From our friends at Eevo Lute Music & Technology.
A new test victim has arrived.. #pioneer #pioneerdj #davesmithinstruments #toraiz Pioneer Toraiz SP-16
We hope that human and feline enjoy their new “test victim” 😸. You can read our early take on the collaboration between Dave Smith Instruments and Pioneer on this product line in our report from NAMM 2017.
As we are in the middle of Passover, it seems like a good time to look back at a Jewish-themed show in which I participated earlier this year. The Amy X-Perience brought together a mix of artists in solo, duo and ensemble sets at the Jewish Community Center in Berkeley, California. The evening was curated by our friend and collaborator Amy X Neuburg.
The night began with a piece by Neuburg featuring electronics and potato chips. Yes, potato chips. Small vending-machine-sized bags were distributed to the audience, who were instructed to on cue open the bags and start chewing the (edible) contents loudly, as Neuburg manipulated the sounds and added additional musical layers.
I was up next. Regular readers have likely already heard part of my solo set from this show – I posted the performance of piece White Wine in this article a couple of weeks ago. I also performed a live version of my piece Donershtik (Yiddish for “Thursday”), which you can see below.
Amanda Chaudhary performing "Donershtik" at JCC East Bay from CatSynth on Vimeo.
I was quite happy with how both solo pieces came out, but the real treat was having Amy join me in a duo of my piece North Berkeley BART, humorously appropriate for the location that evening.
North Berkeley BART w/ Amy X Neuburg – JCC from CatSynth on Vimeo.
I have always been impressed with Amy’s musicianship, discipline and ability to learn songs quickly, and very much appreciated her joining me. We also performed an avant-garde rendition of the American standard All of Me later in the evening.
Between the two of us, there was quite an impressive collection of musical electronics on stage.
My solo set was followed by Alex Kelley, a veritable one-man band on cello and electronics.
His music blended jazz, klezmer and rock influences with experimental sounds. His cello acted not only as a melodic instrument, but also as the rhythm section, with Kelley striking it like a drum at times, and recording bass lines into a live looper and then riffing on top of that. His performance was both tight and humorous and a lot of fun to watch. You can hear a little bit in this video:
Next up was Solstice: A Female Vocal Ensemble. Sadly, several members of the group were unfortunately absent that evening due to illness, but that didn’t stop the remaining trio from delivering a strong performance.
Solstice’s repertoire spans a variety of styles and languages, and their set that evening included pieces from several places. I was quite impressed with their ability so sing in so many languages.
The second half of the program brought together the various artists in different combinations. I already mentioned my duo rendition of All of Me with Amy X Neuburg. She also performed show tunes with Alex Kelley, and joined Solstice for a virtuosic rendition of an Eastern European song. And finally, all of us joined together for a rousing rendition of Mein Herr from Cabaret. It was a fun and fitting conclusion to the evening.
All of the performances were well received by the enthusiastic full house. Thank you to Amy X Neuburg for inviting all of us to participate in this event, and to the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay for hosting! Please visit their website to find out about the many performances and other cultural programs hosted by the JCC.
Duet between Mags the cat on Moog Theremini and her human on Korg Minilogue. This sounds delightful – the quantization function on the Theremini helps.
From nilpferd_de_la_nuit on Instagram, via our friends at Moog Music, Inc.
Our friend Runkl returns with another portrait in front of the modular synth. Submitted by Jeph Nor via Facebook.
Our friend Merce the cat with a Roland SH-1000 synthesizer. Submitted via Twitter.
@matrixsynth @catsynth So interesting. I did not know about the lineage of Roland 1000 and the microKorg pic.twitter.com/Zcw4HxZVI4
— Merce (@Merce_the_cat) April 5, 2017
It was in response to a via matrixsynth, originally from Electronic Musician. It described the many years of synth innovations from Ikutaro Kakehashi, one of the visionary elders of the synthesizer world and founder of Roland. He passed away earlier this week.
We have a new version of CatSynth: The App! available on the Apple App Store. This is a tremendous update. The best version of CatSynth: The App! ever. We have rethought the user experience while preserving the distinctive style. It also happens to match Sam Sam’s markings quite nicely.
It is smoother and simpler to browse and read articles on your mobile device. And for the built-in Mystery Synths, we have added MIDI input support!
You can play the synths with an external MIDI controller or sequencer using either the network or (on iPads) a class-compliant MIDI USB device. We will have some video demos of this soon.
If you have an iOS device, please do try out the app and let us know what you think! 😺
Some epic circuit bending anchored by a cat keyboard toy 😸
From mondofreeko_68 on Instagram.
I’m pretty sure we at CatSynth have that toy around here somewhere…
Kisses the kitten explores a modular synth setup. We think kisses is adorable 😻
By our friend Julia Moore, aka Portland-based multi-instrumentalist Juli Amore. Please do check out her music.
Cats! Synths! Internets! All the things. Say hi to Cleo, our newest member. =^.^= <3 <3 pic.twitter.com/qLVeGvSUnb
— Duck (@duckband_uk) September 27, 2016
Adorable black kitten with a microKORG synthesizer. By Duck (@duckband_uk) on Twitter, submitted to @catsynth on Twitter via Dan Kletter.
@catsynth 😺 https://t.co/F7lp6QwNCJ
— Dan Kletter (@soundclamp) March 31, 2017
Hi Cleo, so nice to meet you 😺
Over the past month I had performed my piece White Wine twice in very different settings. We present them both below.
The first is with my band CDP (Census Designated Place) in early March. Performing with me are Tom Djll on synthesizers, Joshua Marshall on tenor saxophone, and Mark Pino on drums.
CDP Playing White Wine at Finnish Kaleva Hall from CatSynth on Vimeo.
This version follows a basic jazz structure of a head, follow by solos, and finally a recapitulation. But the solos are much more free form, not defined by a specific number of bars. The rhythm and tonal center remains constant, although the pitches and timbres move around quite a bit. I think it’s fair to say the whole band was happy with the way this turned out. And for me is what a chance to play I style of music that I most want to. The performance reminded me of early Miles David fusion albums, or late Soft Machine.
One week earlier, I performed the same piece at the Jewish Community Center in Berkeley, part of a program curated by Amy X Neuburg.
White Wine JCC February 2017 from CatSynth on Vimeo.
The melody – this time accompanied by a Casio SK-1 as part of a solo performance – is unmistakable. The open section even starts out with the same four-on-the-floor pattern. But it quickly diverges to more abstract electronic sounds. This is direction I am taking much of my solo work, mixing the jazz/funk elements into the more abstract electronics that I have long done. Astute listeners might spot the cat at the end.
I will be writing about both shows, including the other artists who participated, in upcoming articles. For today, I just wanted to raise a glass of White Wine.