How to Play Swing-Style Modular Synthesizer

my back is killing me

Bridget St. John  - Broken Faith
C.O.B. -  Music of the Ages
Bill Fay - The Room
Nick Drake - At The Chime Of A City Clock
Michael Chapman  - Kodak Ghosts
Sam Parry - My Farm
Rick Hayward - Light In The Sky
Marie Celeste - The Prisoner
Bread, Love And Dreams- Brother John
Sweeney's Men - Standing On The Shore
Tudor Lodge - Madeline
Bert Jansch - Sylvie
Anne Briggs - Blackwater Side
Shirley Collins - Poor Murdered Woman 
Steeleye Span - Captain Coulston
Pentangle -Let No Man Steal Your Thyme

British Folk Mix Nov. 22

RInse FM Podcast

Rinse Staff, Friends & Family Takeover with Paige - 27 December 2022

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What Next

Sound Theater Archives: No Control Numbers

Here's the stand-alone sound-file from my iPad music deck soundtrack on YouTube.

It's a multi-track session on electric bass, de-tuned autoharp (struck with chopsticks), erhu (Chinese 2-string fretless chordophone with captive bow), girl berating, police radio, canoeing on a glacial lake, geese taking flight, antique halloween noise-maker ratchet, voice, 1969 Chevrolet Impala (trying to start), and a whole bunch of piezo-music Christmas cards I set-off at a local Wal-Mart (I had an assistant, it was a show-stopper).

I learned to play the erhu in England while driving the Cotswolds. With an old map as reference, I was hiking local woodlands searching for tumuli –– ancient Roman tombs. I'd hang a stereo recorder in a tree above the tomb, often a simple mound of earth in the forest, and attempt to record sonic anomalous propagation.

It was Ray Man, in London, who sold me my first erhu (I have four, the one heard here is from Ray Man's shop). I asked him how best to learn this difficult instrument. Smiling gently he said, "practice." 

The recording is light-hearted but factual: there are no artist control numbers.

Sound Theater Archives: No Control Numbers

(A2) Boguslaw Schäffer — Project for tuba and tape

JUST ME Chapman Stick and a poorly mic'd drumset

Solo Fugue (basically all my recordings)

"F U G U E"  the very very first 4 track track recording FOSTEX version

While we cannot see small nanoscopic objects like proteins or other molecules that make up virtually all living matter including our cells, tissues, as well as pathogens such as viruses, our computational algorithm allows us to make its material manifestation audible.  This piece is a musical representation of the amino acid sequence and structure of the spike protein of the pathogen of COVID-19, 2019-nCoV (protein data bank identifier 6VSB [1]). 

MUSICAL DECEIT

A virus’ genome hijacks the host cell’s protein manufacturing machinery, and forces it to replicate the viral genome and produce viral proteins to make new viruses from it.  This musical art teaches us something about the fine line between beauty of life and death as an opposite pole.  As you listen to the protein you will find that the intricate design results in incredibly interesting and actually pleasing, relaxing sounds. This doesn’t really convey the deadly impacts this particularly protein is having on the world. This aspect of the music shows the deceiving nature of the virus, how it hijacks our body to replicate, and hurt us along the way. So, the music is a metaphor for this nature of the virus to deceive the host and exploit it for its own multiplication. 

HOW IT IS DONE: 

What you hear is a multi-layered algorithmic composition featuring both the vibrational spectrum of the entire protein (expressed in sound and rhythmic elements), the sequence and folding of amino acids that compose the virus spike structure, as well as interwoven melodies - forming counterpoint music - reflecting the complex hierarchical intersecting geometry of the protein [2].

Scientific references:

[1] Wrapp et al., "Cryo-EM structure of the 2019-nCoV spike in the prefusion conformation," Science, 2020, DOI: 10.1126/science.abb2507

[2] Buehler et al., "A Self-Consistent Sonification Method to Translate Amino Acid Sequences into Musical Compositions and Application in Protein Design Using Artificial Intelligence," ACS Nano, 2019, DOI: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.9b02180

Viral counterpoint of the coronavirus spike protein (2019-nCoV)

Viral Counterpoint of the Coronavirus Spike Protein (2019-nCoV)

"Breathing air as dark swallows was made during the three month COVID-19 lockdown period in Berlin 2020. Kaffe and I decided to embark on a music exchange after participating in a chain recording project isolated.connected initiated by Sabine Vogel. The first track of this album is the result of that, our first sonic meeting, inspired by prior recordings by Sabine and Michael Thieke. We then decided to continue the process by taking it in turns to send each other improvised solos to which the other would respond, producing four highly tactile and intimate breathing movements. Kaffe plays digital oscillators through a glu-box, whilst processing through resampling and granulation. Spatialization is via the pink ball Java interface and Touch OSC. I use my voice." - Audrey Chen

What Next

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