CATSYNTH

cats synthesizers music art opinion

Author: catsynth

  • Pitta of the Mind at Lost Church, San Francisco

    Pitta of the Mind at Lost Church, San Francisco

    Today we look back at Pitta of the Mind’s set at Word Performances, which took place at the Lost Church in San Francisco. It was, in our opinion, one of our best performances. You can see and hear for yourself in this video.


    [Video by Todd Siegel]

    It was a short performance, but very tight, mixing the poems with piano, theremin and acoustic elements. I like using the percussion instruments along with the electronics, as it adds to the timbre and theatrics. We will definitely do more of that.

    The evening featured readings and dance in addition to music. Our host Cybele Zufolo read some of her writings while dancing flamenco with Damien Alvarez.

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    Colleen McKee read another of Cybele Zufolo’s pieces about her adventures as a show girl in Japan, in addition to some of her own writing. She even featured some singing in the set.

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    Daniel Berkman performed a solo set on kora a visually and sonically beautiful instrument.

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    Every set featured performative elements. For her reading, Zarina Zabrisky appeared as a super villain.

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    Overall it was a fun night, and we had an overflowing crowd. Many thanks to Cybele Zufolo and Todd Siegel for hosting us and all their work putting these shows together, and to the Lost Church for providing such a unique space in San Francisco.

  • CatSynth pic: #Cat vs #Moog

    cat vs moog.

    Submitted by Julia More of Juli Amore music.
    “#cat vs #moog”

  • CatSynth video: Dicking Around with Braids, Rings, and other DIY crap

    CatSynth video: Dicking Around with Braids, Rings, and other DIY crap

    From Sean Pendleton on YouTube, via matrixsynth.

    “Love Rings and Braids, need to build more of both. I can’t wait to build Clouds and Elements. Klee is controlling the Rings, Turing machine on the Braids. Drums are a Corny Rhythm controlling a Barton Analog Drum, Decaying noise, and Synthrotek DSM. Radio Music and Wogglebug are making noise in the background. Kept things simple.”

  • CatSynth 10th Anniversary!

    10

    On July 19, we hit a major milestone: 10 years since our first post. And we celebrate as always with some stats:

    2,982 Posts
    14,031 Comments
    4.7 comments per post
    1088 Cat-and-synth pics, videos, etc.
    430 Reviews, gig-reports, and related posts

    In some ways, the blog activity has declined a bit since it’s height in the early 2010s. Much of the activity has moved over to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And more recently, we are looking to the future via our mobile apps – there is much more coming there in the not-too-distant future. Additionally, I find myself balancing time spent writing blog articles with an increasingly busy schedule of musical performances and such. All good things in their own way.

    We are a bit late to celebrate this year due to some major personal and medical priorities on my part (all of which are going well, but also beyond the scope of this forum). It isn’t the first time our blog anniversary has gotten caught up in other things. Last year we missed the 9th anniversary entirely as we coped with Luna’s cancer diagnosis. And our first anniversary came amidst a major downtime for the site that took a week or so to fix.

    As always, here is the photo of Luna that started it all on July 19, 2006.

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    Luna hasn’t aged all that much, retaining her youthful appearance. And that beanbag chair is still a favorite of hers. It’s where she hangs out in the studio, and over the years we have taken major photos of her with it.

    The studio has certainly gotten more crowded over time.

    Please join us in celebrating 10 years of CatSynth, and looking forward to many more!

  • CatSynth pic: Cat and Roland MC-505

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    From Suren Seneviratne via the Facebook group Synthesizer Freaks. This rather fastidious cat is guarding its Roland MC-505 and what appears to be another Roland drum or bass synth.

  • CatSynth pic: Oscillate-purr…. (Black Kitten and Moog Mother-32)

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    Adorable black kitten with a Moog Mother-32 synthesizer.

    From our friends at Moog Music, Inc. Also via matrixsynth.

    “Oscillate-purr….#mother32”

  • CatSynth pic: Cat atop Modular Synth

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    From Dennis Matana on a particularly fecund thread from the Facebook group Synthesizer Freaks. Update, Dennis Matana has informed us that the cat’s name is Miep! We leave identification of the modular system as an exercise to the reader 🙂

  • The Sound of Philadelphia

    Presented in honor of the opening of the Democratic National Convention. I listen to this today to try and remain optimistic.

  • CatSynth pic: Cat and Access Virus (headed into space)

    Cat with Access Virus synthesizer being launched into space

    We’re back after a week-long break, and to symbolize the start of good things, we have a cat on an Access Virus synthesizer being launched into space. From Cats on Synthesizers in Space.

  • Amanda Chaudhary Solo Set at Second Act, San Francisco

    We pick up our reports from the epic musical month that was June.

    Amanda Chaudhary at Second Act

    On June 15, I performed a brand new solo set at Second Act in San Francisco, part of a monthly evening of experimental electronic music. It was a bringing together of my more experimental electronic work with the jazz and funk direction my music. The modular and Moog Theremini were featured heavily, but so were the Moog Sub Phatty as my “left hand” bass, and of course the Nord Stage, aka “The Big Red Keyboard”. I also used a Casio SK-1 extensively. You can hear the entire set in this video.

    Amanda at Second Act June 2016 from CatSynth on Vimeo.

    I thought it went quite well musically. I like how the funk bass worked with the Sub Phatty and Phonogene on the modular. The venue was full, and I got an enthusiastic response from the audience. I don’t think they were expecting this level of jazz and funk, but seemed to really appreciate it. I will definitely continue working in this direction in future solo sets.

    The concert began with a noise set by Passions Nouveau, who performed with synthesizers and sundry electronics.

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    The set unfolded as a single continuous soundscape, with noise pads and drones, but occasional loud swells and complex details.

    I was followed by bran(…)pos. It had been a few years since I shared a bill with him, but has excited to hear what he had come up with recently. As per his pervious appearances, he performed inside a tent onto which a mixture of live and processed video was projected.

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    And once again the performance centered around the use of his face and voice visually and sonically. But the instrumental accompaniment was a new direction, mixing sounds from the turn of the 20th century with pitched synthesizers and beats. It was a very polished and complex sound overall, bringing a tightness to his unique style of performance and presentation.

    Overall, it was a great performance, and I was happy to be a part of it. Performing at Second Act is always a great time, and I would like extend my thanks to the folks who continue to make this venue and series work for the musical community.