One of my favourite among the songs I was honoured to play in with The European Contemporary Orchestra (E.C.O.), an ensemble, comprised of 33 soloists and lead by Jean-Paul Dessy/Musiques Nouvelles + Raoul Lay/Ensemble Télémaque.

"Music In 3 Movements" was composed by the talented Kasia Glowicka
http://www.glowicka.com

"Music In 3 Movements" was recorded in June 2012

European Contemporary Orchestra: music in 3 movements

The first time I heard a track played on a Serge system I fell in love with the purity of its sound, less wild than a Synthi and less dandy than a Buchla... Totally unique and so ingeniously multi-functional in design… 
Working on our « hommage to Serge »  for Modulisme I promised myself to have one and finally - thanks to my friend Yan Proefrock who made some modifications - 2 days ago I received my SERGE 73/75.
As I like to document the immediacy of the first moves here is a simple patch where the Triple Waveshaper driven by 2 Envelope Generator enters in Ring Modulation and Reverb. 
First voyage...

SERGE 001 For Yan & Serge

A Reassuring Elsewhere, Chapter 1

A Reassuring Elsewhere, Pt. 1

Lydia Lunch & Philippe Petit: BLACK SPRING

This morning I changed the position of my modules and added a couple so as often I'm willing to document my first patch.
Only 2 "voices" the 259 Generator + Digital Resonator going into the 288 Time Domain Processor and then the 205 Matrix Mixer... 
A Voltage Generator and "Garden of Joy-stick" providing "CV moves" ; and the 281 enveloping it all into the 292 and then to the 207... U know your Maths, don't you?! 
ENJOY !

Outside the Buchla Bongos...

A Reassuring Elsewhere, Chapter 3

A Reassuring Elsewhere, Pt. 11

A Reassuring Elsewhere, Pt. 10

A Reassuring Elsewhere, Pt. 12

A Reassuring Elsewhere, Pt. 9

A Reassuring Elsewhere, Pt. 15

A Reassuring Elsewhere, Pt. 16

A Reassuring Elsewhere, Pt. 13

A Reassuring Elsewhere, Pt. 8

Interlude 1

Interlude 2

A few years ago I thought I'd re-search for my Warmjets in hommage to Brian Eno...

Philippe Petit - Where Are The Warmjets... (in Hommage To Brian Eno)

opener for our new album on Staubgold, featuring Julie Christmas on vocals and Helen Money on cello

http://www.discogs.com/buy/Vinyl/Strings-Of-Consciousness-From-Beyond-Love/56172682?ev=bp_rel_det

STRINGS OF CONSCIOUSNESS: The Drone From Beyond Love

Inspired by Damon Knight’s novel « Why Do Birds » in which the entire human race has to put itself in a giant box before our world gets destroyed in 12 years which is why I am trying to communicate with the Invaders using Buchla Eael K. 
Other-Wordly boborygmus-gurglings...

Why Do Birds?!

On this one I patched my Buchla Easel K soberly, kept its sound pure neither thru any pedal, amp nor any FX and decided to focus on using its Multi-Dimensional Kinesthetic Controller... Caressing to play like a Theremin, Impacting for some bongo-like Contemporary percs, turning frequency/modulation/timbre/pitch of some notes upside down, and manipulating the « R » & « S » keys like joysticks to retranscribe the importance of the compositional gesture, to favor the live touch without repetitions, by impulse, in a very corporeal way.

Palpé - Roulé

SOMA Lab Soundsystem is Vlad Kreimer and Philippe Petit.
Vlad Kreimer the brain behind the brand SOMA and inventor of today's most interesting electronic instruments plays his Pulsar 23 and this is the very first song using the instrument. 
Historical !
To match I played my Buchla Easel K... Feeling really happy to join the SOMA team which hopefully will soon be rewarded for such inventiveness and intelligence in helping us create some newer sounds...

SOMA Lab Soundsystem

"Voices In My Head: God Told Me To" is a reference to Larry Cohen’s cult movie dealing with unpredictable assaillants randomly killing people claiming that God told’em to… Those voices in my head could be uttered into your ears thanx to the SOMA Pipe: a voice / breath / mouth-controlled dynamic FX processor and synthesizer. This magical instrument turns your voice into a powerful FX / beat / lead / soundscape synthesizer and it offers unprecedented levels of vocal processing. 
Indeed allow me to emphasize that what you are listening to came out of my mouth ONLY and id done with no overdubs, one take improvisations. 

MUTANT speech synthesis !

P.S: allow me one tip advising to go until the end listening to the beautiful 3minutes of resonance and the very last sentence giving sense to the whole...

Voices In My Head: God Told Me To

Our world is permeated with the odour of E.M.R.
« Singing »  in my Pipe and also using field-recordings from The ETHER which is a wide-band receiver invented by SOMA Laboratories that makes it possible to perceive the electromagnetic landscape around you. It was indeed frightening to walk around my appt. recording and realizing how trapped-zapped in Electro Magnetic Radiation I was… 
Back in the 60s the band Gonn opened its Garage Punk anthem «  Black Out Of Gretely » saying that « The world is permeated with the odour of Kerosen ». Nowadays our world is still permeated with the odour of Kerosen + electromagnetic waves, an invisible pollution emanating from anything that is plugged in: TV’s, lamps, techie gadgets, microwaves, toaster, cell phones; wireless internet; radio; lap tops… etc… Those EMR cause troubles for Human Beings and so would this piece of music, hopefully chilling...

www.philippepetit.info

https://somasynths.com/ether/
https://somasynths.com/pipe/

Permeated With The Odour Of EMR

In order to create a sonic heatwave I have used the great Lyra 8 «organismic synthesizer» from Soma, developping some "dronoises"… 
Added some percs & electroacousticisms with my Buchla Easel K… 
Warm and alive !

www.philippepetit.info

Heatwave

Short and melodic moves... Sound vignette...
After offering many longer improvisations I though it may be good to shorten and go directly to the point.
Summer vibes with my Buchla Easel K system, dedicated to Chantal.

Fantaisie Foutraque

An improv testing both Portabellabz EMS VCS3 vs. Buchla Aux Card: 2 cards allowing to meta-expand my Easel K. 
I moved knobs and sliders in search of building up drama, climaxes but not in an introductory-intensifying-transitional-cadential stages traditionally related to the development of a composition. Peaks may occur at any time, things can be immediately intense or quiet, in a horizontal and science-frictional inter-relation to time...

EMS Synthi VCS3 vs. Music Easel AUX Card

MURCOF + PHILIPPE PETIT: 1st chapter
(LP + CD + Digital / Rev. Lab. - Aagoo)

Release date: September 2013

www.aagoo.com
www.revlaboratories.com

Fernando Corona
Hailing from Tijuana, on the Mexico/US border, and now a Barcelona resident, Fernando Corona rose to attention as part of Mexican collective Nortec, mostly for his work as Terrestre, but it is with another project, Murcof, that he has made an extremely strong impact. Merging micro-beats with samples of contemporary classical music, his work, often crystallised into sweeping haunting pieces, bridges the gap between Arvo Pärt or Henryk Górecki and part of the electronic scene of today. He is credited with being one of the main influences of the likes of Erik Skodvin and of many of the artists who have appeared on Miasmah in recent years.
www.murcof.com

Philippe Petit
This self-styled musical activist began his career as a journalist and DJ in his native Marseille, and went on to form Pandemonium Rdz., a label with which he explored the outer reaches of experimental rock, before turning his interest to electronic music by setting up BiP_HOp Records at the beginning of the noughties. Since 2009, his focus has shifted once again, this time on his own music, a refined blend which can incorporate elements of experimental rock rock or classical music and can take the form of complex electronic, electro-acousticism, experimentation or turntablism. Although Petit occasionally works alone, it is in the collaborative space where he truly thrives, casting his sonic world against that of the likes of Eugene S. Robinson, Lydia Lunch, Pietro Riparbelli, Bella Emerson, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Asva & loads more... 
www.philippepetit.info

The album
The meeting of such unconventional musicians was always going to result in a pretty incredible piece of work, but confronting such strong identities and getting them to work together was not a given. For the past three years, Philippe Petit and Fernando Corona have regularly played live together, undoubtedly refining their collaboration with each new performance and finding the right balance between their respective sound worlds. The result is this album which equally finds its roots in Murcof’s modern classical influences and Petit’s coarse post modernist soundscaping.
The album may barely reach the forty minute mark, but in the space of three tracks, Corona and Petit create a magnificent soundtrack which teems with haunting choral chants, lush string work and unsettling atmospherics. This album is rooted in ancient myths and legends, borrowing from Greek mythology for "The Call Of Circé", daughter of Helios and powerful enchantress, and winged divine horse "Pegasus", or from Nordic tales of giant squid-like sea monsters on "The Summoning Of The Kraken". This very much characterises the epic proportions of this album, echoing in parts the amplitude of Murcof’s "Cosmos" (Leaf, 2007), and in others Petit’s equally ambitious "Off To Titan" (Karlrecords 2010), but they temper this with much more delicate moments, for which they assemble incredibly detailed and refined atmospheric passages.
Clocking at just over twenty minutes, the opening piece "The Call Of Circé" is articulated around a series of sequences which range from stern, doom-like guitar stabs and harsh percussive noises to eerie choral laments and theatrical vocal flourishes. The haunting melodies and ambiences of the first half are slowly broken apart by the recurring thuds of metallic percussions. When these recede, the mood has become darker, grittier, more oppressive, and remains as such for much of the remainder.
"Pegasus" recalls some of the more baroque treatment Murcof experimented with on his commissioned work for Les Grandes Eaux Nocturnes de Versailles, especially through his use of the viola de gamba as a primary sound source, but this sound source becomes corrupted as the track progresses, perhaps subject to Philippe Petit’s radical decay processing, until only a few distorted strands of grating bowed strings remain.
With the last track, Corona and Petit opt for an overall softer, warmer atmosphere, but there is a lingering feeling of impending danger lurking below the surface of the whole piece. This is marked by the use of sparse percussions, magnified vinyl crackles and processed guitars and textures which, assembled in various combinations, weight heavily on the otherwise almost pastoral nature of the composition.
Philippe Petit knows how to find collaborators with whom he can go beyond his own sonic universe and make them venture into unfamiliar territories, and he is an expert in making these collaborations gel perfectly. And this is one hell of a collaboration: two artists, each with this visionary approach, working together to create a truly magnificent piece.
WRITTEN BY Bruno Lasnier / January 2013 (www.themilkfactory.co.uk/st/)

MURCOF & PHILIPPE PETIT : The call of Circé

Feeling privileged to be able to play my GRP A4 as it is such a marvelous instrument and too few copies have been designed. 
It is opening new doors of travelling and consequently I envisioned some music to make stars dance... 
Let's start invading the constellation-discoteca...

When The Stars Are Dancin'

Raphaelle Rinaudo: electric harp 
Hervé Vincenti: guitar 
Arnaud Fournier: trumpet
Philippe Petit: vinyls + treated gongs-vibes + moog

A song that had originally appeared on the album "Cordophony" back in 2012 and was composed for my daughter... Its melody still growing on me and Eugenie almost a teenager now I felt an urge to give it a second life adding some Moog Modular, Percs and inviting Arnaud Fournier (from Hint...) to add his spices...

Eugénie is growing...

2019 is ending and I have to emphasize that acquiring a Buchla system totally changed my compositional aesthetics and was the best thing I did this year. After exploring the most complex sides of my wonderful Easel K I felt an urge to come back to its basics and follow the operating directives Allen Strange wrote for us in his "Programming and Meta-Programming in the Electro-Organism of the Music Easel" manual.
I created a patch to explore the timbral resources of both its Complex + Modulation oscillators. Playing with frequency, out-of-phasing, or harmonics… To quote Mr Strange: "With both gates in series creating a periodic variation in some parameter of a sound. Associated with the amplitude of the signal it is referred to as Amplitude Modulation; if the variations are applied to pitch the process is referred to as Frequency Modulation." 
MOD OSC served as the modulating source, producing periodic variations in either the pitch (F.M.) or loudness (A.M.) of the COMPLEX OSC signal. 
Creepy & Crawly synthesis in other words, from other worlds?!

Creepy & Crawly

The other day « On a sunny afternoon… In the Summertime » I thought I’d be contemplative and pay hommage to an appropriate lovely song by The Kinks. Not your usual source of inspiration when it comes to Modular synthesis thus my starting point was to tune the oscillators from my Buchla Easel K + Synthi A to EADGBE and then take pleasure in varying timbres, heights, harmonics and frequencies diffracted thru resonances-feedback. 
Kinky Spectral counterpoints?!

On A Sunny Afternoon… In The Summertime

Audrey Chen: cello/voice
Philippe Petit: turntables/electronics

Using the cello, voice and analog electronics, AUDREY CHEN’s work delves deeply into her own version of narrative and non-linear storytelling.  A large component of her music is improvised and her approach to this is extremely personal and visceral. Her playing explores the combination and layering of a homemade analog synthesizer, preparations and traditional and extended techniques in both the voice and cello. She works to join these elements into a singular ecstatic personal language.

Recently, her primary focus has been her SOLO project but she is also involved in many various collaborations. Among musicians, she has worked with Phil Minton, Tetuzi Akiyama, Toshimaru Nakamura, Ko Ishikawa, Tomomi Adachi, Matana Roberts, Elliott Sharp, Aki Onda, Phill Niblock, Frederic Blondy, Jerome Noetinger, C. Spencer Yeh, Nate Wooley, Mats Gustafsson, Mazen Kerbaj, Michael Zerang, Tatsuya Nakatani, Le Quan Ninh, Joe Mcphee, Susan Alcorn, Michele Doneda, Paolo Angeli, Gianni Gebbia, Dylan Nyoukis plus many more. Some more current projects have included: duos with Phil Minton, Luca Marini (kamama), Frederic Blondy, Robert van Heumen (abattoir), Katt Hernandez (Isabel), Nate Wooley (heave and shudder), Wouter Jaspers, and Id M Theft Able.

Chen has performed in Europe, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, Taiwan, Brazil, Canada and the USA. In 2011, in addition to her performances, she was awarded the prestigious Mary Sawyers Baker Prize, an award that was established to support individual artists living, and working in Maryland. She has now recently relocated to Berlin, Germany from Baltimore, MD USA and continues to maintain an active international touring schedule.

http://audreychen.com/


Audrey Chen & Philippe Petit

My artist-friend Christophe Rodiac took that picture which inspired me at first sight, envisioning sound-objects splattering all over... Et voila !

Philippe Petit - Splash Sonic Disruption

Slowly evolving, building up BUCHLASONIX Groove playing the 259 Buchla Oscillator in the Metasonix RK4 Filter/VCO to obtain a microsoundimensional dancefloor… Hands on FMin’, filtering to change the traditional Buchla sound and "listen outside the box"… 

For more infos on the possibilities offered by that part of the « Triple Sublime Assheater » module which Metasonix adapted to the Buchla format please check:
http://www.metasonix.com/index.php/rk4-filter-vco-new

and the full adaptation for BUCHLA and Serge systems...
http://www.metasonix.com/index.php/4u-modules-new

BUCHLASONIX Groove

Relying on voltage control - or uncontrolled - going in RK2 VCA + RK3 Grinder + RK4 Filter modules from Metasonix which allows to recreate the danger of electrical power, to feel the electricity right under my hands… BEWARE Electronic hazard !!!

www.metasonix.com/index.php/4u-modules-new

Turn On METASONIX & Defrost The World !

Audrey Chen: cello/voice/electronics
Philippe Petit: electric psalterion/electronics

Using the cello, voice and analog electronics, AUDREY CHEN’s work delves deeply into her own version of narrative and non-linear storytelling. A large component of her music is improvised and her approach to this is extremely personal and visceral. Her playing explores the combination and layering of a homemade analog synthesizer, preparations and traditional and extended techniques in both the voice and cello. She works to join these elements into a singular ecstatic personal language.

Recently, her primary focus has been her SOLO project but she is also involved in many various collaborations. Among musicians, she has worked with Phil Minton, Tetuzi Akiyama, Toshimaru Nakamura, Ko Ishikawa, Tomomi Adachi, Matana Roberts, Elliott Sharp, Aki Onda, Phill Niblock, Frederic Blondy, Jerome Noetinger, C. Spencer Yeh, Nate Wooley, Mats Gustafsson, Mazen Kerbaj, Michael Zerang, Tatsuya Nakatani, Le Quan Ninh, Joe Mcphee, Susan Alcorn, Michele Doneda, Paolo Angeli, Gianni Gebbia, Dylan Nyoukis plus many more. Some more current projects have included: duos with Phil Minton, Luca Marini (kamama), Frederic Blondy, Robert van Heumen (abattoir), Katt Hernandez (Isabel), Nate Wooley (heave and shudder), Wouter Jaspers, and Id M Theft Able.

Chen has performed in Europe, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, Taiwan, Brazil, Canada and the USA. In 2011, in addition to her performances, she was awarded the prestigious Mary Sawyers Baker Prize, an award that was established to support individual artists living, and working in Maryland. She has now recently relocated to Berlin, Germany from Baltimore, MD USA and continues to maintain an active international touring schedule.

www.audreychen.com/
www.philippepetit.info/

Audrey Chen & Philippe Petit (extract)

Just received a really innovative instrument and for the first time working with a Drum Machine... Though Pulsar 23 is obviously much more than a DM thanx to its semi-modular structure consisting of 23 independent modules. Allowing synthesis of percussion instruments and rhythms, bass and melodic lines, effects and sound landscapes, as well as a source of control voltage and powerful analog FX processor. 
Above all it offers live circuit bending capabilities and the use of the artist’s body conductivity + Alligator clipping bars to create patches and cross modulations. 
This is my second day using it and it is already obvious that it is pure joy to play it... A very simple patch using 4 rhythmic voices and body conductivity, electricity right at my hands.

https://somasynths.com/pulsar-23/

01. Pulsar 23 / DAY 2

An exercise in Groove I did for our Modular Station radio and the very first time my Buchla System 200 was communicating with the Pulsar 23 from SOMA... Crocodile to Banana jacks may bite... BE WARNED !

Philippe Petit - BIM (Buchla 200 Vs. SOMA Pulsar 23)

I like to be introduced as a "MUSICAL TRAVEL-AGENT".
ONSTAGE I'm mostly playing an Easel K (Buchla Modular Synth) and The Pipe (from SOMA Lab) which allows mouth-synthesis... I also manipulate unique vinyls with my sounds/musics, assaulting turntables to take advantage of the vinyl material to fondle released sounds, raking the needle across the record's grooves, rubbing their stylus on paper, cardboard, metal to process unusual noises and textures. I have a physical relation to my recordings and envision my live sets like performances. 
Gesture is also a very important part of my compositional process... While composing I am also relying on the use of real instruments such as Cymbalom, Pianos, Guitar and Percs that I play like a kid discovering a new toy, improvising and attaching great importance to gesture and stressing dynamics. My moves aren’t consensual, not cozying up potential listeners. A Punky approach even if throughout the past years I have been following courses of Composition + Electroacoustic Music at the Conservatory, specializing in Modular Synthesis. 
Pushing further my research in bringing together the Human and its Machine into a tapestry of sound which creates a deep sound assemblage of exotic Musiques Concrètes which guarantees to grow on you with repeated listens, slowly revealing its detailed richness…

philippepetit

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