electronic music

New Podcast: Geeetar Improv 1

At a christmas party last monday, I participated in a free jam with some of my musician friends – I played a bit of guitar during the jam and that gave me the impetus (could I really use “kick in the tuchus” two posts in a row?) to get my own recently-acquired guitar in shape. In particular, it needed stringing – fortunately, there are plenty of online guides to guitar stringing and how to do it well.

Now that I have a working guitar, I have been noodling around a bit the last few days, mostly playing through effects and other signal processing on the computer. This release is a short improvisation I did with the guitar and various effects on the E-MU 1616m. Like most of my releases, it is fairly experimental/abstract, but it does contain a fair number of guitar cliches in the mix.





Preparing for January art installation: Part 1

I am collaborating on an art installation for an upcoming exhibition in January at the The Pajaro Valley Arts Council Gallery: the piece has both a visual (sculptural) component and a sound component, the latter being my contribution.

I've been doing bits of it over the holiday break, but finally gave myself the proverbial kick in the tuchus to complete at least a full draft today. I am making things simpler by using only sounds on the computer, not external synthesizers – and also focused on two sound libraries I purchased last year but have made only limited use of until now. The libaries focus on highly processed organic sounds (animals, environment, etc.) and modified analog synthesizers (including some circuit-bend instruments).

The “composition process” was simply auditioning various sounds from this library and assembling them into a continuous sequence – a collage – that works with the visuals. The material is primarily ambient noise, gitches, percussive effects and sounds that only “hint” at speaking voices.

Next step, after any additional changes and mastering, will be to put it together with the sculpture, presumably sometime next week…





New Podcast

Today's podcast release looks to the past. My performance two years ago at the Live Looping Festival in Santa Cruz received a lot of positive feedback from other musicians and audience members,, and it's one of my favorites. But it is largely overlooked by most visitors to my website. I encourage readers and listeners to check it out.

The performance was realized almost exclusively using Open Sound World, with a little backup from the Proteus 2000.



Gift ideas from CatSynth

Looking for a great holiday gift for that music lover, techno geek and/or pretentious hipster/snob in your life? Why not give them a copy of Aquatic?

If CD's are too old school, you and always gift tracks via iTunes or consider a subscription to emusic, truly the gift that keeps on giving.

Proportional Fish kinda sounds like holiday music, right?






3000 visits…

Well, like the United States, we hit our milestone of a number beginning with three followed by lots of zeroes…

After 3000 visitors, though, you think a few of them might go and buy the CD or download tracks from iTunes or eMusc. But it seems very few visitors even bother to listen to the free samples.

I take pride in keeping this site and my personal/professional site free of ads save for clean and tasteful promotion of my own work. I would like to keep it that way…

…so, time for a Guilt Trip?. If you enjoy this site, would it really hurt to check out the music, maybe buy a 99-cent track or two? If you're an emusic subscriber, add us to your download queue. And if you like anything you hear (heck, even if you don't), please consider writing a short review at one of these sites. Consider this review from Gloria in Toronto at CD Baby:

Amar has done an amazing job in putting together a very creative ensemble of various electronic instruments. Each song in the CD tells a story. Just close your eyes and you can visualize and hear the stories of love, passion, suspense, and anger. It's almost as if I'm watching a movie. The songs made me feel, and every time I listen to the CD, I get more out of it than before. Amar brings forth what I consider to be an exciting new genre of music.

OK, I better wrap this up before it turns into an NPR pledge drive…





New Podcast Entry: Oct 14 evolver improv

I have uploaded a new podcast entry: a guided improvisation I did last night using my DSI Evolver synth. The idea was to focus on soft, high-pitched timbres but with unstable states that can easily produce more chaotic signals. This of course lots of fun, and I was quite pleased with the results except for a couple of loud “thumpy” sounds around two minutes into the piece. I am considering this an actual piece, even a composition of sorts, but I am still looking for a good title. Feel free to suggest you own in the “Comments” section.

As always, click here to subscribe to the podcast, or contact me if you have trouble with it. Enjoy!








Listen to audio from headphone festival

I'm taking a short break out of cat blogging to post the audio from my recent performance at the headphone festival. You listen to it here.

This will be the first in my podcast series, though getting that set up is taking longer than planned, all these pesky details setting up the RSS feed, populating the content, collateral, etc. So for now, just enjoy the music on its own…






Amar @ plug:dos headphone festival in SF, Saturday 9/9, 7:40PM

I will be performing live at 992 Paralta St. in San Francisco at 7:40PM on Saturday. Mostly experimental, “lowercase” (i.e., soft) electronic music. This is intriguing because it is a “headphone” event where people live at the venue as well as those listening online will be using headphones.

For those who are interested, you can also listen live online on Saturday. visit http://www.deletist.info/plugdose.html or
http://www.leplacard.org for more info.

Official press release below:

SAN FRANCISCO'S 2ND ANNUAL HEADPHONE FESTIVAL
AUG 5-6 2006
5LOWERSHOP COLLECTIVE WAREHOUSE
992 PERALTA AVE., SF
http://www.deletist.info

a festival within a festival, transmitting 48 live performances for 48 hours in participation with the worldwide interaural experiment known as LE PLACARD #9 – a self-organized nonstop streaming festival that migrates from city to city broadcasting headphone conterts to headphone people around the world from june-october 2006.
http://leplacard.org

admission is free
B.Y.O. HEADPHONES

[:] p l u g [:] 2005
last year, a constant flow of over 300 people plugged their headphones in at the 5lowershop warehouse on peralta ave to hear 48 headphone-only performances from the likes of beth custer, swoondoll, bunnyphonic, jeff ray, justino, neighborhood bass coalition, skullcaster, nullspace, sky sosa, toshio hirano, 666 gangsta, dj crackhouse, heartworm, members of subarachnoid space, ryan of slidecamp, mono, halcyon high, things falling apart, aaron x of the quiet american, viola-cello improv victor lowrie, sodium channel, useless unknown facts, tina butcher, the deletist, and many more..
a simultaneous pirate radio broadcast was heard at 104.1 fm, and untold numbers of listeners were plugged in at various listening rooms in LE PLACARD's global network. a live irc chat also allowed listeners to communicate during the event.
Wired magazine praised the festival, and LE PLACARD organizers in paris
dubbed [:] p l u g [:] “the best transmission of the year”

p l u g [:] dos 2006
this year, we return with 2 days of sound experimentation, continuing the diverse mix of acoustic, experimental, electronic, and non-genresfrom underground artists all across california. again, we will transmit a simulltaneous pirate radio broadcast at 104.1 fm, include the live chat for listeners, stream live audio through LE PLACARD's global network, and
due to popular demand, a live video stream will be added to this year's festival.

everyone is invited to listen, participate and experience this unforgettable event.

there will be food, drinks, merchandise, and more!