Synth Rig Live at 'TimeShift - Ars Electronica Festival 2004'

video upload by ParadisoModular

"In 2004, I was invited to ship my entire synth rig to the Ars Electronica Festival happening that September (the festival theme that year was 'Timeshift' as it was their 25-year anniversary and they were excited of having a big modular system return - I was modestly stepping into the shadow of my heros Tomita and Klaus Schulze, who both did large concerts there).

Accordingly, I installed my rig in the Bruckner Haus, and built a new autonomous piece from scratch there every day during the festival. This video compiles a selection of moments as I was evolving the patches - starting from the early 'sound art' pieces and evolving to the later ones that were more organized around a tonal or rhythmic core. Here you see the patches evolving in progress, starting more rough and simple, and ending in their balanced space towards the end of the day.

My stint at Ars Electronica that year caused me to view my rig in a different light, as I found new possibilities and deeper ways of engaging with it - a process that's continued since. In the Bruckner Haus, I produced all of these pieces in a 4-channel mix, which really opens up the dense sound environment the synth produces with these big patches. Here however, you hear audio coming from the camera microphone, limiting the quality. That said, you can hear extended direct/digitally-recorded excerpts from these (and more) final patches on my Bandcamp site - https://joeparadiso.bandcamp.com/"