Electric Independence: Inside Devo’s UFO Studio

Posted on April 21, 2010 by John CS Keston

I just got a note from Matt Musick at Vice Magazine regarding a feature on Devo just posted on Motherboard.tv. I haven’t had a chance to properly watch the entire feature, but I’ve been anticipating this, and will give it a good watch as soon as I am able. Here’s Matt’s note:

Hello John. I really think the Audio Cookbook audience would get a kick out of this piece and wanted to pass your way. The new episode of Electric Independence documents a rare look inside Devo’s studio. Mark Mothersbaugh himself gives us a tour through the space and shows us some of his favorite (and strangest) synths and circuit bending noisemakers. The guys even tell us some funny stories of their early Akron days, like the large girls (or “mother hens” as they like to call them) who would circle their equipment to warm it up before playing on those cold Ohio nights.

Watch Electric Independence: Inside Devo’s UFO Studio, They Whip It New Wave, But With New Hats

Gestural Music Sequencer Generative Track Competition

Posted on April 15, 2010 by John CS Keston

Now that the GMS beta has been out since December 2009, I thought it would be fun to start a competition to produce a track using this tool. Unearthed Music has agreed to consider the winning track for a spot on their upcoming compilation, Unearthed Artifacts Volume One.

The rules for the competition are simple. Create an instrumental track using the GMS. Every layer in the composition must be generated by video input fed into the GMS either through a camera, or by loading a pre-recorded video clip. There are no limitations as to what software or hardware is used to interface with the GMS in order to create the instrument sounds and produce the piece.

Editing and looping of the GMS MIDI output is allowed within reason. Please refrain from looping phrases that are shorter than one bar, or shifting several notes to tailor the melodies. I suggest experimenting with the note and duration probability distributions. All the drums and rhythmic patterns must be created using the GMS as well.

Write one-hundred to three-hundred words about how you produced your track and post it as a comment to this entry with a link to a 192Kbps or better MP3 file of the complete track. Links to a bio or videos about your process are great too. The track must be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. The tracks will be judged by a panel of representatives from Unearthed Music and myself. The submission deadline is Tuesday, June 1, 2010. Thanks, and have fun!

Mel Mann and Martin Inda at Panoramica Buenos Aires

Posted on April 12, 2010 by John CS Keston

Mel Mann + Inda @ Panoramica Bs As from Martin Inda on Vimeo.

Martin Inda recently informed me about his collaboration with Mel Mann, and documentation of the piece being performed at Panoramica, Buenos Aires. From Martin:

All of the material is filmed by me with an unexpensive Panasonic Lumix ZS3 camera, then composed in After Effects. The live performance is done with VDMX soft, and uses the audio analysis tool to trigger effects in real time using the sound. The image is composed by 3 projectors. Music: Mel Mann creates his music using synthesizers, samplers and acoustic instruments, like a ukulele and a harmonics flute, which he plays live combined with Ableton.

The geometric imagery reminds me a little of the Umfeld project with Speedy J and Scott Pagano that was performed last year at the Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Art.

Falling Objects Synchronized to Produce Rhythm

Posted on April 11, 2010 by John CS Keston

Gravité from Renaud Hallée on Vimeo.

It has been around for a while, but I just came across this very clever piece by Montréal based artist, Renaud Hallée. His composition uses video and sound from falling objects edited together to produce some nice rhythms with a few unexpected twists. Hint: it’s not all tennis balls.

Rock This by Jawara Hughes

Posted on April 1, 2010 by John CS Keston

Rock This from Jawara Hughes on Vimeo.

I was quite pleased with this project for my audio production class that was produced recently by Jawara Hughes. Around mid-term I introduced Propellerheads Reason to the class. This was only the second time that Jawara used Reason to create an original track. He added the vocals and finalized the piece in Pro Tools. Congratulations, on an excellent piece of electro-funk-meets-kinetic-type.