Author: catsynth

Carnival of the Cats #435

We at CatSynth happy to be hosting Carnival of the Cats #435. For those who aren’t familiar with the carnival, it is a weekly round-up of cat blog posts from around the Internet, submitted by authors. If you would like to participate, leave us a comment – the usual “handy BlogCarnival submission form” is (yet again) not working today. But we still hope that we’ll get some people joining in today.

First up, we have Luna’s fellow house panther Diamond of Diamond’s Lair explaining the impressive feline olfactory system. This is of course an important part of cats’ world in ways that humans cannot understand.

Elivra celebrated her 2nd Gotcha Day this past week! You can visit Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat to wish her well.

Also from Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat this week, we have a survey of cat-themed art from Laguna Beach.

Next, we have a tale of two men, two lounger rooms and two cats, courtesy of the site Mrs. Banks has kittens. You can visit and judge for yourself (and check out the kitten pictures while you are there).

From strangerranger, we have photos of Maddie encountering her new collar. They also have photos of a mysterious feline visitor to their yard.

Animal Shelter Volunteer shares photos of cats Kosmo and Kramer from PAWS. We at CatSynth are fans of Seinfeld, we love the names! Animal Shelter Volunteer is also a finalist for a Pettie Award (awards for the best of pet/animal blogging). You can help them out with the voting by following this link.

At iInfidel, Ritzi likes to pull the curtains open to look out the window. She occasionally likes to stretch her claws on the curtains as well, but this is frowned upon.

If you would like to participate, we will leave the Carnival open through the end of Sunday. Please leave a comment below with your link.

Weekend Cat Blogging #370

Cats are smart. They set aside time to do nothing. I suspect Luna will be resting like this a bit during the weekend. As for me, however, I will be quite busy as usual. Today we are working on our final track for the upcoming Reconnaissance Fly album. Tomorrow I will be at Touch the Gear for the Outsound Music Summit.

And somewhere in between we will be hosting Carnival of the Cats. If you would like to participate, follow the link or use the handy BlogCarnival submission form. Alternatively, you can leave us a comment below and we’ll add you to the carnival tomorrow.

Weekend Cat Blogging 370 is hosted by Samantha, Clementine and Maverick.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted by us!

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Shani Aviram, Matt Ingalls, Benjamin Ethan Tinker. Luggage Store Gallery

Today we look at last Thursday’s Outsound show at the Luggage Store Gallery, which featured music by Shani Aviram, Benjamin Ethan Tinker, and Matt Ingalls.

As I have mentioned in previous articles, the acoustics at the Luggage Store Gallery can be quite challenging. One of the things that made this performance notable is that several of the performers made creative use of the acoustics, working with it rather than against it. This was true of the initial piece for solo snare drum by Shani Aviram, where the staccato notes of the drum reverberated around the room in a manner that was quite dynamic. There were some exceptionally loud moments, but I liked the overall texture. The set also featured compositions by Aviram for cello and electronics (performed by Devon Thrumston), and computer and Arp 2600 (performed by the composer and Benjamin Ethan Tinker, respectively).

The best use of the room acoustics was by Matt Ingalls, who performed a 30-minute continuous tour de force of energetic microtonal improvisation on clarinet. His movement affected the diffusion of the sound from the instrument and off the walls of the room, adding more microtonal and timbral variation. It is difficult to describe the experience fully, but it was a very impressive performance. I managed to capture a few seconds on my iPhone, which you can see below.

In the subsequent break between sets, I went up to see the analog electronics. In addition to the Arp 2600, there was also an analog Echoplex that appeared to be in relatively good condition.


[Click images to enlarge.]

In the final set, Ingalls joined Shani Aviram and Benjamin Ethan Tinker for a group improvisation. Aviram performed using a banjo with electronic pickup, which she bowed. The resulting long tones were used as input into the 2600 and Echoplex for a complex texture of sounds with long tones generated from the banjo and overlays with loops and echoes. Ingalls was once again on clarinet, which he matched timbrally to the electro-acoustic sounds. Once again, the acoustics of the room worked with the longer and slower tones of improvisation and the electronic echo effects.


[Click image to enlarge]

It was a good night of music overall, and one I almost missed due to having just returned from an intense out-of-town trip. I am glad I made the effort to be there.

Reconnaissance Fly and Vegan Butcher, Berkeley Arts Festival

Last month, the five members of Reconnaissance Fly took a break from the recording studio to bring their “charmingly incoherent art pop” to the Berkeley Arts Festival in a concert that also featured the band Vegan Butcher.

The evening began with the debut performance the Vegan Butcher, with John Shiurba on guitar, Wil Hendricks on bass, Suki O’Kane on drums, and Val Esway on “occasional voice.” The band played several compositions by John Shiurba, all of which were written in January and exclusively used the “nine-note January scale.” The pieces all had inventive titles like “These Ones Are All Stretched Out And Bifurcated”; and Shiurba stated that he wrote the lyrics before we was completely awake.


[Photo by Michael Zelner.]

The first song started out with a soft repeating pattern with quiet drums and a gentle guitar motive. Just when one thought this might continue indefinitely, loud drum and guitar hits announced the arrival of full-on rock mode. There was guitar with distortion and minor harmonies over a slow driving rhythm, overlaid with oddly modal melodies. The overall effect was reminiscent of psychedelic rock of the late 1960s and early 1970s – indeed, I thought I heard a bit of Nico / Velvet Underground in Val Esway’s vocals. You can hear the band for yourself in the following video:

Then it was time for Reconnaissance Fly to take the stage. From the start, our energy and vibe was quite different from Vegan Butcher’s dreamy and otherworldly sounds. Our current set based on spoetry (spam poetry) jumps around from style to style quickly, and has an overall humorous character. We opened as we usually do with “Small Chinese Gong”, which set the tone. You can hear a brief excerpt in this video:

All the recent studio work has paid off for live performances. We were much tighter on the challenging medley “Electric Rock Like A Cat / sanse is crede nza” than in previous performances, including those tough unisons. “As Neat As Wax” always stands out in live performances, too. This was also first time in a while that we included “The Animal Trade in Canada” in our live set, with a much stronger interpretation than in the past.


[Photo by Michael Zelner.]

Reconnaissance Fly features Chris Broderick on woodwinds (clarinet, bass clarinet and saxophone), Amar Chaudhary on keyboards and electronics, Polly Moller and voice and flute, Larry the O on drums, and Tim Walters on bass and electronics.

Overall it was a great show for both bands. For those of you who didn’t have a chance to hear it live, we will be playing together again on August 24 at the Starry Plough (also in Berkeley), along with Jack O’ The Clock.

Sound track: Big Yellow and Friends (July 9, 2012)

Today we have a little musical improvisation I created primarily using the Metasonix R53 (aka “Big Yellow”) along with several other analog modules, including with Wiard Anti-Oscillator and the E350 Morphing Terrarium. It was a relatively spontaneous expression, a bit raw, but I thought it came out well.

And here is a picture of “Big Yellow”.

The 11th Annual Outsound Music Summit starts next week

We are exactly one week away from the start of the 11th Annual Outsound Music Summit. It opens next Sunday is the perennial Touch The Gear Night and continues throughout the week with a series of concerts. Some of the novel themes in this year’s series includes a poetry and music night, and “Thwack, Bome, Chime”, a concert dedicated exclusively to modern percussion. You can see the full schedule here, along with ticket information. All events are taking place at the Community Music Center (544 Capp Street) in San Francisco.

As a community partner, CatSynth will be provided live updates at all events via our Twitter @catsynth, and provide more in-depth after-the-fact coverage here on the blog. I will also be personally participating in Touch the Gear next Sunday, where I will be showing both iPad apps and analog modular synths that have been part of my solo work this year.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Light and shadow

This week, we have an exercise in light and shadow with this Instagram photo of Luna on the window sill. It was taking around 1pm on a Sunday, not the best time of day for photos. But with cats, you can to take the shot when it happens using the tools at hand. The lighting places much of Luna in shadow, which makes her dark fur even darker. But there is also a patch of light on her fur.

Luna is happy to be home after I was out of town for a few days on my desert trip, which was full of quiet stark landscape, intense heat, and “self discovery.” I already shared one photo for the most recent Wordless Wednesday. I am sure I will be sharing more soon.

By coincidence Jules is also showing off light and shadow contrast on his black fur this weekend as he hosts Weekend Cat Blogging at Judi’s Mind Over Matter.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday by Kashim, Othello and Salome.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.