Bricolage Project : Live on KBGA

Broadcast live on KBGA, College Radio on 3/20/07.

This week Holotone and I took over the airwaves during his usual Avant Gourde radio broadcast for another meeting of what we’re calling the Bricolage Project. Cole operated the cd decks and the main board as well as his circuit-bent Touch n’ Tell and his bent Speak n’ Read. I took over the board in Studio 2 with Cole’s bent Speak n’ Math, my bent Little Smart Spelling Book, and KBGA’s real-time effects processor, aka the Harmonizer.

We received but two calls on the show (featured at the beginning and end of part two of the recording), which not surprisingly, were from KBGA’s most loyal and ’special’ listeners. Certainly they had no idea what was going down in the studio, but I’m sure they appreciated it just as much as anyone else might. I picture Dustin drooped over his radio, sedated on pain killers and drifting into psychedelic states of consciousness, and I imagine Cherry banging her head to the closest thing to her request for “discotheque, electronic, and techno” that we could offer.

Here are two parts of what was one solid 2-hour movement of sound.
Be sure to stop by holotone.net for the cross-post.

Part 1 :

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Part 2 :

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Bricolage: Raw Bent Trio Session

The Bricolage Project met last night to record a session of raw audio from a collection of toys that Holotone has recently circuit-bent. Holotone, Agent Bones, and I conducted either the ‘Speak n’ Math’, ‘Speak n’ Read’, the ‘Touch n’ Tell’, or the goofy animal keyboard that had some output problems, but made for nice gritty textures. Three messed-up toys operating together resulted in this cacophony of audio. It should be fun to sample, process, and remix these sounds. If you should also happen to do so, be sure to share the results with us.

Note: These sounds are not suitable for the average listener.

Rudimentary Scurvy :

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Rigid Buffalo :

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Studio Kinda Noisy: 4hr Fest

This week KBGA presented/annoyed its listeners with a special 4-hour broadcast of “Studio Kinda Noisy,” featuring drone, glitch, aleatoric circuit bending & live experimental DJ collaboration.

2:37:56

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I captured 2:38 hours of the show, which ended up rather atmospheric I would say. Have a listen for yourself and let us know what you think. Leave it on in the background to set the mood, or put on some headphones and get sedated.

Some gear woes had us on less than our A-game, but we had a ton of fun as usual. Cole brought in a bent kiddy keyboard and kiddy guitar, and his newly bent Speak n’ Read. I brought in a four-track, a Fisher Price tape player, my retro four-channel mixer, and my Vtech Little Smart Talking Spelling book, to which I had just added a potentiometer on the glitch. I played spoken word and morse-code casettes forwards and backwards on the four-track. The batteries were low on the Fisher Price tape player, which made for nice distortion on the audio, and its microphone had an awesome short in it that caused some nice noisy static and clicks. Records, cds, as well as KBGA’s mighty real-time effects processor (aka the harmonizer), and an FX pedal were also put to good use.

Skritch, Cole, Queen Bee, and I traded positions at the main control board. Queen Bee held down the first hour, though I lost the first part of the recording due to a bad setting. Skritch stepped up on hour two, the Bee left us, and Skritch and I worked it until Cole showed up. I took hour three on the main board, Skritch soon abandoned us too, and Cole and I were left to wrap up the show.

The last 15 minutes or so we faded out the drone pads and let the circuit-bent toys take it on home.

The last 9:57 only:

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KBGA’s Studio 2: harmonizer and various toys

Me and Cole, ON-AIR in KBGA’s Studio 1

The control panel of my spelling book, as of this session

Cole’s newly bent Texas Instruments Speak N’ Read

Defining Music

This topic was garnered from recent conversations, and a previous Vintage Vinyl Revival post, and its comments.

Here it is on its own to be contemplated and discussed:

My initial topic of interest there was not necessarily the definition of music, but rather the comparisons of different approaches and schools of music. However, let’s get to some definitions.

MUSIC :

Dictionary.com sez:

an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color.

“art of sound in time” - absolutely, though I think “expressing ideas and emotions in significant forms” is a bit vague and misleading. But it’s notable here that rhythm, melody, etc. are simply some of the elements used in expression.

My laptop dashboard sez:

the art or science of combining vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion.

I kinda like this one, especially the production of “form.” I might consider stopping short, however, of “beauty and harmony,” for these are only characteristics of some music. And while music certainly can evoke emotion, I’m not sure if all music is an attempt to express it.

Now, these are pretty good definitions, but if this is how we are commonly defining music, then I think it goes to show what we, as a whole, are and are not comfortable with accepting as music at this stage. I’m still pushing for the definition to be updated.

Let’s attempt to redefine “music,” or at least try for agreeable terms. What are your suggestions?

A working suggestion:

a combination of sounds moving in time that produce a created form, which can be experienced aurally.

Is this acceptable? Any thoughts?

Bent Circuit Mash Up : Session 1

Now released, the first recorded experimental noise collaboration from the instruments Cole and I built, or bent rather. We used two toys we have manipulated the circuits on, plugged them into an old karaoke machine, and made some music- uh noise. I recorded over an hour and 20 minutes of the madness with a mono signal to my laptop. You’ll be almost as crazy as we are if you survive its entirety.

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For this session Cole used a sweet bent ‘Play ‘N Jam’ kiddie keyboard, which ran through an effects pedal. His instrument features contact point (touch-sensitive) switches, photo-sensitive cells, and some swift little fake turntable action.

I finished wiring in the sound-out switches on my V-Tech Little Smart Spelling Book, soldered in some points on the circuit board, and hooked up the wires to an experimentor board. I’ve only got a few bends so far, but the spelling book makes for a nice glitched out instrument complete photo-sensitive cell switches that I used a pin light and laser point with for this recording.
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