CatSynth video: Mr. Mittens meet Bootsy!

A follow up to the Attomik Kitteh video that we posted last week. Submitted by Ava Lemert via our Facebook page.

Ava Lemert introduces the world to the cat who inspired her funk anthem, “Attomik Kitteh” just released April 21st, 2012
Mr. Mittens, meet Bootsy!

“Attomik Kitteh” is available on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/attomik-kitteh/id521592190?i=521592191

If you have your own cat-and-music pictures or videos to share, you can submit them via Facebook, tweet us @catsynth, or contact us.

Failure in Concrete (writing from 2003)

(Failure in Concrete)
September 10, 2003

In my failure at something complex I have failed at something simple.

The sound of a trumpet pours out of a blue on blue on gray.
It scales the concrete wall and curves ninety degrees back to the original side, Meandering between the sound of two freeways that were never built
Their traffic filling the space between the mist.

From cracks in the wall grow weeds
Resplendent in their perfect arrangements of red and green
A single tree rises above from the other side of the wall
Casting its shadow in the shadow under the shadow

North of the tree
Towards the park
A woman in red not red but red slightly pink
I know that she is British
Yet I have no way of knowing that from just an image
I think this is odd
Incongruous
And then she is gone
(Another victim of the tireless work of the censor)

Two blocks south of the wall
Away from the park
Is another wall
It is not concrete
It cannot be seen
But it cannot be crossed
I can see through it

The houses on the other side are the same as the houses on this side
The cars a similar mix of late 1990’s models
Parked halfway on the curb as is the custom of this land

I see what I must do on the other side
But I cannot go through the wall
I do not have the energy to walk around it
It must stretch from highway to the ocean

They play what I write
Not what I hear
Sometimes I hear nothing

© 2003 Amar Chaudhary

CatSynth video: Synth Studio Tour with Zac the Black Cat

Submitted by James Bragg via our Facebook page.

Quick view around the Fernforest Project Studio. My black cat likes sitting on things that are black and stylish. He thinks he fits in well and looks cool.
Synths in order – Doepfer Modular A-100, Moog Etherwave Theremin, Moog Voyager Old School, Schlagswerg analogue drum machine, CP-251 moog control processor, Dave Smith Mopho and Tetra, Mackie Onyx firewire mixer, PC, M-Audio Oxygen 25, NI Maschine and a Monome my brother built.
The music is called “Dark Glow” by me. you can find the whole track on soundcloud.

Weekend Cat Blogging #364

We at CatSynth are happy to host Weekend Cat Blogging #364 this week. It is a self-selected round-up of cat-related posts from around the blogosphere. If you would like to participate, leave a link in a comment below, on our Facebook page, or tweet us @catsynth with hashtag #WCB.

And without “further ado” as they say, let us continue with the round-up.

First up, we have good news from our friends at Animal Shelter Volunteer, with several recent adult-cat adoptees. Among them is the black cat Hunny pictured above. We are happy for the her and the other cats who found their new homes.

Truffle turns 1 year old today and there is a celebration on at Sweet Purrfections. In true Southern style, they are holding a debutante ball with quite a list of illustrious attendees.

Speaking of parties, Cokie the Cat explains the upcoming BlogPaws conference. It is an annual event for pet-bloggers (or blogging pets), and cats, dogs, birds, humans and other animals of all sorts are welcome. It will be taking place about three weeks in Salt Lake City.

We will continue to add posts throughout the weekend, so please continue to send us your submissions. And thanks to those who participated!

John Cage at Tom’s Place

Today we look at last week’s performance at “Tom’s Place” in Berkeley featuring vocal and piano music of John Cage. Cage is of course one of my musical heroes, and his works for prepared piano are among my favorites.

The concert opened with two of his early pieces for prepared piano performed by Janis Mercer. Waiting (1952) consisted of a long period of silence followed by a short repeated phrase, followed by more silence. It could be seen as a stepping stone of sorts between Cage’s prepared-piano music and 4’33”, which was also written in 1952. Mercer also performed Bacchanale (1940), Cage’s first piece for prepared piano. It opened with dramatic repeated tones that evolved into shorter and then longer repeated phrases. The harmonies were anxious and fit with the timbre of the prepared strings. Prepared piano is sometimes called “piano gamelan”, and the name seemed appropriate for this movement, with its polyrhythms and complex minor harmonies. The following movement was much more percussive, with something that suggested bass and hi-hat.


[Janis Mercer. Photo by Michael Zelner.]

The concert continued with John Smalley performing Experiences No 2 for solo voice. This was the first of two pieces on the program that Cage wrote for Merce Cunningham dances. This one used a text by e.e. cummings. Musically, it had a static and yearning quality, with phrases having an “incomplete” feeling melodically.

This was followed by an untitled vocal interlude from Four Walls informally titled “Sweet Love”. It is a playful piece, both in terms of its music and text (which was written by Cunningham). The performance by Laurie Amat clearly brought out this quality.


[Laurie Amat. Photo by Michael Zelner.]

The concert resumed after a short intermission with In a Landscape featuring Mercer again on piano. Not only was the piano of the “unprepared” variety, the piece was actually quite tonal, with a dreamlike quality and something approaching a folk melody If I was presented the piece and asked to guess the composer, I would be more likely to say Debussy than Cage.


[John Smalley and Laurie Amat. Photo by Michael Zelner.]

The final piece of the evening was Litany for the Whale, song by John Smalley and Laurie Amat. The piece consists of slow vocalization of the letters of the word “whale” in call-and-response form over an extended period of time. The length of the piece (over twenty minutes) and slow motion make it quite challenging for both the performers and the audience. For the performers it was quite an endurance test and for those of us in the audience the challenge was to keep focused on it. What worked best was to go into a meditative state and focus on some details of sound while letting others simply pass.

The show was quite well attended with a full and appreciative house. Overall, I was glad I made the trip to Berkeley on a Wednesday evening to hear it.