Taking it's name from the advanced speech security system developed by Alan Turing in the Second World War, "DELILAH TOO" is based on the voice-scrambling capabilities of the vocoder--a device far better known for its role in the history of electronic music than for it's cryptographic potential.

In this  short demonstration sketch, we first hear the original voice reading Fernando Pessoa's "I’ve gone to bed with every feeling", then the scrambled signal, and finally the unscrambled signal.

A 15-band vocoder was used for encryption, controlled by a 15x15 matrix. The carrier signal consists of a bank of sawtooth oscillators tuned to match the passbands of the vocoder filters, and mixed with pink noise. Prototyped in Pure Data.

DELILAH TOO demo

Japanese temple bell belonging to Jeroen Beets recorded 19 December 2006 @ STEIM, Amsterdam. Analog synthesizer recorded 2006-7, Berlin. Mixed 11-14 November 2007 @ RSS82, Berlin.

Macumbista-hollow space capacitance discharge

Burmese gongs, ice field recording, mixer feedback. Recorded 30 July 2005, Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Derek holzer-metallophone drift

Multichannel recording of furnace in Karosta, Latvia (January 2003), processed shortwave radio in Mooste, Estonia (September 2004). Released as part of Untitled Songs: 49 Years from Gesang der Jünglinge 2005-1956 2xCD compilation by Sirr.ecords in 2005.

Derek Holzer-Untitled [boiler room]

Short opening-night drone performance for “Atelier Macumba”, Berlin-Lichtenberg. 4 x Thomas Henry XR-VCO, 4 x Buchla Low Pass Gate, 2 x Serge VC Slope, 1 x CGS Digital Noise, 2 x WoggleBug, 2 x Serge 1973 VCF, 2 x AD633 Analog Multiplier. This upload will only be public for a limited time. This recording is meant to be played loud on proper speakers.

HB55 “Atelier Macumba” Opening Drone 29 AUG 2014

Recorded Dec 2009 at the CEM studio in WORM, Rotterdam NL with their Serge modular and ARP2500 synthesizers, my own pedals and a nice big mixing console. Edited in Ardour. An early sketch, which may be returned to at a later date.

Mathesis (early edit)

Lost gem from my field recording era! Phasing drone vs rushing blasts of air from a malfunctioning beer cooler, somewhere out on the highway to Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas, 2006. Pan Sonic in the desert!!!!!!

Play loud. Not from laptop speakers, silly.

Big Bend Beer Cooler

Together with Jeroen Vandesande, I gave my Neanderthal Electronics instrument-building workshop to a group of students of the RITS Winterschool (Erasmushogeschool RITS, Brussels) from 12-23 JAN 2015. Over these ten days, the participants with backgrounds in acting, writing, theater tech and radio production designed, constructed, learned to play and created a composition using their own self-built DIY electronic instruments. A variety of circuits–including CMOS logic chips, amplifiers, portable loudspeakers, contact microphones and opto-electronics–ensured that each instrument gave a unique voice to each player in the piece.

The resulting 16 minute composition (inspired by the works of Alvin Lucier, Pauline Oliveros, John Grzinich, David Tudor and others) was an immersive, surround-sound experience, performed in a darkened room for an eyes-closed audience of 25 people at a time.

Composed and performed by Bram Verrecas, Amber Meulenijzer, Jana Rymen, Kimberly Struyf, Francesca Van Daele, Anna Van Hoof, Max Adams, Zoë Bossuyt, Iben Stalpaert, Milan Van Doren, Nils Melckenbeeck, Emma Schiettecatte, and Michèle Even at Kunstencentrum NONA, Mechelen, Belgium on 23 JAN 2015.

Much gratitude to Dieter van Dam for the invitation!

Workshop info here: http://macumbista.net/?page_id=497

Neanderthal Electronics Orchestra (RITS Winter School)

This demo is an edit of three settings from the Macumbista Mini synthesizer: http://macumbista.net/?page_id=623  The Mac Mini uses two cross-modulated Voltage Controlled Slopes through an Analog Logic module and a pair of Polivoks Voltage Controlled Filters. Feedback from the audio mixer is returned to the control section of the VCS modules.

Macumbista Mini demo #1

Live set @ Taka, Riga, March 16th, 2012. Derek Holzer: analog synthesizer, soundbox, found objects. Jelena Glazova: voice, laptop.

Parts 1 and 2 plus some studio sessions can be found at 
http://soundcloud.com/holzer-vs-glazova

Derek Holzer vs Jelena Glazova live @Taka 16.03.12 pt3

Original soundtrack by Derek Holzer for the short film "Machine Deva", by Steve Holzer (19min, TX, USA). A very abstract love story created directly on 16mm film, using familiar and not-so-familiar direct manipulation. Hand color and intervention on found footage with unusual transfer techniques put the visual experience somewhere between cave paintings and a hand-held video of a dream world.

Tracklist

1.0: brief introductions/those who cannot remember [6:06]
2.0: first mutation [4:34]
2.1: the lecture("étant donnés") [1:51]
2.2: take the elevator [1:04]
3.0: second mutation/the dance [4:43]

Recorded April 15-May 15 2012, RSS-82 Berlin.

Derek Holzer: analog synthesizer, electronics, pure data, organ, percussion
Steve Holzer: synthesizer(1.0), guitar(2.1)

machine deva 2.0: first mutation

machine deva 2.1: the lecture("étant donnés")

machine deva 2.2: take the elevator

machine deva 3.0: second mutation/the dance

Solo performance for self-made analog synthesizer, speaker box, found objects and room @ ExperiMontag (Madame Claude), Berlin, 11 MAR 2013. Edited and mixed to be played at maximum volume.

Derek Holzer-ExperiMontag set-11.03.13(edit)

Quick and dirty demo of Benjolin 2013v1, the first of several Benjolins to be built for sale in 2013. The Benjolin is a standalone synthesizer designed by Rob Hordijk from the Netherlands. It contains two oscillators (one LFO and one VCO), a pair of band-pass filters and a circuit Hordijk calls a “Rungler”, which allows chaotic cross-modulation possibilities between the different parts of the circuit. This hand-made Benjolin has been further customized with a patchbay, which can be used to interface with other modular synthesizers, or to setup further feedback systems within the Benjolin itself, as well as LEDs displaying the internal state of the Rungler. 

Benjolin 2013v1 Demo

Derek Holzer (1972) is an American sound artist living in Berlin, whose current interests include DIY analog electronics, sound art, field recording and the meeting points of electroacoustic, noise, improv and extreme music. He has played live experimental sound as well as taught workshops in noise art technology across Europe, North America, Brazil and New Zealand.

macumbista

Popular tracks