Art + Music + Technology

Jason Corder is a whirlwind of production. Over 70 releases. Tons of work with game music and sound design. Video work a-plenty. Live performances. The whole package - he's the kind of guy that is an inspiration to me. And I think you'll feel the same way. You can check out Jason's work at http://noise.offthesky.com/, or dig some of his more performative work on his Soundcloud page here: https://soundcloud.com/offthesky. There are a number of interviews of him online; they are worth reading, because they further the story of this remarkable musician and sound designer. This is a little treat from us at the AMT podcast to you: here in the US, it's Thanksgiving, which means hanging around family (and wanting badly to get back to the studio...), eating like crazy and waiting around for Black Friday sales to kick off. I thought it would be nice to have something to listen to during this mess; I hope you enjoy. And if you are outside the US, it's a nice chance for me to say "Thank You" for continuing to listen. Th

Kim Bjørn is on a mission - he wants to highlight design in electronic instrument creation, and he wants to document it as completely as possible. With his recently-released book Push Turn Move, we get interviews with developers, performers and researchers, and really get to understand not only the design, but the decisions behind the design, of the instruments we love. Whether you are into Teenage Engineering's ultra-cool designs, or you prefer the Jupiter 8 Mothership view of instruments - or even if you prefer a U-HE plug-in interface to anything in hardware - you are going to find a lot in this book to dig. And my discussion with Kim got even further; he breaks down his thinking process in pulling together the book, and also found ways to dig deeper than previous authors had done. I'm a big fan of the book; if you are into electronic music, or product design, or usability - or even instrument design, you are going to find this a wealth of information there. And listening to our chat will help you understa

Personal heroes. This is a very personal subject for most people, because our choice of heroes says a lot about us. My reverence for Morton's work has a lot to do with how it changed my ears - and therefore my life. Being introduced to Silver Apples allowed me to think of music as a less discrete, more fluid, material. Don't need to limit yourself to standard instruments focused on verses and choruses; you can choose to use electrons to develop phrases, premonitions, echoes and silence instead. I was never able to think of (or hear) music the same way again. In this chat, Morton and I talk about his current work, the events that got him to think about electronic music, and how he came to revisit the use of the Buchla modular system. We also talk a little bit about his upcoming book project, and the documentary that is being made about him. But it was a relaxed and enjoyable chat - appropriate for this highlight of my podcast: Number 200. Thanks again to everyone that has been listening over the years. Keep on

You may not have run across Jill Fraser's name before, but you almost certainly have heard her work. With hundreds of TV commercials under her belt, as well as several feature films and a couple of tours, she's become part of the world's earworm. She's also been performing more recently - with Peter Grenader - as zZyzx Society, and even occasionally taking her gear into the desert to play for the coyotes! Jill is part of the CalArts group that came of age in the late seventies, featuring Morton Subotnik as one of the key instructors. Moving from school almost directly into feature films as studio work has given Jill an uninterrupted line of creative work for almost four decades! Listen in while we surf Jill's Serge-driven career. You can find out more about Jill's work, and see/hear some of her performances, by checking out her website: http://www.jillfrasermusic.com/. And if you are in LA, keep an eye out for the zZyzx Society gigs, since they combine composition, improv and modular instrumentation in a very

When I first got the pointer to the band Ariadne, I did a drive by - and then a double-take. They describe themselves as an "experimental sacred music duo"; while that resonates, it was also a little bizarre. Sacred music is very seldom experimental, and vice versa. But a quick tour through their Soundcloud and Bandcamp sites helped me understand better - they create a haunting mix of ambient, industrial, noise, drone and operatic sounds that don't necessarily sit in any particular category, but still sound approachable and lovely. When we spoke, I learned that, rather than through-composed, this work is the result of improvisational practice using prepared texts. That sort of rattled my imagination about how something like this could be created; I always think of the 'song' and the 'tracks' coming first, but Ariadne finds a way to weave it together in the process of practice. They also implement the work as WebGL visual works, which you can experience at their main website (http://www.ariadnedigital.net/). T

Mike Hodnick is one of those people that others have been pointing me toward for a while; he's deep into electronic music, he does some incredible performances, he has a deep well of releases and he is a coding fiend. The fact that all of this is wrapped together - using the Tidalcycles library for Haskell - in one neat package, and one that Mike is completely comfortable chatting about. Just after this interview, I ended up taking a workshop with Mike and really loved working with Tidalcycles (often just called Tidal). But when I listened through Mike's work, I got the sense of the organizational prowess of Tidal, and of Mike's brain. So it was a lot of fun picking his brain on how he works, how he performs and how he decides what to release. I've become a fan, and I suspect you might too. You can check him out on hit site: http://kindohm.com/. You can also hear some of his work both on his Bandcamp site and his Soundcloud site. His latest release is RISC Chip on the Conditional label. Check out the work, an

I'm a fan of the K-Devices products - and one in particular. Holder, a simple little spectral hold function, ends up in almost every Live set that I work on. It's focused, efficient and easy-to-understand - all the hallmarks of an excellent devices. So when PR Master Marsha Vdovin checked in on a possible interview, I was all over it! It turns out that K-Devices' mastermind - Alessio Santini - is as cool as his devices. He's got a great story (I've not met many people that move from a Doom Metal obsession to making synths!), and a long history in sound design. But his background is also one that will be familiar to many: when he found a passion, he dropped everything to pursue it. The result is making a life that is personal and complete: a story that is worth hearing. I really enjoyed talking to Alessio, and was interested in his development concepts, his moves into iOS development, and his own work on an upcoming musical release. Oh, and the fact that he uses Holder on almost all of his Live sets told me th

It's good to have friends! I ran into a bit of a buzzsaw this week, and all of a sudden it looked like I didn't have an interview! I put out a call on Facebook, and people really rose to the challenge - including this week's participant. Mark Ballora was suggested by Meg Schedel, and a quick look at his website made me agree - he was a perfect guest. I've been interested in the idea of data sonification; since we are in an age of Big Data, it seems like there has to be more ways of engaging with data than just looking at colorful charts. Mark, from Penn State, is deep in the heart of this, and has been working with data ranging from weather changes to heart rate tracking. But what is most interesting is his willingness to jump into almost any data 'stew' and see what comes of it - as well as his willingness to makes something musical out of the result. I really appreciated Mark taking us through the various details of putting together a data sonification, and it is also interesting to hear him describe the pr

I've been hearing a lot about Walker Farrell lately. We interviewed him for the C74 newsletter, I heard a lot of talk about his live performances, and everybody has been suggesting his "Music for 0​.​∞ Musicians, Vol. 1" release as something I have to hear. And I've gotten sucked in - the work is expansive, varied - but still maintaining a artistic voice. So yeah, right up my alley. I was glad that Walker was up for a visit, and I started boning up on his work (including his Bandcamp site and Soundcloud site). The more I listened, the more I got pulled into his work. I was also blown away by that amount of work he was able to produce - that's always something that keys me into someone that will influence me. And sure enough, learning about Walker's setup and his process got me revved up to try mimicking his ideas. Very interesting stuff. I also think it is great to talk to someone that makes personal choices to produce creative limitations to work through. His performance plan, which creates a limited functio

Mike Monday's adverts are all over the web. And if you get on his mailing list, you will see him even more. But it's hard not to be intrigued - especially when he has a lot of free information available for you to view, and it tends to be pretty spot-on. But I'd never seen a detailed interview with him, so I tried reaching out, and was pleased when he responded favorably. The chat went off better than planned, because it turns out that Mike is as engaging in person as he is on his video lessons. And his history is fascinating: from double-bassoonist at Oxford to club track maniac, he'd had his hand in a lot of different musical environments. But it is his descriptions of the methods - and failures - for making music that will probably be his lasting influence on music-makers, and he spelled it out pretty openly during our talk. I've become a believer in his work, and also appreciate how he approaches his teaching practice. But I also like the fact that he's willing to describe his influences, talk about his m

When my friend Tom Hall first introduced me to the music of Deru, I was immediately drawn in. It was the combination of complexity and structure that I love in ambient work, but it was also unabashedly electronic and had edge that I liked. But I got a surprised when I did a little digging around, and found out that Benjamin Wynn, the man behind Deru, was also deeply entrenched in the music-for-TV world, having done music and sound design (with his partner Jeremy Zuckerman) for Avatar - The Last Airbender, Kung-Fu Panda - Legends of Awesomeness and others. A couple of Emmys speak to the quality of that work. In addition to that (!), he is also one of the founders of The Echo Society, a composer's collective that is gaining traction by producing a concert series that pushes people's perception of classical music concert - and modern music. All of this points to an amazingly efficient music and sound producer, and one that is able to work within - and embrace - many different sound environments. In our chat, we

For me, the Mod Devices story began with their very impressive debut at the NAMM show. But guest Gianfranco Ceccolini has been working on the product for quite a while - and on the concept for even longer. Creating more than a guitar pedal, Gianfranco and company have succeeded in creating an entire ecosystem (they call it a platform, but that sounds only technical...) that can be used for the development of pedalboards for guitars, synth rigs or whatever. I started to work with the company when they wanted to support building Max's Gen code to run on the device; thanks to heroic efforts by some of my co-workers (Jeremy, here's a shout-out!), we not only got it running, but it is as smooth as silk. But in working on this, it was clear that this wasn't a system that just appeared because of a Kickstarter campaign - there was obviously something more behind the device. Thus, this chat. And it was really interesting - taking a love of music and a love of Linux, combining them into something that a guitarist coul

Do you wonder if I follow up on random interview requests? I sure do, and this week is the result of that effort. One of the listeners sent me a note about Devin Fleenor's S.E.E.D. project - and artificial intelligence art framework. I dove in a bit - and I had to learn more. I actually reached out to people that had seen the early stages of this work at Currents New Media Festival, and I began to see how this was growing into a significant piece of work. So then I had to talk to Devin. I really enjoy talking to people that are really excited about the things that they are discovering, and Devin is all over that. He has set the stage for some real heavy research, but it's all about responding to the viewer in some very particular ways. Whether it is enhancing the joyfulness of a piece based on your response, or switching things up when you start to become bored, this sort of responsive artwork seems to hold some very interesting options for the future. And it seems like a way to take A.I. into an artful, rath

I always enjoy talking to people about Sound Art, because it is so undefined. If you take sound/composition, then remove the requirement to 'make music', what is left? Turns out, there's a whole world of exploration, and these artists are in the middle of it. Cathy van Eck is helping the cause: she has written a book about her view of the Sound Art world (Between Air and Electricity: Microphones and Loudspeakers - available here), kicked off a website that helps her accumulate Sound Art examples (http://microphonesandloudspeakers.com/), and maintains an active performance practices. Her work (you can see it here) catches my brain in the right way, and it was what drew me into talk to her. And the talk was fascinating. We dove into some of her perspectives on performance, composition, sound vs. music and the process of teaching something as esoteric as art. We also get to chat about some of the individual works, and how she approaches each one. A great view into an artist's mind. Enjoy!

Markus Reuter is quite an amazing musician. He's already been part of several releases this year (including an amazing collaboration with Robert Rich), but he's also putting out interesting solo work, is touring right now with Stick Men, continues to develop his touch guitar technique - and has time to talk to me for the podcast. And we had a fascinating chat, where we talked about everything from the development of the U8 guitar, to fan engagement through his new subscription project, and through to some ideas about how technique and music is taught to new students. Markus goes beyond the normal 'advanced guitar' thing; he transcends the instrument and even any specific musical idiom to embody music creation. Maybe that's why his model for the future, through an artist subscription, is perfect for him: it's a great opportunity to have people move with you through styles, concepts and techniques as you develop them without having to tightly restrict oneself to a specific sub-genre. In our chat, we get into a

Tobias Reber is a long time listener of the podcast that has been touching base with me about artists that he thought would be good candidates for the show. Interestingly, when I did a little research on him, it brought up a surprisingly broad range of work - from installations to prog-rock combos. You know I had to talk to him then! If you want to see some of what I saw, you can check out his site - http://www.tobiasreber.com/cms/ - and cruise through some of the sub-site links on that page. You'll be shocked at the number of different means of expression that Tobias maintains. But it all comes from a central place, and one that I enjoyed exploring in our talks. From his work with Markus Reuter through his 'ambient percussion' pieces, we dove into both 'how' the work was done, as well as 'why' it was part of his portfolio. I'm fascinated by people willing to take on multiple roles/identities/voices, and I found that Tobias' work had a central theme of quality that I found powerful. Listen to his work - and l

Scott Jaeger is responsible for a lot of modular makers getting into the game. When he started making Eurorack modules under The Harvestman moniker, there were relatively few players: Doepfer (of course), Plan B, Livewire and - well, that was about it. Scott came into the game with something completely different: digital devices that turned the analog-based modular concept on its ear. He also was aggressive about design, control layout and user interface, and the result was that almost everyone doing a Eurorack system - especially if is was going to be used for performance - would have some of The Harvestman modules in the rack. After expanding into more products, the company morphed into Industrial Music Electronics, and is making updated versions of the classics as well as a broad array of new modules. He is also collaborating with Vladimir Kuzmin as Iron Curtain Electronics, creating the Polivoks modules based on designs from the classic Russian analog synth. But regardless of the collab, Scott's design fo

So when my friend Clifton says "Hey, man - check this person out...", I tend to listen pretty intently. In this case, he pointed me toward someone that surprised me on several levels: a conductor-become-composer that also did electronics, a film composer that released a solo album, and an artist with both staff paper and a modular synth on her desktop. How could I not interview Leanna Primiani? And it was a great chat - we discussed how a person makes the move from conductor to composer, and how the sound designer can take an orchestral approach to the work. We also dig into something that I'm always interested in: how does a person who already does a lot of work make the move into creating a release? What is this "new music", and how do you know when it is done? Leanna is super open about her ideas, her process and even her fears, and was super inspiring to me about all the different aspects of being a performing/recording musician. She was also quite honest about how people are responding to her electronic

One of my weekly pleasures (introduced to me by Gregory Taylor) is the Vital Weekly newsletter. This is a weekly compendium of recent music releases (generally in the experimental/artsy area) with quick reviews, and it has a companion podcast that provides an ear on many of the works that it reviews. In a recent edition, they included a review of this week's guest - Phil Maguire - along with an excerpt from his 'Solo Computer Music' Verzimprint release, and I was quite taken. So, as I often do, I started diving deeper. I ran across his site, and got to hear a variety of his work. I also enjoyed an ATTN magazine session that included an interview with Phil drew me into his work in a very personal way. Of course, this led me to reach out, and the next thing you know - we've got a chat going! Phil is a super personable, interesting guy, and one that is willing to go from performance programming, to broken hardware, to detailed editing - and doesn't get bogged down with any orthodoxy on his way to expressing his

Dave Rossum has quite a history. From helping to start up E-mu Systems, managing its acquisition by Creative Labs (and working with them through a 10-year run of amazing designs) and the creation of Rossum Electro-Music, Dave has been designing the heck out of music instruments. I was really excited when the Synthtopia folks we able to pull this interview together, since I've been a fan of E-mu devices for a long, long time, and have been mesmerized by the new modules he's been developing. In our chat, we talk in detail about the development of the early E-mu modular system, the move into sampling technology, the effect of the Creative purchase and the technology developments behind the Proteus lineup. We also go into detail about Dave's design work with the new series of modules that he's working on, as well as the upcoming sampler module that has everyone humming. This was a lot of fun, and super-educational; I learned an awful lot about the various technological advances behind samplers and sample-based sy