"A brief introduction to Xenos: Xenharmonic Stochastic Synthesizer.
0:00 Introduction 0:52 Interface 1:27 The Pitch Walk 2:40 Stochastic Distribution and Walk Order 4:04 The Amplitude Walk 4:56 Deterministic Pitch and MIDI 5:49 Quantization 7:38 Automation 8:28 Quasi-Granular Textures 9:07 Conclusion
Xenos is a virtual instrument plug-in that implements and extends the Dynamic Stochastic Synthesis (DSS) algorithm invented by Iannis Xenakis. Programmed in C++ with the JUCE framework, Xenos is open-source, cross-platform, and can be built in a number of plug-in formats.
Key features include: • Authentic DSS engine • Xenharmonic pitch quantizer • Custom scale import in the Scala format • Ten stochastic distributions with up to two parameters each • First- and second-order random walks • Variable number of segments per wave cycle • Variable amplitude envelope • Polyphonic (64 voices by default) • MIDI implementation (notes, sustain, pitch bend) • External MIDI controller assignment • Parameter automation • Simple and streamlined interface • Free and open source
Xenos was first presented to the Meta–Xenakis Global Symposium, and is the subject of a master’s degree from the Media Arts and Technology (MAT) program at UC Santa Barbara.
"Kanawha music build pipe organs but the market ain't what it used to be (apparently) so now they are turning their attention to poly Eurorack modules. Using divide down technology from transistor organs. Its called the Long Division Tone Module
This means they have complete polyphony., if you want a regular pure organ sound then this is the module for you.
they also have a module called 48 gates that will give you 48 separate gate outputs for triggering solenoids, or drum triggers or whatnot.
Yeah its niche, but its interesting.
The "formal" introduction of the new Long Division organ/piano Eurorack module.
Xenakis- Evryali (excerpt)
This is a MIDI file from the internet played back on the Long Division tone module in Piano mode. This demonstrates how the module can deal with large clumps of notes- since there's no limit on the number of notes in can play at once no notes drop out. (They DO drop out at some points because the score goes beyond the 61 notes of an organ/synth keyboard- the original music was written for piano.) The sound from the module was sent straight into the camera with to processing or effects.
Long Division Module- Organ and piano tones
Here we have the Long Division module busting a move with some Hammond-ish sounds and piano tones. The sound from the module is going straight in to the camera with no processing of any kind.
Introducing the Long Division Tone Module: the first completely polyphonic Eurorack module using 100% analog divide-down tone generation.
The Long Division tone module has features not found elsewhere:
12 independent and free running oscillators, one for each note of the scale
"A brief demonstration of our second module, 48 Gates. It's just a big bunch of gates."
48 GATES- 48 heavy duty 12V outputs to run solenoids, relays, LEDs, whatever you like.
48 GATES- it’s nothing but a big bunch of outputs, 48 of ’em, ready to activate anything you like, with standard heavy duty 12V outputs, logic level 5V available as a no cost option.
So…what do you with this thing? Here are a few ideas:
Run a looped 48 note chromatic sequence, and have 48 individual time slots for drum machines or other pattern making sounds. Don’t like the timing on one position? Move it over one for slight timing adjustments.
Make some LED plugs and create a fantastic dot matrix display which an easily be read across a room.
Activate solenoids, relays, small motors, whatever you like, and “play” them from any MIDI source.
"Circa 1975: A photo from the Frankfurt Music Fair
Peter Zinovieff in the EMS synthesizer booth.
They are featuring the rare SYNTHI P model, just announced on the left side and stand. Underneath the board listing EMS musical artists is a SYNTHI HI-FLI effects unit is barely seen. Another unusual/prototype model is next to the Hi-Fli."
Peter Zinovieff and Electronic Music Studios video upload by JeffreyPlaide
Peter Zinovieff: Synth Pioneer video upload by Sound On Sound magazine Jul 21, 2016
Peter Zinovieff talks about modern musical interfaces video upload by Expressive E Jan 6, 2016
Peter Zinovieff feature uploaded by Erica Synths on Nov 23, 2020. This was the latest video to feature Peter Zinovieff that I am aware of.
Peter Zinovieff interview 2015 video upload by 香港電子音樂社 Hong Kong Electronic Music Society Jun 30, 2015
Dr Peter Zinovieff intro & performance excerpt - Deliaphonic 2017 video upload by Deliaphonic Aug 29, 2018
And a few perspectives from others:
Bright Sparks Behind The Scenes - The Brits video by GForce Software published Feb 16, 2021
Cosmic Tape Music Club Podcast hosted by The Galaxy Electric - E1 Peter Zinovieff
video by The Galaxy Electric published Jan 27, 2021
"Peter Zinovieff, a hugely influential figure in British music whose early synthesisers helped to change the sound of pop, has died aged 88. He had suffered a fall at home earlier this month.
With its marketing slogan 'think of a sound – now make it', his company Electronic Music Studios (EMS) was one of the first to bring synthesisers out of studios and to the public. With products such as the portable VCS3 and Synthi A, EMS customers – including David Bowie, Kraftwerk, the Who, Tangerine Dream and Pink Floyd – were often taught to use the instruments by Zinovieff.
In 1967 he collaborated with Paul McCartney on Carnival of Light, a performance of a 14-minute avant garde composition created between Beatles sessions for Penny Lane that has never been released.
He was also a respected composer of his own work, including early experiments with AI composition and sampling – he claimed to have invented the latter technique." You can read the full post here.
"Peter Zinovieff (26 January 1933 – 23 June 2021) was a British engineer and composer, whose EMS company made the VCS3 synthesizer in the late 1960s. The synthesizer was used by many early progressive rock bands such as Pink Floyd[3] and White Noise, and Krautrock groups[4] as well as more pop-oriented artists, including Todd Rundgren and David Bowie. In later life he worked primarily as a composer of electronic music.
Zinovieff was born on 26 January 1933;[5] his parents, Leo Zinovieff and Sofka, née Princess Sophia Dolgorouky, were both Russian aristocrats, who met in London after their families had emigrated to escape the Russian Revolution and soon divorced.[6] During World War II he and his brother Ian lived with their grandparents in Guildford and then with their father in Sussex. He attended Guildford Royal Grammar School, Gordonstoun School and Oxford University, where he earned a doctorate in geology.[7][8]
Zinovieff's work followed research at Bell Labs by Max Mathews and Jean-Claude Risset, and an MIT thesis (1963) by David Alan Luce.[9] In 1966–67, Zinovieff, Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson ran Unit Delta Plus, an organisation to create and promote electronic music. It was based in the studio Zinovieff had built, in a shed at his house in Putney. (The house is near the Thames, and the studio was later partially destroyed by a flood).[10][11] EMS grew out of MUSYS, which was a performance controller operating as an analogue-digital hybrid.[12] It was a synthesiser system which Zinovieff developed with the help of David Cockerell and Peter Grogono, and used two DEC PDP-8 minicomputers and a piano keyboard.[13] Unit Delta Plus ran a concert of electronic music at the Watermill Theatre in 1966, with a light show. In early 1967 they performed in concerts at The Roundhouse, at which the Carnival of Light was also played; they split up later in 1967.[11] Paul McCartney had visited the studio, but Zinovieff had little interest in popular music.[14]
In 1968, part of the studio was recreated at Connaught Hall, for a performance of pieces by Justin Connolly and David Lumsdaine.[15] At the IFIP congress that year, the composition ZASP by Zinovieff with Alan Sutcliffe took second prize in a contest, behind a piece by Iannis Xenakis.[16]
In 1969, Zinovieff sought financing through an ad in The Times but received only one response, £50 on the mistaken premise it was the price of a synthesiser. Instead he formed EMS with Cockerell and Tristram Cary.[17] At the end of the 1960s, EMS Ltd. was one of four companies offering commercial synthesizers, the others being ARP, Buchla, and Moog.[18] In the 1970s Zinovieff became interested in the video synthesizer developed by Robert Monkhouse, and EMS produced it as the Spectron.[19]
Jon Lord of Deep Purple described Zinovieff as "a mad professor type": "I was ushered into his workshop and he was in there talking to a computer, trying to get it to answer back".[20] Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco, in their history of the synthesizer revolution, see him rather as aristocratically averse to "trade".[21]
Zinovieff wrote the libretto for Harrison Birtwistle's opera The Mask of Orpheus,[22] and also the words for Nenia: The Death of Orpheus (1970).[23] The section Tristan's Folly in Tristan (1975) by Hans Werner Henze included a tape by Zinovieff."
Update:
Peter Zinovieff: A Tribute by CatSynth TV
video upload by CatSynth TV
"We look back at the life and work of Peter Zinovieff, who passed away last week at the age of 88. His work at Electronic Music Studios (EMS) was a major influence on musicians of the 1970s and beyond. At EMS, he co-created the well-known and coveted VCS3 and Synthi series. But he was also a composer in his own right, working on pioneering electronic music in the 1960s and returning to active composition in the 2010s with several collaborations with artists in other media and exploring massive sound spatialization.
Additional background music provided via the Arturia Synthi V as a tribute."
"For the first time in history, antimatter is used for music.
All the sounds of this piece are triggered by positron annihilation from a Na22 source. For the task I've programmed a custom gamma spectroscope that outputs the annihilation gamma peaks at 0.511MeV, these pulses are sent in realtime to a MIDI to CV converter.
A positron is the anti-particle of the electron, having positive charge instead of negative. Positron emission is a special case of beta decay. Inside the unstable nucleus, a proton is transformed into a neutron, and in the process, the nucleus emits a neutrino and a positron.
As soon as the positron encounters an electron on its path, they attract each other and finally annihilate, transforming all their mass into energy (2 entangled gamma photons at 0.511MeV), following E=mc^2.
I'll film the process in the next weeks.
Use headphones for best listening experience.
Sound generation: Shuttle Endorphin.es synthesizer.
MCA software written on Cycling '74 Max/MSP
"In which I am proud to release the VST instrument I have been working on for half a year with Sinan Bökesoy of SonicLab. Crafted with love and care, this is a rich-sounding and exploration-inviting tool for your music. Its steeped in history, but can be adapted to any music style."
Fundamental - the root of electronic music brought into the now.
Sinan Bokesoy
"Fundamental feels like something Stockhausen, Xenakis and HAL 9000 might have dreamed up after a bender. Recalling the past of electronic music and reconstruction of a massive german vacuum oscillator on a modern instrument with immense possibilities. Proudly presenting a collaboration of sonicLAB and Hainbach."
"Fundamental is a sound synthesis software tool combining the different roots of electronic music history. Fundamental wave engine is a faithful sonic recreation of a vintage Rohde&Schwartz vacuum tube oscillator ( having been widely used at WDR by Stockhausen )
Fundamental leaves behind the limitations of the original device by proposing complex modulation possibilities, stochastic distributions addressing the sonic parameters like frequency , gain, stereo panning etc. in continuum, which has not been applicable until now.
Fundamental feels like something Stockhausen, Xenakis and HAL 9000 might have dreamed up after a bender: recalling the past of electronic music through a dynamic modern reinterpretation of a massive german vacuum oscillator,
"Thanks for listening! Come on a musical voyage with us where we'll send you a new song every day, a cosmic story, and a chance to earn space treasure: https://thegalaxyelectric.lpages.co/5...
Relax and tune into our live weekly improvised Drone Sessions. This seventeenth session involves a drone featuring two independent Buchla style complex and modulation oscillators starting in tune a couple octaves apart. As the oscillator frequencies drift apart by way of manual control, beating ensues. Listening to droning oscillators can serve as mindfulness sounds as there is no sudden changes in sound. Just smooth drifts in pitch and the resulting beat frequencies. Drones can also serve as an ambient track to have on while doing tasks that require intense focus. Drones are also great for a Sci-fi film soundtrack. The slow yet progressive nature of a drone performance can help one focus on tasks without distraction. The fact that we are manipulating these oscillators live and in collaboration helps the drone meander ever so smoothly in an evolving fashion as we are always reacting to one another's subtle movements. These movements are improvised so there is an unrehearsed and reactive ebb and flow to the tones generated. Engage in the practice deep listening with us.
The electronic music instruments used in this performance of modular drone music are the Buchla Music Easel and a cosmic vocal drone setup using two Boss RE-20 Roland Space Echo pedals.
The Galaxy Electric - https://www.thegalaxyelectric.com"
"In which I visit Willem Twee Studios, an amazing electronic music studio in the Netherlands that breathes the ideas and techniques of Schaeffer, Stockhausen, Xenakis and brings them alive for a new generations of musicians.
Built from the collection of Hans Kulk, who has been working with early electronic music tools since 1983, the studio is integrated into Willem Twee, a concert venue in 's-Hertogenbosch. Run lovingly by Rikkert Brok, Armeno Alberts and Hans, the two studios and the beautiful Tonzaal, built into a former Synagoge, breath history. You can find post-war communications technology next to early analog computers, classic Arp synthesizers and custom made tools, as well as a beautiful pipe organ and all you ever need to create tape collages. Everything is ready to be played and recorded, and kept in amazing shape.
This was an absolute highlight fro me personally and I hope to return for a longer stay some time.
Support these excursions and get stuff in return: http://patreon.com/hainbach
By my music and merch: https://linktr.ee/hainbach101"
See here for previous posts featuring Xenakis and granular synthesis.
What or rather who is Xenakis? Via Wikipedia: Iannis Xenakis - "Xenakis pioneered the use of mathematical models in music such as applications of set theory, stochastic processes and game theory and was also an important influence on the development of electronic and computer music. He integrated music with architecture, designing music for pre-existing spaces, and designing spaces to be integrated with specific music compositions and performances."
"The wavehole approach to organising acoustic particles is an adaptation of the Xenakis screen. In Formalized Music Xenakis discusses various methods with which to organise grains of sound. A Xenakian screen is not unlike Gabor’s Matrix (1946). The representation is musical and interpreted differently from the theoretical signals presented in Gabor’s communications literature. The Xenakis screen (Fig.1), is a two dimensional grid which, exists in one moment of time."
If you look below you will see an image of multiple Xenakis Screens over time. The screens remind me of a mix of wavetable and granular synthesis. In a wavetable you have a table of multiple waveforms you can morph through. In granular synthesis you typically have a sample or audio you can morph through and manipulate over time either grabbing a "slice" of the audio or particular "grains" within a slice or slices of audio - almost like a hybrid of additive and subtractive synthesis but working with a given audio sample.
"Each cell of the screen grid, houses a silence or grain event. Thus, each screen can have, depending on its resolution, a sparse or dense population of grains. The population is referred to as a cloud. Each occupied cell has a frequency ∆F and gain ∆G parameter. A Xenakis cloud is the grouped grain topology in one screen at a given moment in ∆t as in Fig.2."
"Thanks to episode sponsors Signal Sounds: http://signalsounds.com ! This month I'm very excited to present a chat with perhaps one of the most mysterious and well-respected characters in the Eurorack world - Olivier Gillet of Mutable Instruments.
In it we discuss his route into music technology, his module development process, the importance of daydreaming, and some quite surprising facts regarding the size of his company, and much more besides.
"Not for the casual observer/listener....
A brief sampling of several of the alternate instruments
available for use on the QU-Bit Nebulae.
More on those here: http://www.qubitelectronix.com/nebul-..."
Olivier Gillet presentation at the recent N/O/D/E 2016 event and conference.
"« Comprendre l'aléatoire et ses applications à la musique
Conférence d'Olivier Gillet (Mutable Instruments) donné le samedi 30 janvier 2016 à Pôle Sud, Lausanne, à l'occasion du N/O/D/E 2016, rendez-vous des curiosités sonores, autour de la thématique "algorithmes et big data"
Existe-t-il différents types ou degrés d'aléatoire ? Comment le décrit-on, le mesure-t-on ? Dans cette conférence, le concepteur de synthétiseurs Olivier Gillet vulgarise différents concepts mathématiques (continu/discret, distribution, indépendance, bruit, chaîne de markov) qui permettent de mieux saisir les différentes formes de hasard qu'on peut mettre en œuvre dans une composition musicale, que ce soit à l'échelle des notes d'une partition ou de la matière sonore elle-même. Chaque concept est illustré interactivement par des programmes python ou puredata, et ses applications musicales (que ce soit dans une composition de Xenakis ou dans les entrailles d'un module eurorack) sont présentées.
plus d'infos sur www.node-rdv.ch
http://mutable-instruments.net"
Googlish:
"Understanding the random and music applications
Conference Olivier Gillet (Mutable Instruments) given Saturday, January 30, 2016 at the South Pole, Lausanne, at the N / O / D / E 2016, appointment of sound curiosities, around the theme 'Big Data and Algorithms'
Are there different types or degrees of randomness? How do we describe the do we measure? In this conference, the designer Olivier Gillet synthesizers popularizes various mathematical concepts (continuous / discrete, distribution, independence, noise, Markov chain) to better understand the different forms of chance that can be implemented in a musical composition , whether to scale notes of a score or sound material itself. Each concept is illustrated with python interactively or puredata programs, and music applications (whether in a composition of Xenakis or in the bowels of a eurorack module) are presented."
The melody starting at :40 seconds is the TipTop Audio ZDSP running the "Grain de Folie" card which is processing Mutable Instruments Elements thats being sequenced by the Circadian Rhythms and z8000 with voltage quantization by the Intellijel µscale. The program used is #6 "Six Grains Stereo". Modulation to grain sizes 1 and 2 coming from the Modcan Quad LFO.
///// from the manual /////
Granular Synthesis uses small slices of sounds (‘grains’) to compose new sounds from existing material. By combining multiple grains of differing lengths, amplitude, pitch and speed creates very characteristic sounds of modern music.
"Granular Synthesis uses small slices of sounds (‘grains’) to compose new sounds from existing material. By combining multiple grains of differing lengths, amplitude, pitch and speed new sound are created which are often very different from the original sound recorded in. Xenakis claims to have invented the technique and indeed his ‘Analogique A-B’ [see the embed below],composed of tiny tape splices of pure tones, is credited as the first piece of granular music bacon 1959.
In the context of the Z-DSP, a block of memory is set to hold digital samples for playback: the Z-DSP has one second of memory for the audio used in processing. From this audio buffer the grains will sample and modify smaller sections for playback. The number of grains in the process determine how dense the overall output sounds. these programs have 3, 4, or 6 grains for playback. Each grain plays from a random point in the audio buffer and have an independent envelope controlling their duration. The envelope time is the ‘grain size’ parameter in many of the programs.
The French phrase for the cartridge is “Grain de Folie” which could be translated as “seeds of madness”, but in French “grain” also translates to “grain”, and “madness” evokes the strange disassembling/reassembling granular process. Also, “avoid un grain de foil” is a typically French expression to describe people behaving in a non conventional way, thus a fitting play on words quite nicely describing the unpredictable nature of this set of algorithms."
"“It fucks with the fabric of time!” Tony Visconti describing Pitch Shifting to Brian Eno and David Bowie in 1976. That not so subtle description does quite neatly sum up what the Pitch Shift programs on the ‘Time Fabric’ card do!
Pitch shifting in the Z-DSP uses a technique called ‘rotating tape head’ delay lines named after pioneering tape based experiments in Germany in the 1960s. The tape heads move at speeds independent of the tape playback path and two heads are crossfaded to make a continuous output capable of beautiful pitched delay effects, harmonization and smooth reverbs.
These pitch shifting algorithms are much like the earliest digital pitch shifters released. Sounds similar to the Eventide H910, AMS 15-80 (with Pitch board) and Publison DHM 89 can be achieved. These programs are intended more for pure effects rather than the complex multiple harmony lines later devices and plugins became known for producing. Chords from single VCOs can easily be made using the ‘Interval’ programs on the card though.
Using a Z3000 to clock the Z-DSP, complete chaos from the delay lines and pitch shifting emerges, creating great and unexpected new sounds. Modulations the stereo pair of analog VC-Feebacks animates the time and distance of the pitch shift opening up these algorithms for additional control from CV and audio signal alike."
Iannis Xenakis – Analogique A et B
Published on Dec 2, 2014 Polyphonie X
"Format: 4 × CD, Compilation, Boxed Set Country: France
Released: 2011 Genre: Electronic, Classical Style:
Contemporary, Musique Concrete
Analogique A et B
Tape – Iannis Xenakis
Analogique A Et B: Recorded 1958/1959 GRM Paris. ℗ 1964 GRM under license to Classics & Jazz France, un label Universal Music France (label d'origine : Philips)
Composed By – Iannis Xenakis"
Hi everyone! As you know Barry Schrader will be giving his farewell concert at CalArts on September 26. The following is the beginning of my interview with him. I opted to post the questions and answers as they come in. New QAs will get a new post so you do not miss them and they will be added to this post so we have one central post for the full interview. This should make it easier for all of us to consume in our busy lives, and it will allow you to send in any questions that may come to mind during the interview process. If you have anything you'd like to ask Barry, feel free to send it in to matrixsynth@gmail.com. This is a rare opportunity for us to get insight on a significant bit of synthesizer history, specifically with early Buchla systems, and I'd like to thank Barry for this opportunity. Thank you Barry!
"The Institute of Contemporary Arts & The Vinyl Factory present Cybernetic Serendipity Music, the world's first compilation of electronic music, reissued on vinyl for the first time since it was originally released as part of the ICA's groundbreaking robotics exhibition Cybernetic Serendipity in 1968.
The exhibition documenting the original Cybernetic Serendipity show is on at the ICA from 14 October to 30 November 2014. For more information, visit the ICA’s website: https://www.ica.org.uk/whats-on/cyber...
Thank you to Peter Zinovief [EMS], Russell Haswell, Yuri Pattison and Juliette Desorgues for their contribution to this film.
Filmed by Anoushka Siegler, Kamil Dymek, Pawel Ptak and Luis Muñoz"
Vinyl Tracklisting:
Side A
1. Lajaren Hiller and Leonard Isaacson - Illiac Suite (Experiment 4)
2. John Cage - Cartridge Music (excerpt)
3. Iannis Xenakis - Strategie (excerpt)
4. Wilhelm Fucks - Experiment Quatro-Due
5. J.K. Randall - Mudgett (excerpt)
Side B
6. Gerald Strang - Compusition 3
7. Haruki Tsuchiya - Bit Music (excerpt)
8. T.H. O'Beirne - Enneadic Selections
9. Peter Zinovieff - January Tensions
10. Herbert Brün - Infraudibles
"From March 5 to 20, 1977, in the Rome National Gallery of Modern Art was held from the 14th Festival of Nuova Consonanza, an association of musicians and composers congregated around Franco Evangelisti, responsible for the practical organisation of the Festival was Vittorio Consoli, engineer, music lover and enthusiastic investigator of the relations between space and sound. For 15 days in the main concourse of the National Gallery, experimental studies were made on the interaction between space and music and between musicians and computer, using compositions by, among others, Mauro Bortolotti, Domenico Guàccero, Aldo Clementi, Franco Evangelisti, Luigi Nono, Alessandro Sbordoni, Edgard Varèse, Leo Küpper and Giorgio Nottoli. The concourse of the Gallery is an exceptionally reflective space, totally non-musical. A huge acoustic dome made up of 100 loudspeakers, fed by the same number of audio channels, was created by Vittorio Consoli, with invaluable assistance from Leo Küpper, and wrapped up in a cloud of coloured aerostatic balloons, which were not fully inflated, and which gave the hall the acoustic properties required and also lent to the event an extraordinary sense of festivity surrounding the musical experimentation; this spirit can perhaps still be seen in the old black and white photos of the event and is still visible in the image we have of the main protagonists – Franco Evangelisti, Leo Küpper and Vittorio Consoli. Given the date, this was no virtual experiment in spatialisation, but a real-time musical event: the sounds, generated by an impressive analog computer, could be transmitted towards each of the loudspeakers and switched from one to another by a hand-made mixer. The most famous precedent for all this was, of course, the Philips Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels Expo, the masterpiece of Le Corbusier and Xenakis, animated by the Poème Electronique of Edgard Varèse. However, the most striking precedent was without a doubt the musical sphere constructed for the 1970 Osaka Expo by Karlheinz Stockhausen. Here the composer established the iconic quality of contemporary absolute music, an icon which subsequently symbolically adorned his grave monument. The project we are presenting here, the Stanza del Suono (Room of Sound) can be seen therefore to follow the path of a great contemporary music tradition; today we can avail ourselves of the innovations of computer technology, which allow us to organise the emissions of sound in space in a genuinely contrapuntal fashion, as Vittorio Consoli would say. The spatial evolution of the sounds thus becomes part of the decisions that the composer arranges within his creative system, to quote Schumann. The musical scores are able to not only specify precisely the limitless paths through space traced by the sounds, but also to envisage the ‘unknowns’ involved in the immediate, real-time interaction between sound and space, and between the musicians and the computer program. In this way, this new project of ours is not merely a place for listening to music, but also a place for creating and processing music in a continuous interplay between, space, music, sound, musicians and audience. The project aims at producing a new, long-term, functional acoustic and spatial device that can be employed by all
those engaged in electro-acoustic music research. It was built upon a body of work consistently carried out at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome, in its Department of Electronic Music, up till now directed by Giorgio Nottoli, and is the result of a close collaboration with two Departments of Rome Sapienza University: the Department of Architecture and Design, under Piero Ostilio Rossi, and the Department of Architectural History, Design and Restoration, directed by Paolo Fiore. The idea of setting up a permanent cooperative research area between musicians and architects, on the theme of ‘Music and Architecture’, and of including it in the agenda of Emufest, the International Festival of Electro-acoustic Music, originated in 2011 in the insights and enthusiasms of composer Fabio Cifariello Ciardi and architect Luca Ribichini...[...]"
Image of Noyzelab's Ulamizer II Cellular Automata Sequencer. You'll find more pics and details at Noyzelab here. Below are videos featuring Noyzelab's MANIAC, a prototype cellular automata generative music hardware module. If you are not familiar with Cellular Automata, check out this article on wikipedia. There have been numerous apps and hardware to feature the concept for seemingly random sequences (click here for numerours posts featuring Cellular Automata - you might be surprised).
via Noyzelab: "Since the early experiments by contemporary composers such as Iannis Xenakis, interest in the use of Cellular Automata (CA) in music has dramatically increased. ULAMIZER II is a prototype of a CA music module, designed to be part of the Noyzelab studio environment for both modular and MIDI synthesizers. This module design has now been integrated into my MANIAC / Arthur development systems"
Uploaded on Jan 30, 2012 noyzelab
"MANIAC - a prototype cellular automata generative music module in a eurorack case.
composite video out, MIDI in/out, PS2 keybd, stereo audio out, 8 cell gates out, clock in/out, sundry control switches, USB programmers port at rear
Module is playing a Yamaha FS1R synthesizer via the MIDI out
"quick vid test of MANIAC with a new panel of 8xcv in & 2 x cv out + 2 microtonal oscillators all on the same module. cv outs are going to filter and eg attack rate. uTonal osc's are being driven directly from CA states and 2 CV knobs controlling the mapping.
"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.
