As I mentioned in a post back in October, I was going to sit in with my old band the Head Full of Zombies over Halloween weekend. Here are some photos from my performance.
I’ve been rearranging things in my studio so I can have both my laptop-based visual controllerism rig (the one I use to perform my albums live) and my hardware synth rig (the one I use for jams and long-form improvization) accessible at the same time. I’m setting it up in such a way so it’s easier to cross pollinate between rigs as well. I’m about half-way through the redesign and thought I’d share a few pics. In the shot above, I’m playing the grid controller the Tenori-On and the white Waldorf Blofled synth just barely in the photo.
Yes that's my original vinyl copy of DEVO New Traditionalists enshrined on my wall!
Bathed in magical blue light :^)
One of the other reasons I’m redesigning the studio is to better accommodate live streaming performances via USTREAM and an Electro-Music Radio. Earlier this week I did a brief test on USTREAM. You can see it my USTREAM page, or watch the YouTube version below (watch embedded video).
In the video I'm working on set of performances patches for my UltraNova synthesizer (the blue one on top) that lets me not only use it as a synth but also process all the other instruments in real-time. This is an early experiment where I'm using Theremin and Blofeld synth as audio sources for UltraNova Synth and FX. Tenori-On grid is triggering notes on UltraNova. UltraNova is acting as a mixer and the sound card and is actually streaming audio directly to USTREAM via USB. Wow that was geeky – lol – but you get the idea.
Watch this space for announcements on other streaming experiments and live concert broadcasts.
I played an outdoor house concert last night under a perfectly clear late summer Colorado sky. It was great fun performing in the fresh air surrounded by trees and seeing the light from my controllers bouncing off of the leaves. Next stop, Electro-Music 2011 in NY.
I'll be playing a 25 minute performance of original instrumental electronic music using keys, antennas, grids, and AudioCubes. My performance is part of the Ableton Colorado meetup will be all music and not a lecture. I'm first up so this is a good opportunity to pop-in and see my unique performance style even if your not into the super geeky tech side of electronic music. The show is 18+ and FREE.
This is a perview of the set I'll be playing in September at the Electro-Music 2011 festival in NY and will include songs from my previous concept album "I Hear You Signals" along with some new songs destined for my next album. I'll bring along some physical CDs for purchase.
The Digital Media Studies Program at the University of Denver just opened their their fantastic new HyperCube studio performance space. I had the honor and pleasure to appear as guest performer for the open house. In attendance were staff, students and guests.
This was a “lights up” performance and talk and the theme of my performance and presentation was spatial controllerism with Ableton Live, Percussa AudioCubes, and Moog Etherwave Theremin. To illustrate concepts, I played songs from my album “I Hear Your Signals” including “First Orbit” , “Control Zone”. I also played the song “Celebration and Voices” illustrating matrix controllerism with the Novation Launchpad.
It was a fantastic experience as the performance went well, the new space is awesome, and the crowd was enthusiastic and asked a lot of great questions about the art, technology, methodology, and technique.
Afterwards, I invited some students to take the AudioCubes for a spin. As always there was a lot of curiosity about the Theremin as well.
Many thanks to Trace Reddell, Ph.D. Director, Digital Media Studies and Darwin Grosse for the invite and for encouraging interaction and collaboration between academia and the larger community of electronic music artists. What a way to kick off my 2011 with this as my first performance!
See more the photos from this event in this Flickr set.
Links:
http://www.du.edu/emad/ - Electronic Media Arts and Design site with pictures and videos from the opening