moog

Pitta of the Mind and Mezzacappa-Phillips Duo, Luggage Store Gallery

Today we look back at my latest performance with Pitta of the Mind at the Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco, a show that also featured a set by the Mezzacappa-Phillips duo.

Pitta of the Mind is my music-and-poetry duo with poet Maw Shein Win. It was our fourth performance as a duo, and probably our most polished to date. As with our previous performance at last year’s Skronkathon, we selected a color as the overarching theme for the set. That time it was silver, this time it was blue, which was reflected in our costumes, props (including a little blue tree), and the content of some of the poems. The selections were a bit darker and melancholy than at the Skronkathon, and overall the set had a more serious feel. There were, however, humorous moments in both words and interpretive dance moves from Maw. For the music behind the poems, I used a variety of iPad apps including Sunrizer, Animoog and Bebot. The challenge was to provide sound that fit with the poems without overpowering them.


[Maw Shein Win. Photo: PeterBKaars.com.]

After the main course of our poetry-and-music set, I played a solo improvisation on the analog modular system as dessert.


[Photo: PeterBKaars.com.]

A subpatch with the E350 Morphing Terrarium from Synthesis Technology, the Make Noise Maths, and the KOMA Eletronik SVF-201 filter formed the foundation, with other modules patched in and out during the course of the performance. I was aiming for noisy rhythmic patterns, and sometimes succeed, while at other times allowed the sound to move in the direction of longer drones or unstable chaos.


[Click to enlarge.]

The set was well received by the small but appreciated audience, and we got quite a few positive comments for both words, music and our coordinated blue outfits.

Lisa Mezzacappa and Noah Phillips opened with with a set of improvised music for upright base and guitar, respectively. Both are virtuosic improvisers, and I expected good things from their set. They explored a wide variety of extended techniques, some percussive and some more drone-like, and moving freely between more structured and free-form rhythms. Overall, the timbres, harmonies and textures were quite beautiful and visually evocative.


[Noah Phillips and Lisa Mezzacappa. Photo: PeterBKaars.com.]

Interestingly, this was not the first time we shared the bill with the Mezzacappa-Phillips duo. We were all together at a show in Oakland in 2011. I’m glad we had the change to perform together again.

Moog Music Sub Phatty and Voyager

Moog Music introduced its latest synthesizer, the Sub Phatty at NAMM this year. Like the Korg MS-20 mini, this was a much discussed instrument in the weeks leading up to the show. And here it is:

As a basic bass analog synth with sub-octaves, it reminded me a bit of my classic Octave Cat, although the filter sound was unmistakably Moog. The feature that made this synth different was the “Multidrive”, which added a timbrally rich but harsher sound that worked well with resonance. It’s definitely grittier than the usually smooth Moog sound.

I did get a video demo of the instrument while at the booth, but unfortunately my video recorder was having issues, but you can find some video demos at MATRIXSYNTH’s NAMM coverage. The MSRP for the Sub Phatty is $999 USD, which isn’t bad.

This was also the 10th anniversary of the flagship Moog Voyager Synth, and for the occasion they had a couple of special editions, including this one with crystal and gold controls:

Of course, I did not get to play this one.

CatSynth video: Synthesis for Cats

From Poppaneedsanap, via matrixsynth

“OJ (Turkey Leg) on the Etherwave pitch CV controls the rate of random LFO, pinging a Q106 oscillator. Bling Bling (aka Manwich) goes nuts on a contact mic and Moog MF104Z Delay. Ok, I mixed the contact mic pretty low I admit, but it was his first time wiggling and he was a little self conscious about his performance.

A more robust jam will follow when I find the fucking laser pointer!”

Moog attitude by Frank Herrgott

From Frank Herrgott on YouTube, via matrixsynth.

I just bought the Moog Voyager (rack version) and was very enthusiastic about the sound. I did this demo to share some of the sonic possibilities of this beast. I use only the sounds of the moog voyager and did use only verbs, Eqs, compressors ans delays as effects. I also mention that it is the first timle that I use Adobe Premiere (video editor), it’s a great soft.Thanks for passing by, see you soon on the net…. and have fun with the Moog Attitude! Frank Herrgott

No cat in this video per se, but our friend ____Lo____ on Twitter suggested that there was a “cat inside” with the rather feline melody of the music.

What do you think?