Thomas Ankersmit & Valerio Tricoli - Forma II (PAN 16)

Music inspired by Raaijmakers' electronic music from the 1960s, and his writings on sound composition, particularly "Cahier M: A Brief Morphology of Electric Sound".

TA: Serge Modular feedback & sine/pulse generators, contact microphone.

Two short excerpts from a longer piece. 

Please use speakers, not headphones, because of the inner-ear phenomena involved.

Homage to Dick Raaijmakers

Perceptual Geography

Homage To Dick Raaijmakers

Live at MaerzMusik, Kraftwerk Berlin, March 28 2015.

Phill Niblock: computer
Thomas Ankersmit: Serge Modular analog synthesizer (live and prerecorded)

Phill Niblock & Thomas Ankersmit - Surge (excerpt, live at MaerzMusik)

Students of Decay presents The Dip, a new full-length recording by Berlin-based artist and composer Thomas Ankersmit, marking his debut with the label and sixth album to date. Comprised of two expansive, sidelong pieces composed entirely on the Serge Modular synthesizer, it signals a subtle yet significant shift in Ankersmit’s trajectory, imbuing the hyper-physical, psychoacoustic intensities of his live performances with introspective, atmospheric, and even melodic elements. 

17:54 excerpt, from "The Dip" album on Students of Decay

TA: Buchla Series 200, Serge Modular, contact microphone.
No plugins or other DSP. 

Recorded at EMS, Stockholm.

Thanks to Mats Lindström, Gabrielle Karlsén, Daniel Araya, Jan Rohlf, Marcus Gammel, Fernando Sixto and Marion Innocenzi.

Serge & Buchla (excerpt, recorded at EMS Stockholm)

Music inspired by Raaijmakers' electronic music from the 1960s, and his writings on sound composition, particularly "Cahier M: A Brief Morphology of Electric Sound".

TA: Serge Modular feedback & sine/pulse generators, contact microphone.

Two short excerpts from a longer piece.

Please use speakers, not headphones, because of the inner-ear phenomena involved.

Homage to Dick Raaijmakers (excerpt 2)

1. Figueroa Terrace

Thomas Ankersmit is a musician and installation artist based in Berlin. Since 2006 his main instrument, both live and in the studio, has been the Serge analogue modular synthesizer.

Acoustic phenomena such as sound reflections, infrasonic vibration, otoacoustic emissions, and highly directional projections of sound have been an important part of his work since the early 2000’s.

In the winter of 2011-2012 Ankersmit was invited by the CalArts electronic music studios, Los Angeles, where the Serge was originally developed in the early 1970s, to record new music with their heavily customized and recently restored "Black Serge" system.

Ankersmit used various kinds of waveshaping, distortion and feedback (both internally as well as via a microphone and speaker setup in the studio); oscillator-generated frequencies at the upper and lower limits of auditory perception; a patch matrix to control quick transitions; a homemade circuit-bending type interface to create momentary interruptions to the signal flow, and the scraping of a contact microphone. Aside from recording, editing, and a few instances of reverb no digital technology was used.

The music is finely tuned and highly detailed, yet also visceral and raw. Marked by sharp perceptual contrasts, the piece shifts between dense formations of electric noise, to fields of micro-events moving with an intuitive logic, and feedback-drones of overwhelming intensity. The sounds have a real-world physicality, bringing to mind swarms of locusts, distant storms and creaking machinery rather than "synthesizer music".

The piece was premiered in North America at REDCAT in downtown Los Angeles and in Europe at Berghain, Berlin, for the MaerzMusik Festival.

The music is originally quadraphonic and mixed to stereo for this release. Figueroa Terrace is Ankersmit's first full-length solo studio release.

Thomas Ankersmit: Serge analogue modular synthesizers, contact mic. Recorded at CalArts, Valencia and in Los Angeles, December 2011-February 2012. Thanks to Kye Potter, Kevin Drumm, Valerio Tricoli, Darrel Johansen, Kevin Fortune, and everyone at CalArts.

Buy Thomas Ankersmit "Figueroa Terrace" [CD] in the TouchShop
www.thomasankersmit.com

Figueroa Terrace (excerpt 1)

Recorded on November 17th 2007 at Rumor, Utrecht, Netherlands.

Thomas Ankersmit: Serge analogue modular synthesizer, computer, alto saxophone. Pre-recorded saxophone and reel-to-reel parts composed by Valerio Tricoli, with source material by Ankersmit.

Mastered by Denis Blackham at Skye.

We are proud to announce the release by Thomas Ankersmit of his concert performed in Utrecht late in 2007. Here is some info about Thomas, who has no other solo CDs available at this time… in fact, Live in Utrecht is his first official CD album release.

Thomas Ankersmit (1979, Leiden, Netherlands) is a saxophonist, electronic musician and installation artist based in Berlin and Amsterdam, who combines abstract, intensely focused saxophone playing with hyper-kinetic analogue synth and computer improvisation. He also creates installation pieces that use sound, infrasound and "modifications to the acoustic characters of spaces" that disrupt the viewer/listener's perception of the exhibition space and their presence within it. He frequently works together with New York minimalist Phill Niblock and Sicilian electroacoustic artist Valerio Tricoli. Other collaborators, mostly for live performances, have included Tony Conrad, Maryanne Amacher, Jim O'Rourke, Kevin Drumm and Borbetomagus.

Available at:
www.touchshop.org

www.ashinternational.com

www.thomasankersmit.net

Live in Utrecht (Excerpt)

Figueroa Terrace

Homage to Dick Raaijmakers (excerpt 1)

Serge & Mondriaan

TA: Serge Modular analogue synthesizer, contact microphone.

Spectro (excerpt 2)

Spectro (excerpt 1)

Figueroa Terrace (excerpt 2)

Figueroa Terrace (excerpt 3)

Music for Serge Modular, inspired by Maryanne Amacher's music and research. 

PLEASE USE SPEAKERS, NOT HEADPHONES.

Perceptual Geography (excerpt)

Kevin Drumm: live electronics
Thomas Ankersmit: Serge modular synthesizer, computer
Mats Gustafsson: saxophone, live electronics

Thanks to Marc Hakkaart and Lasse Marhaug.

Thomas Ankersmit

Pinned to spotlight

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