i've gone and done it. "rings into clouds" (well, Beads, in this case).... i've always loved Rings, the ease of use without it needing a VCA and envelope and the pluck and bell sounds are fantastic. here Rings is sequenced by a Melodicer and then going through a variety of processing including Beads and Rossum Morpheus and Panharmonicon. after it was recorded i varispeeded it down 5 half steps... as i usually do. it's all a little busy and such.. but, i had endless versions and tweaks and figured i'd just post it up

January 04, 2022 (diced rings)

not sure if this one is interesting, or just grating..... set out this morning to create another "environment" on the modular... similar to what i was exploring with the "chorus (dusk/dawn)" piece i released last year. this one ended up being quite "jungle-y" ... some interesting things going on.. but so resonant it borders on grating.... but, just playing around here! main sound sources are the Odessa oscillator, the Befaco Noise Plethora, and a Kermit oscillator.

January 03, 2022 (resonant biodome)

one of the things i love about modular synthesizers is that when you turn them off and turn them back on again certain parameters have reset and you may be presented with something quite different than you last heard. today's sound is such a scenario. no re-patching was done from yesterday's sound but i adjusted and played a few parameters as i recorded. i stand by what i said about modular synthesis many years ago and that is that is the most organic and alive form of synthesis... it can really take on a life of its own.

January 02, 2022 (swans flown)

starting simple. i'm very out of practice with the modular (one of the driving forces behind restarting the diary series). starting simple and stress free. here a self-playing loop with the 4MS SWN going through a make noise QPAS and strymon Magneto. baby steps.

January 01, 2022 (swans)

(... to bury a dead bird). as this loop was playing i found a dead bird outside my studio. i didn't have shoes on, but i didn't want it to just lie there so i walked through the snow and buried it among some green growth under some rocks.

the synth here is an arp2600 (korg FS) ... one of my favorite features of the synth is the built in speakers. it allows me to turn it on and play.. without having to worry about bringing up a console channel or doing any routing/patching. also, because of the semi-modular-ity (?) i can patch pedal FX into the signal path.

there are a couple of lovely pedals here.. aging the sound, like the dead bird.

February 02, 2022 (barefoot in the snow...)

more explorations with loopers and the arp2600... this one is an ending... trailing off as the picture fades.

February 04, 2022 (as the picture fades)

a blatant modular noodle here... but i just got a Xaox Zadar in and this is the first patch. here using it as 3 very granular LFOs. one controlling a VCA and the volume of an e355 oscillator. another controlling the wave shape of the oscillator and a 3rd Zadar LFO/env controlling the FEEDBACK input of an intellijel Springray.

i didn't pay much attention to the Zadar when it was released but when i saw it in the light of 4 asynchronous loopable LFOs with very granular and tweakable shapes a bunch of ideas popped into my head.

apologies for the blatant modular noodle. better things will come.

February 28, 2022 (noisy noodle)

March 09, 2022 (light grey)

continued experiments with the Arbhar looper recording block bells and playing through a Rossum Morpheus for resonant frequency enhancement.

Maruch 11, 2022 (a scattering of bells)

The Prospect

The Way Back

Tobira

Nijiriguchi

Monkou

Okurirei

Mukaemizu

Roji

Tsukubai

this was a nice one to construct and perform. made simply from two loops. one piano line i recorded loaded into the qubit nebulae and another from the op-1 captured into a modcan cv record.

the signals go out to a variety of filters and modulations.. and i let it go for a while....

sept 17, 2014 (two for unknown)

a bit of spontaneous capture in the studio on piano day (http://www.pianoday.org) as rafael brought the thermionic culture vulture over to the studio to test out.

we found it pretty fantastic on the pianet electric piano. capable of giving it a little subtle grit to turning it into sounding nearly like a moog.

this sound is rafael playing a few notes of the pianet through the culture vulture while i did a bit of effecting with an eventide h3000.

happy piano day!

march 29, 2015 (#pianoday with rafael anton irissari)

this is the amazing batumi LFO from xaoc devices controlling 4 sine waves on a verbos harmonic oscillator. in addition to the LFOs patched into the verbos sine VCAs there is one controlling the center parameter and three cross-patched signals of the Batumi modulating itself.

it's recorded through a pitch shifting program on an eventide h7600 for further harmonic niceness.



october 20, 2015 (batumi meets the harmonic oscillator)

12k is happy to present the debut release on the label from Argentinian composer Federico Durand who has had a series of amazing releases on labels such as Spekk, Own, and Desire Path. Federico and 12k crossed paths on a tour of Japan together in 2014 where the personal friendships among the artists and the label are such a part of what 12k is about. Sharing music and ideas throughout the tour led to an invite to make an album.

It’s no accident that Federico’s music has a dusty air of nostalgia surrounding it. It has always been a very personal affair. Songs inspired family, local life and the world around him are woven by hand with a selection of very physical instruments. He works like a craftsman, piecing together fragments of sound from cassette recorders, small instruments and loopers and creates music that’s as softspoken as he is. No pretenses, no disguises, just the most honest and down-to-earth music that can be made. Broken melodies spinning from tape reels, the sounds of bells and small found objects being played with care... The music is as beautiful as it is introspective, like a small window of antique glass looking right into Federico’s soul.

In his own words:

“A través del espejo in Spanish means “Through the mirror”. I am fascinated with the experience of putting a mirror in front of another: as a miracle, the image turns in a loop that flows into infinity. Loops in the mirror get less clear with each repetition, the color becomes diffuse and greener. When these loops turn into a lullaby we can enter the other side of the mirror: a place of delight and insight.

I always make simple melodies as they are born free. In many pieces, I use cassette recorders as an instrument that play friendly with others such as piano, lyre, toys, bells or effects. I enjoy the possibilities of cutting tape and making loops, reversing, and even using many tape recorders at the same time making air recordings of the sound. The Roland Space Echo or 2880, which are loop-machines themselves, match perfectly with this way of working.

When I see an emboridery I enjoy both the front and back where a mysterious, invisible world suddenly appears. For this reason, I am grateful to the natural sounds made by the machines, the crackle of loops and other sounds that appear while working, as an unexpected gift.

A través del espejo is a dream of beauty, A love of handcrafted music.” 

- Federico Durand

A Través Del Espejo

El jardín encantado (The enchanted garden)

In the Lens, Solo Andata’s fourth full-length album, was born from recordings found in the interstices of decades-old hard drives, lost email threads from disused accounts, and forgotten samples recorded on cassette dictaphones. These fragments were combined and re-worked with newer elements to create an album very much in the spirit of the band’s debut Fyris Swan (Hefty Records, 2006), an album touched by both folk and jazz and swathed in a dusty, narcotic haze.
Solo Andata’s Kane Ikin and Paul Fiocco have always pushed aside the digital studio in favor of a more haphazard and hands-on workshop vibe to their productions. They prefer near-broken acoustic instruments, cheap microphones and, as can be witnessed by their live performances, tend to turn anything they can get their hands on into a beautiful sound-making object.

While there is a raw and guileless nature to the duo’s sound it is precisely this that makes their music so powerful amidst the over-produced cliches of much modern music. The beauty of their work is how simple instruments and objects can be physically manipulated into creating such rich, layered sound. Dark, swaying, almost-looped melodies from piano, woodwinds and horns wrap themselves in smoky obscurity around remnants of percussion and warm beds of noise and the world around us.

In The Lens is very much a late-night record, reflected in the rain-soaked cover imagery, dripping with half-forgotten memories. Jittery yet calming, rhythmic, yet unhurried, it leads you down its dark corridors to a soft resting space. Ikin and Fiocco have created a new story around the chemistry of their creations that were taking place during the early days of their musical explorations.

In The Lens

Separate Lovers

Will Samson - Lua

Argentinian musician Federico Durand returns with his 2nd full length album on 12k following 2016’s A Través Del Espejo (12k1085). Taking his already minimalist composition style Federico challenged himself by using only one synthesizer for this beautiful album of sparse, hypnotic dustiness. His talent for creating works of so much emotion out of so little attest to his concentration when working and his passion for the craft. La Niña Junco is a handwoven gem. Music with a humble origin and a deep resonating soul.  Famed Argentinian artist Lola Goldstein graciously illustrated the album cover, caputuring the idea of memory and object that is so infused with Federico’s work.

“Immersed in the beauty of the very moment, the songs for La Niña Junco were recorded in one take during two days, in a rush of inspiration. I used a small sound palette: one instrument, a Crumar Performer synthesizer along with two looping pedals and Roland Space Echo RE-201. The Crumar was my first synthesizer. I bought it many years ago and then gave it to a friend, who later lent it to my brother. After a very long time, I got it back when we moved to La Cumbre, a small town in the central mountain area of Argentina. As this instrument has a very limited but beautiful oscilator, it was rewarding to make small melodies using only its almost magical sound. I was enchanted to have the chance to play with my Crumar again: in many ways this album feels like returning to an early home. The electric noises of my old, broken keyboard, were an unexpected and musical gift and a humble proof of the passing of time.”

– Federico Durand, La Cumbre, 2017

La Niña Junco

Navidad en el bosque

Lluvia de estrellas

one more make noise 0-coast sequence before i take the patch apart.... going thru an Knas Ekdahl Moisturizer filter/spring reverb and into a lexicon PCM81.

i like how it snakes about...

june 21, 2017 (last summer)

i've been busy the past week with not too much time to play in the studio, but did a few bits late last night to send to federico durand for the collaboration we're working on. this was my favorite of the bunch.

august 02, 2017 (for federico durand)

early experiments with the intellijel plonk module. here's the plonk looped by the phonogene and sent into a rossum morpheus filter. that's it for the patch. reverb provided by a pcm81.

august 08, 2017 (tapping, rolling, loop)

Mount Carmel

Call

Response

With over 100 physical releases since its inception by Taylor Deupree in 1997, New York-based music label 12k has decisively defined and developed the concept of minimalism in the realms of electronic music for more than a decade. Fusing elements from Ambient and Electro-Acoustic Composition with carefully arranged digital textures and associative micro-noises, the label's aesthetics revolve around a precisely-outlined, yet deeply emotional concoction of the technological and the organic. Eschewing the typical marketing mechanisms of the commercial music industry, Deupree has sculpted a platform whose influence today extends well beyond the confinements of the experimental community. 12k's integral approach, in which the label's instantly recognizable, elegantly spartan artwork enters into an inseparable symbiosis with the music, has created a timeless audiovisual language respected and appreciated all over the world.

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