. Dr. Mercuri has conducted audio research at RCA's David Sarnoff Research Center and also AT&T's Bell Laboratories.
Kevin Meredith is owner and operator of Lonely Robot Audio <www.lonelyrobotaudio.com> a recording and post production studio in Princeton, NJ, where he writes and produces film scores. He is a composer, synthesist and avid electronics hobbyist. Kevin holds a degree in Recording Arts from the School of Audio Engineering in London, and was trained in filmmaking at the NY Film Academy.
Generating
Sound and Music with Brainwaves – Michael O'Bannon
Signals
from the human body can be used in many ways to generate and modify
sound and music. This workshop explores the hardware and software
that make it possible to control music synthesis with signals from
the brain, as well as some reasons why electronic musicians may want
to do so. This year several new algorithms will be presented for
brainwave analysis and music generation. Techniques will be
demonstrated hands-on in real time, so participants should bring an
active cortex.
Michael O'Bannon is an Atlanta, Georgia, based psychologist with a background in psychophysiology, neuropsychology, biofeedback, and artificial intelligence. He is also a basement experimenter who programs in Max and builds EEG hardware.
Lunetta
Workshop – Mathe Sluijter
In
this workshop you will build your own Lunetta circuits using the
"neat freak" breadboard technique. We will have a
collection of circuits to build and supplies include breadboard,
tools, headphones, and plenty of extra chips so you can continue your
Lunetta building hobby after the festival. Lunetta builders will have
a chance to perform with their creations in the “Lunetta
Maelstrom” on Sunday.
Mathe Sluijter, aka electri-fire is a Lunetta hobbyist who has made significant contributions to the Lunetta community as well as financing product development efforts at electro-music. Mathe enjoys holistic medicine, acupuncture, and dentistry.
DIY
Modules for Analog Synthesis – Kevin Kissinger
Kevin
earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Kansas City
Conservatory of Music in 1981. He majored in Pipe Organ
performance. During his time in college, he built a large modular
synthesizer (an Aries synthesizer) and studied electronic music with
Gerald Kemner and Jim Rothwell. In 2010, Kevin expanded his Aries
synthesizer with many DIY modules and will demonstrate these modules
in this seminar.
Ambiophonic
Sound – Howard Moscovitz and Robin Miller
This
talk explains the basics about a wonderful new system for playing
back stereo recordings. Ambiophonics involves a novel placement of
the two speakers (close together in the front) and a relatively
simple signal processor that creates a wide spacial field with
precise localization. Ambiophonic playback offers many advantages
over the traditional 60 degree speaker separation now used almost
universally for stereo. A new Ambiophonic DSP Processor VST
co-developed by Robin Miller and Howard Moscovitz will be described
and demonstrated with a small playback system.
Reverbnation – Rosemary Haskins
Studio
Storming, Remaking Universes – Darren Bergstein
Bringing
more of a vivid collector/enthusiast’s perspective to the
overall Electro-Music experience, this seminar will focus on
awareness & promotion of electronic/experimental musics,
discussing pay-per-view Internet & traditional broadcasting
converging with variable size live performance; new modes, means, and
opportunities for promotion/publicity and building awareness for such
musics in the 21st century; and a brief, albeit broad, history of
electronic music from a longtime writer, archivist & collector in
the field.
Darren Bergstein is a historian, writer, collector, archivist & enthusiast of electronic & experimental music for nearly 40 years. Founder/publisher and editor of the print magazines i/e (1990-1999) and e/i (2003-2006), he currently hosts & operates One Thousand Pulses, the home concert series for electronic and experimental music. (www.onethousandpulses.com)
Making Music in Second Life – Jeremy dePrisco
Circuit
Bending Workshop – The Bent Doctors
Circuit
bending is the creative short-circuiting of inexpensive,
battery-operated kids noisemakers (Speak'n'Spells, educational toys),
radios, electronic instruments, etc. to make new sounds. It's cheap,
fun, and anybody can do it! All that is required is basic competence
with a soldering iron (we can teach you!) and a healthy sense of
anarchic creativity. Some knowledge of electronics will be helpful
but is not essential. Tools and gizmos for bending will be available
at this workshop for participant experimentation, but we strongly
encourage you to bring your own toys (found at the flea market, your
attic, or thrift stores) to bend and keep. Example bent instruments
and effects will also be demonstrated, to the wonderment of all! For
more information on this fascinating hobby, we suggest you peruse
the following websites: http://www.anti-theory.com/soundart/ by Reed
Ghazala, the "father of circuit bending" and
http://weltenschule.de/TableHooters/index.html by CYBERYOGI
=CO=Windler.
Jam
Sessions
Those who have attended electro-music festivals in the past know that the jam sessions can be one of the highlights. This year we have a nice room dedicated for jam sessions, with a sound system. All attendees are invited to participate in the jams - you don't have to be a performing artist. As you can see on the schedule, there are a few time slots set aside for jams with themes. The themes are not meant to restrict anyone from doing what they want, but only to serve as a guideline that might help bring like-minded participants together at the same time. The themes are: Space Music, Midi Clock Jam, Noise Jam, DIY Jam, iPhone Jam, and Drum Circle/Acoustic Jam.
Laptop Battle
The Laptop Battle is a judged competition, where anyone is invited to participate and play a short set. It's not restricted to laptops - you can play something else but you should be able to set up and play your set in 10 minutes. The winner will be awarded a featured performance spot on Sunday night. The laptop battle is scheduled for 7:30 on Saturday evening. You can sign up at the registration desk.
Swap Meet
The
swap meet is a chance to buy, sell, or trade your musical gear. On
Saturday and Sunday mornings from 10am to Noon, we'll have an area
(with tables) where people can set up. Everyone is invited to
participate.
Special
Thanks to:
Howard
Moscovitz – organizer
Greg
Waltzer – organizer
Genevieve
Moscovitz – staff coordinator
Kevin
Kissinger – sound engineering
Paul
Harriman - streaming
Hong
Waltzer – photography
Jack
Hurwitz - artwork
Project
Ruori, Dale Parson, Charles Shriner, Ian Harriman, Mathe Sluijter,
Bill Manganaro, Shane Morris, Bill Fieger, John Rivera, Jose Murcia,
Robert Edgar, and Dan Minoza - equipment and assistance
Hillary
Gallacher – Greenkill Retreat Center
and
everyone who has volunteered their time, equipment, energy and talent
to help make electro-music 2010 a success!