Author: catsynth

Jay Korber Benefit Performance, Berkeley Arts

Last Friday, a large portion of the Bay Area new-music community gathered at Berkeley Arts in an evening of large-ensemble improvisation and to raise money to help fellow local musician Jay Korber. Korber had been seriously injured recently when he was struck by a street sweeper truck in San Francisco, and this concert was a benefit to raise funds and support his recovery.

The first half of the concert featured a specially convened Moe!kestra conducted by Moe! Staiano. The ensemble consisted of woodwind, percussion and electric-guitar sections. I managed to incorporate myself into the “guitar” section with an iPad and amplifier. Moe!’s conducting consisted of a series of simple gestures aimed at individuals or groups of performers that led to both an expressive and varied performance and entertaining conducting.

In the above photo, Moe! is actually giving a “V” sign to some of the guitarists, and not giving them “the finger”, although that gesture was used by both conductors during the course of the evening. You can hear our first piece from the performance here (recording courtesy of friend and fellow participant Neal Trembath):

The second half of the concert featured an ensemble conducted by Gino Robair:

This group was heavier on horns, and overall had a jazzier feel to it. While the majority of the set consisted of large-scale free-jazz improvisation with dynamic runs, hits, and responses, the final piece was based on a Miles Davis riff that was initially repeated and then deconstructed. It was a bit of a musical in-joke, but I for one like having familiar idioms alongside experimentation.

In all, it was a fun night of music and fellowship, and the event raised quite a bit of money for Jay Korber. We wish him a full and speedy recovery.

Abode (Paul Stapleton, Caroline Pugh) and RepoRoom, Luggage Store Gallery

Tonight we review last Thursday’s concert at the Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco, part of Outsound Presents’ weekly series. I arrived to a darkened gallery with abstract bands and shapes of light being projected onto the wall, with Jan Pusina sitting in front controlling electronic musical sounds. The video was being controlled Bob Pacelli using analog video synthesizers.

The stripe patterns remained for a while with different combinations of colors and widths, before eventually changing to geometric shapes and even some curved forms. The music was primary long drones with complex timbres, but towards the last third of the set there were additional textures with shorter-length sounds. Overall it was a short performance, but I thought the duration worked well given the minimal nature of the visual and aural material and kept it interesting.

The second set featured Adobe, a duo of Caroline Pugh on voice and electronics with Paul Stapleton performing on his “Bonsai Sound Sculpture.” We have reviewed Stapleton performing with his creation before (see this article from last year). However, this was a more formal duo that has been performing together for a long time.

Stapleton’s electronic sounds blended well with Pugh’s vocals, which combined tradition Scottish folk singing with extended vocal techniques, feedback and cassette-player effects. I was impressed with her performance, both the range of sounds and techniques and the overall strength of her voice. Her sound ranged from long brilliant tones to rapid-fire sequences of phonemes that may or may not have been actual words. There was also an element of humor in her presentation and some of the text. Stapleton’s sounds ranged from DJ-like recordings played at variable speed to metallic noises and other scratchy bits of sound, and fill in the spaces in between the vocals. After the performance, I went to take a closer look at the Bonsai Sound Sculpture itself:

Overall, a strong performance with very contrasting sets, ranging from the more meditative opening to the more dynamic and virtuosic conclusion. I was quite happy I made the effort to come out on an exceptionally cold night in San Francisco to hear these sets.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Mission Cat

Late last year, I was heading to an opening at Southern Exposure in the Mission when I passed by this cat on the street:

The cat seemed familiar, and indeed it turns out we had encountered one another on the same street back in 2009! You can see some photos in this Weekend Cat Blogging article. It was great to see a cat here in the city with a long-term stable living situation, and the confidence to greet passers by on the street (albeit with laser eyes fully armed).

This neighborhood is mixture of residential buildings and converted factories and warehouses, not much greenery. Similar to the area around CatSynth HQ, actually. But there are lots of little cracks and places for a savvy cat to explore.

Oh, and the art opening was a mixed bag. There were some very interesting pieces, some others less so.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at Mind of Mog.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

CatSynth Pic: Mystery Rhythm Machine – Barns & Mullins Percussionet 20

Via matrixsynth, where you can find more info and pictures.

“I recently picked up an old rhythm machine at an estate sale, It’s called a Percussionet 20, made by Barns and Mullins, London, England.

I think it may be rare because I could not come up with any info about this unit online anywhere, even tried Emailing Barns & Mullins twice, but they never responded.

Perhaps one of your readers may have some info about this oddity.

It will play all of the rhythm styles such as ( Fx – Foxtrot, Tw -Twist, Ch – Cha Cha, Tg- Tango etc.) at the same time, so you can combine various rhythms, also you can select and de-select the individual instruments in the rhythms such as: Snare, Tom Tom, Side, Bass, Bongo etc.

Rear has Hi and Lo output and ¼ ” footswitch input that starts and stops the rhythms.

Add some verb and delay or modulation effects and it sounds pretty incredable.

As usual, Charlotte the cat has her own thoughts about my Percussionet 20, see attached photos.”

CatSynth video: Synthesis for Cats

From Poppaneedsanap, via matrixsynth

“OJ (Turkey Leg) on the Etherwave pitch CV controls the rate of random LFO, pinging a Q106 oscillator. Bling Bling (aka Manwich) goes nuts on a contact mic and Moog MF104Z Delay. Ok, I mixed the contact mic pretty low I admit, but it was his first time wiggling and he was a little self conscious about his performance.

A more robust jam will follow when I find the fucking laser pointer!”