Author: catsynth
CatSynth pic: Soft Lightning interview with I♥SYNTHS
Interview with Soft Lightning by I♥SYNTHS.
♥SYNTHS: You love your cats. Are they a big inspiration to your music? What are their names and what synths do they like the most?
Soft Lighting: I actually only have one cat and his name is Ziggy. My wife and I foster litters of kittens for our local shelter so we always have a bunch of new kittens around. They like ALL the synths and ALL the gear – especially hiding in the back of amplifiers.
There are quite a few more cat-and-synth photos in this post, I suspect a few more of them may show up here as well 🙂
Via matrixsynth, where you can read all the interviews with well-known synth artists and see quite a bit of classic and modern gear.
Weekend Cat Blogging with Luna: Happiness
CatSynth video: Lo sbadiglio di Cocco patch
From Joao Ceser on YouTube, via matrixsynth.
“Modular 😀
https://www.facebook.com/joao.ceser.fan””
Quite a few familiar modules in that system, including a few we have here at CatSynth HQ. I also like how the cat gets some love during the demo 🙂
Wordless Wednesday: Illinois Street Bridge
CatSynth pic: Belly Rub?
From the blog Awesome Robo. Many of the pictures are familiar, but not this one with a belly-rub-inviting post similar to Luna’s from the weekend.
If you haven’t had a chance to, please check out our recent art and music reports here and here.
Quick takes: MAS attack LAxSF and Surrey Street Salon
It’s been a while since I have reported on one of those evenings with multiple cultural events that enrich life here. One recent rainy evening involved a visual art opening and a salon with a variety of performances.
I started at 17th Street Studios in the Mission for MAS Attack: LAxSF, a one-night show that featured 30 artists from Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively.
One of the particularly intriguing pieces in the show was Miri Chais’ Rabbit Hole, with its organic circular forms but technology-inspired details and changing blue patterns of light. The mixture is intentional, and the title is inspired by Alice in Wonderland.
Utopian Heads by L.A. artist Mark Dutcher caught my attention for its evoking of painting styles and concepts of the early twentieth century experiments. The title of the piece seems to fit with that as well.
It seemed that the artists from L.A. dominated my attention at the show. As with the above pieces and the one below by Steven Wilkoff, they seemed to unapologetically modern.
But these piece from Oakland-based artist Scott Greenwalt did provide a contemporary take on abstraction.
It was then off to Glen Park, just a short trip south from the Mission along the miniature freeway known as San Jose Avenue. (But that’s a story for another time.) My destination was the Surrey Street Salon for a fun evening of performance with a circus theme. So of course there were clowns with vaudeville-style musical numbers.
There was also serious musical talent on display. I was quite impressed with Tin Sandwich, an all harmonica band.
Their instruments ranged from tiny inch-long specimens to the large bass harmonica.
Their arrangements, while mostly traditional songs, were quite tight, and included some impressive solos. I would definitely want to see them again.
Surplus-1980 bandmate Moe! Staiano also performed, this time on solo percussion.
His avant-garde percussion playing is frenetic, moving quickly from on idea and one instrument to another, whether it is part of his traditional drumset or superballs against the window.
In all, it was a great evening of music and art, and the two events provided quite a contrast in style.
Weekend Cat Blogging with Luna: Play with me! (again)
I caught Luna this morning, doing the adorable thing where she rolls onto her back and has her paws curled up. It’s a pose that screams “Play with me!” And I am happy to oblige.
This has been a quiet weekend after another few weeks of both excitement and tumult, and I think we are enjoying having the extra time to spend together.
Reconnaissance Fly CD Release and Plurality of Worlds
Well, our CD release show for Reconnaissance Fly has come and gone, and it was quite a successful evening. We were joined in celebrating the release of our album Flower Futures by Emily Hay, half of a new project with Polly Moller called Plurality of Worlds.
Our preparation for the day started quite early, with stage setup, sound checks, and professional lighting design by our friend Travin McKain. But we got it all done, cleaned ourselves up and made ourselves presentable for the evening.
[Photo by Michael Dawson.]
As you can see, we are a rather eclectic bunch, which is very much in line with the music we play.
First up was Plurality of Worlds, which brought together Polly Moller and Emily Hay for the first time as a duo of avant-garde flutes and vocals. Each brought both a standard concert flute and one of the bigger models, bass flute for Moller and alto flute for Hay. Their vocals played off one another in amusing ways, with absurdist babblings (Hay) responding to recitations from written texts (Moller). It was clear they were having a lot of fun performing, and we all enjoyed watching them.
[Photo by Michael Dawson.]
They were joined by Reconnaissance Fly bassist Tim Walters on Supercollider, providing all variety of effects processing that filled the spaces both temporally and timbrally in the sparse texture of the duo.
Then it was time for us to take take the stage, with band members Amanda Chaudhary (keyboard), Rich Lesnick (reeds) and Larry-the-O (drums) joining in. As with our album and many of our live performances, things began with the ritualistic first note of Small Chinese Gong.
We then went into a full set that mixed selections from the album such as One Should Never and the combined Electric Rock Like a Cat / sanse is crede nza, with newer pieces such as Spiders and Snakes and How Now is Soon (actually, and older piece, but relatively new to Reconnaissance Fly). The set was quite lively and energetic, and also filled with humorous moments, and the audience responded well to those.
[Photo by Michael Dawson.]
The above picture does not include Larry, so here he is.
[Photo by Michael Dawson.]
Overall, it was a good night, with great stage lighting, a packed house at Berkeley Arts, and even a few CDs sold. If you are interested in checking the album out, you can do so via Edgetone Records. And if you want to see us live, we have a few more shows coming up, including at The Luggage Store Gallery (1007 Market Street in San Francisco) tonight (Thursday, Feubrary 13)!
