CATSYNTH

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Category: Music

  • Skronkathon photo…and upcoming show

    Well, there's me, attempting to appear ironic, at the 2007 Skronkathon two weeks ago. I'm playing the ektar, a single-string folk instrument from India, one of several instruments used during the performance.

    This is one of several photographs taken at the event by Polly Moller. And it is quite timely, given that we will be performing together this Friday in San Jose:

    It all starts at 7:00 p.m. at works/san jose,
    451 First Street, San Jose, CA 95112
    Cost: $5.00/$3.00 donation

    july 27th music night with KIOKU, polly moller & company and dajis

    based in new york city, the musical group kioku presents traditional
    asian folk music within a new context of collaborative experimentation
    and improvisation. the trio consists of wynn yamami (east and
    southeast asian percussion, including japanese taiko, korean gongs,
    and filipino kulintang), christopher ariza (live laptop electronics),
    and ali sakkal (saxophones, percussion). while committed to the
    preservation of musical traditions, kioku (japanese for “memory”)
    acknowledges the plasticity of tradition and freely adopts musical
    techniques found within improv-based and new music circles.

    converging from oakland, san francisco and santa cruz are polly
    moller, john moreira, and amar chaudhary, combining flute, bass flute,
    voice, guitar, and electronics to create otherworldly improvisatory
    atmospheres and backgrounds for polly's gripping text.

    who is dajis? a dj with a selection of ambient and experimental music.

  • CatSynth 1st Anniversary

    Today we celebrate CatSynth's first anniversary.

    It's been one year since we posted this photo on July 19, 2006:

    The idea came from a friend who said something like “dude, you should do a website about cats and synths.” So I did. Really didn't have too much idea what I would write about. I quickly learned that there was quite an abundance of pictures of cats and synths, and sites like matrixsynth had been collecting such images for a while. Indeed, one of the first external “CatSynth pics” to be posted here was of matrix's own cat JD:

    Sadly, we recently learned that JD passed away this month. We offer matrix our sympathies. It's always sad to hear about cat friends passing away (or human friends, for that matter), and we at CatSynth have seen our share this past year.

    I expect to post more this evening reviewing the year with photos, not-so-useful stats and the other things we at CatSynth like to think we do well…





  • Today's preformance. Listen live online!

    For those interested in either attending (if you're in the Bay Area), or listening online this evening, here's the vital stats on my show today:


    Sunday, Jul 15 2007 12:30 PM – 11PM

    21 Grand
    416 25th St @Broadway
    Near 19th Street BART
    Oakland

    7:00 Amar Chaudhary solo digital

    In conjunction with 21 Grand's 7th anniversary celebration, the 7th annual Transbay Skronkathon BBQ is an all-day marathon music and BBQ extravaganza. Admission is free, but we'll pass the hat for the benefit of the Transbay Creative Music Calendar. We'll have a couple of charcoal grills out in the alleyway for your gustatory pleasure (BRING STUFF TO GRILL!) and a double load of the Bay Area's best creative musicians inside for your listening pleasure.

    If you are unable to attend, you can listen to a live internet stream, provided by sfSoundRadio. It works easily in iTunes or Windows Media Player, or other standard media players. My performance will be a 7PM US Pacific time (-0700). Listen in if you can!

  • Preparing for tomorrow's today's performance, part 2

    Things were looking pretty dire yesterday afternoon, with major audio problems on both the PC and Mac. Without going into details, I was getting intermittent pops, clicks and stutters on the PC, and the Mac was simply outputting something wrong. Eventually, I was able to get the mac working with clean audio, so that became the computer for today's performance, together with an E-MU 0202 | USB and an Xboard.

    Basically, the mac is running Open Sound World, more specifically, the latest version that works with my new Python interface. Without the pesky graphical interface, the system is rock solid and a lot more efficient to program. It's more akin to SuperCollider or the practice of “live coding”, if you are familiar with either of those. So with this setup, I was able to get things up and running for today very quickly. And it is rock solid, though I don't want to jinx the actual performance too much by describing all the things that didn't happen.

    The “instrument” for today allows two live recordings to be played back at various rates, controlled by the MIDI keyboard and knobs. I will be playing several of my Indian instruments to feed the recordings, in particular the ektar (single-string instrument) and the gopichand (also single string, with a bendable neck for pitch modulation).

    Of course, the ketzela wants to get in the act again, too:

    One last-minute change was dealing with my Xboard killing itself (something stupid on my part, really). Fortunately, I also have the Novation keyboard as a backup, and although the keyboard itself isn't as good, the controllers are a better fit.

    The setup is also extremely compact. This is all I have to carry:

    Well, actually, this and the folding table I usually bring. Still, it will be very light and relatively easy to set up (especially as the mac boots very quickly).

  • New podcast: Cell-phone feedback 070807

    Click here to subscribe.

    This was a little bit of fun some friends and I had a picnic today with cell-phone feedback. Basically, one person calls the other in close proximity, and both parties set the phones to speaker-mode. What happens then is what you will here in tonight's exciting podcast release.

    Yes, this is the sort of thing that can happen when you have too many electronic-music geeks and too much alcohol, but hey, it's fun for the whole family. It's true, whole families were having fun, or at least some members of whole families…

    I am also launching the new improved CatSynth Channel website at http://www.ptank.com/podcast. It should be a lot cleaner and more obvious (i.e., it now says “CatSynth Channel” in big letters), plus you can listen live on site to any podcast episodes you want, no need for a portable player or iTunes/Windows Media Player, etc. Of course, you still subscribe using the feed icon above. In any case, enjoy the crazy music.

  • Podcast correction

    Click here to subscribe.

    It looks like the Sunday podcast featuring another track from deCouto was not properly linked and thus did not load properly for everyone. I fixed it yesterday, so anyone who missed the latest episode should do so now. I apologize for the mistake.

  • New podcast: POK-A-TOK-3 by deCouto

    Click here to subscribe.

    Tonight's podcast is another track from expire(ments) in patience bythe band DoCouto. From their page at the Internet Archive:

    recordings made between 1995 and 2006. ocations include texas,new orleans,seattle and new york.

    The track “patty hurts” was featured on a previous podcast.

    This work was made available under a Creative Commons license that allows for free sharing and distribution. Click the icon below for license details:

    You can subscribe directly via our FeedBurner feed at the top of this post, or for more info and options, click the CatSynth Channel icon in the upper right corner. And as always, enjoy!

  • Theremin Cats

    From Brian Sacawa: Sounds Like Now:

    The context for this picture is Sacawa's lament that early theremin virtuosi concentrated on trying to get the instrument to play traditional western tonal music, rather than exploring the radically new ways of organizing pitch and structure afforded by the instrument. This is indeed something that concerns me about many of the efforts going on to “de-experimentalize” computer music and simply turn it into another tool for traditional classical or popular forms. The great promise of electronic instruments is to allow people to break with the traditions of acoustic music. But Sacawa concludes:

    Maybe if more cats–unlike humans, who are so grounded in western tonal music–played the theremin we might witness the instrument's full potential.

    And thus we have theremin-playing cats.

    Check out this feline thereminist from YouTube:




  • Wordless Wednesday: Studio keyboards

  • CatSynth Correction: The Cats of 5lowershop

    Like any publication, we make errors and when appropriate publish corrections. This is one is several months overdue, but I found myself thinking about it tonight. Last September, I played at the headphone festival in San Francisco at the club 5lowershop. It was one of the best live performances I did in the past year. In writing about the experience here at CatSynth, I mentioned a couple of cats I ran across while I there:

    I immediately thought they were strays or perhaps neighborhood outdoor cats wandering through, and regular readers know I have a soft spot for such creatures. I am happy to say that I was wrong, as I learned when I received this comment at the end of February:

    just an fyi : those kitties are pets too, and very loved. the grey kitty is momma to 6 of those black and white kittens. the kitten in your picture still lives at 5lowershop with mom's identical sister. mom lives with a friend of the family now. the other kittens all found loving homes with close friends. we live a few blocks from 5lowershop and have one of the kittens. they aren't feral, and they get along pretty good with the dogs (only 2 dogs hang out there, and they are quite nice when you get to know them. they pretty much ignore the cats)

    seeing that you are such a cat enthusiast, i just wanted to let you know that these cats get spoiled rotten with love and attention. no need to feel bad for them!

    It's good to know that those cats are loved, and if anyone associated with 5lowershop is still reading, I would love to come perform there again. I really enjoyed the gritty edge-of-the-city vibe, the people, and of course the cats.