Author: catsynth
CatSynth Pic: Kimball Collins with Roland V-Synth XT
From an eBay auction, via matrixsynth.
“The ultimate FSU rack sampler/synth. Includes vocal processor & D-50 modes. Comes with PCMCIA-to-CompactFlash adapter and 512MB CF card loaded with waveforms for synthesis exploration. Useful as an external effects processor, too. Clean condition, smoke free home, minimal rack rash on included ears.”
“The cat’s name is Kimball Collins (after the DJ).”
While not much interest per se in this specific synth, I have been a bit curious about the Roland D50/D550, mostly because I like the partials. If you have opinions about either the Roland V-Synth XT or the D50/550, please let us know in the comments 🙂
CatSynth pic: Synth cat cartoon!
Submitted by Jason Berry of the band Vacuum Tree Head via our Facebook page. More of these, please 🙂
Outsound New Music Summit: Jill Burton Trio, Obstreperous Doves, Emergency String (X)tet
The 2014 Outsound New Music Summit concluded with a night of improvising ensembles, including a couple of very memorable performances.
The evening being with the Obstreperous Doves, a project by Bill Noertker that brought together Nava Dunkelman, Christina Stanley, Karl Evangelista, and Dave Mihaly in an exploration of assertive and complex improvisation.
[Photo: PeterBKaars.com.]
[Photos by Michael Zelner]
Besides giving us a chance to use the word “obstreperous” – and it is indeed a fine word – the ensemble allowed the talents of all five artists to blend while still letting them each have a voice. Christina Stanley provided noisy and harmonic violin sounds as well as her voice, including a strange but amusing story layered on top of pieces. Nava Dunkelman offered up a wealth of percussive sounds that also sang at times. Karl Evangelista was in usual form with his intense and intricate guitar playing. The group lived up to its name with lots of noisy percussive sections, but also moments of more harmonic jazz phrases, and quiet instances as well.
The Obstreperous Doves were followed by the Bob Marsh’s ensemble the Emergency String (X)tet. They premiered a Terrascore by Marsh composed for his 70th birthday.
[Photo: PeterBKaars.com.]
A terrascore is “a musical geobiographic representation of an individual.” In this case it focused on locations significant to Marsh’s artistic life: his home town of Detroit, Chicago, Berkeley and San Francisco. The ensemble improvised with Marsh conducting from a score based on geographical information from these places, along with field recordings that he made. I’m pretty sure I recognized the one that represented the area around the Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco. The other members of the ensemble included Mia Bella D’Augelli, Jeff Hobbs,
Christina Stanley (pulling double-duty on this night), David Michalak, Doug Carroll, and Kanoko Nishi-Smith.
The final performance was a trio that brought together vocalist Jill Burton with Tim Perkis on electronics and Doug Carroll (also pulling double-duty) on cello. This was a first-time collaboration by the three of them. The result very captivating performance. It started with a very mysterious and haunting solo by Jill Burton, who then demonstrated the range of her extended vocal techniques blending with Perkis’ liquidy electronic sounds and Carroll’s scratchy percussive cello. It was also a theatrical performance, with expressive gestures and movement by Burton coupled with Carroll’s cello antics, sometimes turning the instrument backwards or upside down. But all along with a sonically beautiful and varied experience, that contained the right amount of silence amidst the energy of the sounds.
[Photo by Michael Zelnzer]
[Photo: PeterBKaars.com.]
It was a very strong finale to this year’s summit, and it was interesting to compare and contrast the book ends of the Jill Burton trio with Pitta of the Mind from the opening. It was probably among the best years overall since I started attending this event in 2008; and I look forward to what comes next year.
Wordless Wednesday: Luna in Black and White
Outsound New Music Summit: Deconstruction Orchestra and Rakin-Parker/Pearce Duo
We continue our reports from the Outsound New Music Summit with the concert on Friday, August 1. This evening featured two very contrasting sets, both in composition and volume.
The first set featured the duo of Teddy Rakin-Parker and Daniel Pearce. They performed new works by composer Renee Baker that were commissioned for the Outsound Summit.
Baker’s compositions “use a wide range of graphics and cued micro-improvisations as a means to denote the various developmental stages of our planet’s evolution.” Musically, the result was a mixture of subtle sounds, often low in volume, with occasional bursts of energy and percussive elements. The latter worked particularly well for this duo, with the cello becoming a percussion instrument alongside the drums.
If the initial set was subtle and focused on details, the second set was the complete opposite. Joshua Allen’s Deconstruction Orchestra was a loud event with no fewer than 22 instrumentalists on stage.
The ensemble performed The Structure of Sound and Space, an original deconstructivist-inspired suite of cell structure game compositions. Allen conducted the group through gestures and a series of instructions on sheets of paper. The piece and the ensemble were described in advance as being “cathartic”. That characteristic was hard to discern, but they certainly were loud. It seemed that most of the ensemble was playing at the same time, creating a very thick, intense and sometimes chaotic texture; though there were points where subgroups performed and there were several solos by ensemble members. It was certainly a spectacle that had to be experienced live.
The full ensemble featured Aaron Bennett, Sam Flores, Vinny Golia, John Ingle, Matt Ingalls, Josh Marshall, Dave Slusser, Rent Romus, Cory Wright, Peter Bonos, CJ Borosque, Matt Gaspari, Ron Heglin, Jeff Hobbs, George Moore, Matt Streich, John Finkbeiner, Henry Kaiser, Lisa Mezzacappa, Timothy Orr, and William Winant.
Overall, this was a somewhat shorter program than the other nights, but it packed quite a punch.
CatSynth pic: Band instrument infographic
This image was circulating on CatSynth with only the male musicians on the left-hand side. With the help of my friend Kitty Ookpik, a great electronic musician in her own right, we added the last line to reflect the fact that synth chicks with cats rule 😉
