RIP Bernard Parmegiani - Electronic & Acoustic Composer

Marc-Henri (aka RADIOKLOW) wrote in to let me know electronic acoustic composer Bernard Parmegiani has passed away at the age of 86.  He was mentioned here on MATRIXSYNTH a few times in the past.

The above image is from conceptoradio where you'll find a feature on him in Spanish. The following is some of the text translated to Googlish:

"Editions Mego is refocusing on the work of Bernard Parmegiani under his Recollection GRM series. reissued it "De Natura Sonorum" album first published in 1975 and probably one of the most important works of the French composer. This work consists of twelve movements, constituted in two series of six, combining analogue sounds with electronics, and is a true reflection of his studies at the Research Group Concrete Music (GRM) of Pierre Schaeffer. This work was also inspired by artists such as Aphex Twin or Autechre, since, as well quote the press release, 'has indelibly marked the classical period of electroacoustic music.'"

Bernard Parmegiani: De Natura Sonorum (1975)

Published on Jun 3, 2012 TheWelleszTheatre·1,789 videos

"Bernard Parmegiani (*1927): De Natura Sonorum (1975).
Création 3 Juin 1975, Paris.
Dédié a Michel Descombey et au Ballet Indépendiente de Mexico."

You can find a bio on Wikipedia here.

via Marc-Henri: "By a strange mystery of time, the INA-GRM has just released a few days ago a new version of his most important works in CD. Bernard Parmegiani was not so famous as Pierre Henry (still living and now around 85 years) but of the same artistic level in a very different style."

Parmegiani: "La Création du Monde" (Complete)

Published on Aug 29, 2012 NewMusicXX·836 videos

"Bernard Parmegiani: 'La Création du Monde' (1982-84) (Complete)
Lumière Noire (Black Light), Métamorphose du vide (Metamorphosis of the Void), Signe de vie (Sign of Life)

I have received many requests to post this work in its complete form, so here it is."

In Memoriam Bernard Parmegiani

Published on Nov 29, 2013 RADIOKLOW·96 videos

"In Memoriam Bernard Parmegiani is a tribute to the french composer who died on the 21th of november 2013, about a week ago. Written ofr Virus TI, it consists in a funeral ritual in seven stations, each one being the enter of a kind of broken mantra which reveals its substance at the end of the composition.
Bernard Parmegiani was the second composer of electroacoustic music I discovered in my youth. At the gage of 15, I read a book by Michel Chion and Guy Reibel in which he was mentioned with many details about his most famous masterpieces. The description was so suggesting I bought a record of Dedans/Dehors and I perfectly remember how deeply impressed and fascinated I was when listening to it for the first time. Since I have always admired and listened to Bernard Parmegiani's music with the same passion and was very sad when I got the news he had passed away, last friday. This is why I decided to pay him this tribute as a means to express my gratitude to him.
I dedicate this music to Bernard Parmegiani's family, friends and fellow musicians."

MOOG Demo Record

Update: see this post for the audio.
via this auction
"Ultra-rare private pressing, the first promotional recording produced by Moog, given out to prospective customers to demonstrate the capabilities of their amazing products. Both sides are identical and contain a wonderful montage of Moog-sourced sound effects and short original compositions created especially for this record by Wendy Carlos, ranging widely from experimental to classical to pop to ambient soundscapes and a real treat for collectors of her work. It is narrated by Ed Stokes who explains the different types of waves and filters available, the basics of sound synthesis, and Moog innovations like voltage control. This extremely hard to find record is an awesome artifact of early electronic music history and a gem for Moog
and Wendy Carlos fans.

Wendy Carlos studied under Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Luening at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, worked with Robert Moog to develop and popularize the synthesizer and pioneer its performance techniques, and scored films for Stanley Kubrick and Disney. Some additional points of reference for this synth demo record: Jean-Michel Jarre, Paul Beaver, Bernie Krause, Stereolab, Aphex Twin, Autechre, Mu-Ziq, Matmos, Dick Hyman, Raymond Scott, Bruce Haack, Pierre Henry, Tomita, Vangelis, Jean-Jacques Perrey, Gershon Kingsley, Tom Dissevelt, Ondioline, Theremin, Clara Rockmore, Arp, Donald Buchla, Chappell Recorded Music Library, De Wolfe, Montparnasse 2000, Patchwork, Piero Umiliani, Roger Roger, Cecil Leuter, DJ Premier, DJ Shadow, Invisibl Skratch Piklz, Oskar Sala, trautonium, Morton Subotnick, John Eaton, Donald Erb, Bernard Parmegiani, Mort Garson..."

MAKEN0ISE Acousmatic Gestures

MAKEN0ISE

"Let's use some simple control voltage shapes to inscribe rhythm and intelligibility on unrelated sounds with the Tape & Microsound Music Machine.

"Acousmatic music" is, nominally, music whose sonic origin cannot be seen. It is commonly associated with the GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales) and the composers there, including Francoise Bayle, Bernard Parmegiani, Beatriz Ferreyra, Pierre Shaeffer and others. Some info about the importance of gestures to this "school" of composition can be found here: https://www.inventionen.de/Inventione...

Further reading on shapes and gestures in music and listening:

Pierre Schaeffer, Treatise on Musical Objects
James Tenney, Meta Hodos
Allen Strange, Electronic Music: Systems, Techniques, and Controls

http://makenoisemusic.com/synthesizer..."

Live at the Graham Foundation, Madlener House, Chicago, IL, March 10th, 2012 ; presented by Lampo.

Update: the original video for this post (via kwf on Vimeo) appears to have been removed from Vimeo. Above is a playlist of the event from seijinlee on YouTube.

"KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN
SAT MAR 10 8pm
Graham Foundation
Madlener House
4 West Burton Place

At long last, Keith Fullerton Whitman makes his Lampo debut. To mark the special occasion, he offers the U.S. premiere of "Rhythmes Naturels," created at the legendary INA-GRM studios, plus a live modular synth improvisation.

Alors, last October Whitman spent a week in Paris, commissioned to develop a new piece for François Bayle's Acousmonium, an 80-speaker sound system designed in 1974 for the Groupe de Recherches Musicales. Pierre Schaeffer formed GRM, a studio and collective, in the late 1950s to encourage the development of electronic music. Members included Luc Ferrari, Iannis Xenakis, Bernard Parmegiani, among other lions; in the late 1960s Bayle became its director. For a whelp like Keith, the residency was "a life-long dream come true." And, he says, "The piece turned out exactly as I hoped."

Here, he'll do his new work in a 4-channel mix. Here, he talks about the residency, etc.

Keith Fullerton Whitman (b. 1973, Bergen County, N.J.) is a composer and performer obsessed with electronic music, from its mid-century origins in Europe to its contemporary worldwide incarnation as digital music. Currently he is working towards implementing a complete system for live performance of improvised electronic music, which incorporates elements from nearly every era. He has recorded albums influenced by many genres, including ambient music, drone, drill and bass, musique concrète and krautrock. He has recorded and performed using several aliases, of which the most familiar is Hrvatski. Today most of his work is recorded under his real name. Whitman lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts."

Mutable Instruments Elements - Incidences/Resonances Patch

Mutable Instruments Elements - Incidences/Resonances Patch from Richard Devine on Vimeo.

"First look at the Mutable Instruments "Elements" Modal Synthesis Oscillator. This patch was inspired by Bernard Parmegiani Incidences / Résonances piece on | De Natura Sonorum | INA-GRM | 1978.

To imitate nature and acoustic instruments, modal synthesis breaks down the creation of sounds into two steps:

1. Synthesizing a noisy and/or percussive excitation signal, which represents the raw energy transferred to the instrument by the musician when (s)he strikes, bows or blows it.

2. Processing this excitation by a resonator modeling the vibrating structure itself - be it a string, tube or plate. Properties such as its size, tuning, shape and material can be simulated by adjusting the parameters of the resonator."

Acxel II

Remember the Technos Acxel Resynthesizer (pictured)? I just read this post on Music Thing. Apparently the creator of the Acxel, Pierre Guilmette, is working on a new version. Check out Music Thing for a letter from Pierre.

You can find his website, iDarca Audio here. You'll find a bit of info on resynthesis and some audio samples.

Update some more info on the Acxel:

"Don Garbutt writes: Freaky, obsure, expensive, unique, weighs a lot, robust construction (lots of VLSI chips inside). This machine is impossible to find, although I have one. Lucky me!!! Graphical interface is totally intuitive, and tell me if you know of any other machines that are resynthesis- based, as this is , if you care to use it in this fashion. Digital filter emulation (oscillator # filter) is unequaled.

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Happy New Year! The Year in Synths 2013

Happy New Year Everyone!

What a busy year it has been in the world of synths.

This is going to be one doozy of a post, so bear with me. This post is a review of the year in synths for 2013. We begin with Tributes to Those We Lost This Year, followed by New Manufacturers & Makers, Older Manufacturers Added to the Site, New Gear Announcements, Top 10 Posts by Traffic,  My Standout Posts for the Year, and finally This Years' Synth Events. I did my best to keep things as short and concise as possible.

Let's begin with the hardest part of the post.

Tributes to Those We Lost This Year

RIP Bernard Parmegiani - Electronic & Acoustic Composer
Lou Reed RIP
RIP Dick Raaymakers aka Kid Baltan
RIP George Duke - DreamWeaver
RIP Ralph Dyck, Sept 28, 1941 – May 20, 2013
RIP Ray Manzarek

All missed and never to be forgotten. Take a moment to remember them.

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New Manufacturers & Makers

Starting last January, I decided to keep a running list of every new manufacturer and maker introduced to the site during the year.  This is something I haven't done before and I thought it would be interesting to see how many there were in the year.   It's easy to focus on the big synth announcements throughout the year, but what about all the new makers and brands? I shouln't have to go considerably into the significance of new designers on the scene, so I'll just say two things regarding them.  One, the number of new makers is a direct reflection on the interest in our scene, and two, these are the creators of new gear which directly translate into new designs not previously available to us.  Think about that for a moment.  These are makers and designs that did not exist before.  They are part of our synth history.  So what is the total count of new synth designers for the year? A whopping 113. Think about that a bit. One hundred and thirteen new synth designers and brands this year alone.

Here they are (note a handful date back to 2012, but 2013 marked their momentum and availability):

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mika vainio & franck vigroux live @ le generateur 3

Published on Jun 28, 2014 Compagnie d'autres cordes·1 video

"Vermona mono lancet, Moog, Octatrack, Akai vx90, Electribe ESX"

And one more from Franck Vigroux:


Franck Vigroux's "2024" video by Fabien Zocco from The Wire Magazine on Vimeo.

"Watch a video made by Fabien Zocco for musician, label runner and festival curator Franck Vigroux's track, '2024' exclusive to The Wire.

Speaking with Brian Morton in The Wire 364, Franck Vigroux – while influenced by GRM and composer/philosophers like Bernard Parmegiani, Xenakis, Penderecki and Morton Feldman – describes himself as part of a generation of composers in France 'who’ve been trying to regenerate music theatre or hybrid forms. I can’t really analyse my ‘philosophy’, but I am particularly obsessed by the intrinsic nature of sound, which surprises me constantly. So I spend my time in the studio searching for sounds, using all sorts of machines and devices. For instance, I’ve just finished a record where I simply played an old guitar through an amplifier with very little additional in the way of effects but with a range of tones and overtones [accordages] – which then become the object of meticulous research.'

Alongside curating Les Instants Sonores music and arts festival in Mende, southern France and the White Noises festival in the Paris suburb of Arcueil, since 2003 Vigroux has run the D’Autres Cordes label, releasing work by Samuel Sighicelli, Elliott Sharp, Matthew Bourne and others. Vigroux also regularly collaborates with vocalist Ben Miller as Transistor, video artist Antoine Schmitt as Tempest and with Reinhold Friedl and Mika Vainio.

Vigroux and Reinhold Friedl’s Tobel is released by La Muse En Circuit. Les Instants Sonores takes place 11–15 June.

"Poetry at the core of arts" with a Dedication to Pierre Henry by Marc-Henri Arfeux & the Access Virus

Many of you will be familiar with the Access Virus compositions by Marc-Henri from previous RADIOKLOW posts. Marc-Henri bridges the gap between electronic music and other forms of art. His most recent work is a poem in tribute to Pierre Henry accompanied by the Access Virus. The tribute is hosted on La poésie au cœur des arts : le Blogart which translates to "Poetry at the core of arts". Click through and click on the Access Virus image to get to the piece.

via Marc-Henri:

"This site called 'Poetry at the core of arts' is the net the extension of a book of the same title, an anthology of poetry published by the french publisher : Editions Bruno Doucey. The book contains a poem I wrote about electronic music. The site was conceived to developp an exploration for some of the poets and artists of the book. I am one of them for, poetry , music and painting.

You will find the poem I wrote for the book, three pieces of music composed in january 2014, four poems by other authors of the anthology, three improvisations performed in early february 2014, a former composition called De Haute Vallée you have seen in the form a video in late 2012, an interview in french and some photographs taken at my flat when I was interviewed."

The following is Marc-Henri's poem translated into English:

"Orpheus veil"

Fly down into Orpheus ear,
Where roll clockworks
Of the forbidden stars
And voices shreds seeking vision.

Listen at the well of walls
Echoes of illuminated faces
In their bronze palaces.

Pavings, folds of roses,
The naked heels
Playing the freshness game
With embers
And the childhood kisses.

Travelling back to horizon,
In the limestone of nights,
Is now the prophecy of the spices,
With its tissue gifted with red
And the sobbings of an initiation.

Marc-Henri Arfeux - 2013

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Update: the following an English translation of the interview with Marc-Henri Arfeux on "Poetry at the core of arts". It is a fascinating read and reminds me of why I initially got into synths. My first synth was a brand new Oberheim Matrix-6 back in 1986. When I first started exploring the Matrix-6 I had no idea what the parameters did, so I just dived in. For me it was an exploration of sound for the sake of sound and a fascination in creating musical instruments never heard before. The focus was on that exploration rather than the attempt to mimic real world instruments. Much of this spirit is covered in the world of musique concrete and is captured in the interview below. Do not miss the part on the short wave radio. Truly fascinating and an inspiration for sonic exploration.

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