The Overtone Ensemble perform and record using microtonally tuned metal rod instruments designed and built by Tim Catlin. Dubbed the “Vibrissa”, after feline tactile hair follicles (whiskers), these instruments are longitudinally stroked by hand and produce an ethereal, haunting sound. The long sustaining nature of the rods sound and close interval tunings allow players a sonic palette of shimmering textures and harmonic complexity.  Microtonal rod tunings allow the group to explore and manipulate acoustic phenomena such as phasing, difference and beat tones, sympathetic vibrations and room resonance. The overall effect is of a shimmering sound field full of internal movement, strange harmonies and complex overtone patterns.
(Although the instruments sound electronic, all sounds are acoustically generated, without effects or processing.) These rod sounds are complemented with bowed metal, acoustic guitars, wineglasses, handbells, long wire instruments and re-tuned glockenspiels.

Tim Catlin formed The Overtone Ensemble in 2012. Since then the group (Tim Catlin, Dave Brown, Atticus Bastow and Philip Brophy) have performed at festivals such as Slow Music, NOW now, Sound Out, Light in Winter and Liquid Architecture as well as various galleries and clubs.


eamon sprod explores re-contextualised found sounds and tactile gestures formed into dynamic, psycho-geographical compositions inspired by discarded things, found things, crawling around in the dirt, junk, the ground, rocks, dust, wind, walking aimlessly, scratchy things, decay and most if not all the things he hears and sees.

More than simply documenting a given site, tarab is interested in a direct engagement with our surrounds, teasing out half narratives, visceral sensation, false leads and heightened awareness.

My name is Billy Gomberg. I live in San Francisco.

Tim Catlin is a guitarist, instrument designer and sound artist with a deep fascination for exploring the sonic possibilities inherent in friction, magnetism and resonant systems.  Although his work spans composition, improvisation, installations and soundtracks, common threads woven throughout  are a keen ear for sonic minutiae, a preference for physical over digital audio manipulation and a yearning for transcendence through sound.

Much of his activity has involved re-investigating the sonic properties of the guitar through a combination of traditional and extended techniques, guitar preparation and modified designs. These pieces are often drone based and densely textural, “blurring lines between metal machine music and holy minimalism.” (The Wire, UK)  Further works utilising resonance, feedback and the harmonic series have employed electric sitar, chromatic handbell sets, cymbals and long string instruments.

Most recently he has constructed a set of new instruments; the “Vibrissae”. These are microtonally tuned metal rod instruments, which are activated by longitudinal stroking to produce a sustained, “singing” tone. He formed the Overtone Ensemble in 2012 to perform works using these instruments along with other self-made instruments.

He has performed or collaborated with Machinefabriek, Jason Kahn, Jon Mueller, Otomo Yoshihide, Phill Niblock, Mike Cooper, Candlesnuffer, Philip Samartzis, Rod Cooper, The Wall of E Guitar Ensemble and many others.

Solo and collaborative releases include “Radio Ghosts” (23five, 2007), “Slow Twitch”, (Dr Jims, 2004), “Sieve” with David Brown (Bocian, 2013), “Glisten” and “Patina” with Machinefabriek (Low Point, 2009 and 2011) and “Plates and Wires” with Jon Mueller, (Crouton 2007).

“Kim Myhr is a master of slow-morphing rhythms and sun-dappled textures that seem to glow from the inside”.
- The Guardian

Norwegian guitarist and composer Kim Myhr has been touring internationally since the early 2000s and has released several records under his own name. His album You | me (2017) was nominated to Nordic Music Prize, and received wide acclaim internationally. As a composer he has made music for Australian Art Orchestra, Canadian string quartet Quatuor Bozzini, Kitchen Orchestra and Trondheim Jazz Orchestra of Norway, and has collaborated with Jenny Hval (on the 2012 collaborative album “In The End His Voice Will Be The Sound Of Paper”, Tony Buck of The Necks (on the album “You | me”), Lasse Marhaug, Christian Wallumrød, poet Caroline Bergvall and many others. He has toured extensively the last fifteen years across Europe, Americas, Asia, and Australia. His last record Vesper with Australian Art Orchestra was nominated for a Norwegian Grammy in 2020 in the contemporary category.

DUANE PITRE is an American experimental composer and musician. His work often focuses on the interaction between electronic sound and acoustic instrumentation and also explores the balance between chaos and discipline. Pitre utilizes alternate tuning schemes (with a large focus on Just Intonation), enabling him to explore unaccustomed musical intervals. He works in a solo/ensemble capacity and with Turk Dietrich (Second Woman, Belong) as the duo First Tone.

He has presented and performed his live works across the U.S., U.K., and Europe at spaces such as Cafe OTO (UK), Roulette (NYC), The Stone (NYC), Muziekhuis Utrecht (NL), MoMA's P.S.1 (NYC), The Cube (UK), GRIM (FR), NK (DE), Elaine Gallery (CH), O' (IT), St. Ann's Cathedral (NYC), and ISSUE Project Room (NYC), where he was artist in residency in spring 2009. More than 100 different musicians from around the world have taken part in the performances of his works.

Pitre has been featured in publications such as The Wire, The Village Voice, The New York Times, The Creators Project  (a Vice/Intel collaboration), Pitchfork, Dusted, Skug: Journal for Music (Austria), and NewMusicBox. He has released over a dozen albums on labels such as Important Records, Type Records, and Root Strata.

Howard Stelzer (b. 1974, New York) is a composer of electro-acoustic music. Almost all of his sounds are generated by, processed by, recorded onto and played back out of cassette tapes and consumer-grade tape players. He isn’t sure how most of these things work. Stelzer operated the Intransitive Recordings label from 1997 until 2012.

Tim Catlin is following