Jon Steinhorst put together this video preview for our Northern Spark project, Instant Cinema: Teleportation Platform X. It was compiled from footage that was shot during our recent work-in-progress performance at the Northrup King for the Visual Storage exhibition. This should provide a small scale example of what to expect from the final performance on June 8, 2013.
Spectral Tablature is a series of collaborative installations that explore sound generated through visual processes. Sound is recorded or synthesized using common techniques then converted into images called spectral analysis. These forms are re-interpreted as a visual artifact then converted back into sound. For each pair, or “duet,” the similarities and differences in tone and texture can be heard as well as seen in the work. This series, along with two more of my installations, is currently on display for my thesis exhibition at the Northrup King Building in Minneapolis. Please read on for images and descriptions of each pair of prints along with the audio.
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The true test of a new instrument is whether you can integrate it into your workflow and use it to produce satisfactory work. This I wasn’t so sure about after my first few hours of working with the Yamaha FS1R. The factory performance patches on the FS1R are all overloaded with effects and glitzed out to impress the ears of musicians from 1998. Despite the frustrating characteristics of the instrument’s patches, I had faith that the complexity of its FM architecture coupled with its formant shaping features made it something worth trying to tame. To produce Vortex I created the formant lead sound from the ground up, made a nice, wide stereo bass patch using a couple of DX voices, and adjusted a melody patch to my taste. The percussion and arpeggios were programmed and played on the DSI Tempest.
I just came across this animation of one of György Ligeti‘s few electronic compositions Artikulation (1958). This animated sequence puts my collaboration with Piotr Szyhalski, Post-prepared Piano, in historical context. The visuals for Ligeti’s piece were created by Rainer Wehinger in response to the music, while in Post-prepared Piano (see the animated sequence) the visuals are converted directly into an electronic version of an existing work through a computerized process.
Here’s a piece dedicated to our planet’s recent astroid near miss and “unrelated” spectacular meteor explosion. I went back to my roots and produced some psychedelic, dub-delayed business with a little arabesque-miami-vice in the middle. Please enjoy responsibly.