Break out the filter banks, crank up the vocoders, hook-up a microphone and a kazoo, patch your brains out and get funky! Cyndustries has announced Bug Off!, the 2005 Aleatoric Music Contest.

The theme this year is Singing Robots. Pavarobotti may hit the high C’s, but hasn’t found a place yet in any of the tenor supergroups yet. GTRBOT666 (shown in photo at right) and his robotic bandmates may know how to rock, but even they still use a human vocalist. Cyndustries hopes to change all that!

Listeners from all across the web will vote for their favorite aleatoric pieces, and the top three winners will receive a half-off discount coupon on any Cynthia brand synthesizer module! In addition, the first place winner will win the highly coveted and prestigious new BUG MUSIC Award Trophy for their mantel or trophy case!

Aleatoric Music: Music in which either composition or method of performance is determined by elements of chance or unpredictability. Terms such as chance music, indeterminate music, or aleatoric music are applied to many works written after World War II, the pioneers being Cage, Lutoslawski, Stockhausen, and Xenakis, each of whom approached the technique in his own way.

Cyndustries’ Cynthia Webster notes “It’s time, once again, to harvest the mystically marvelous power of those synths you’ve got and put them to use making strange and haunting tunes that are wacky, alien, and totally obtuse!” Can’t argue with that, can you?

The 2004 Aleatoric Music Contest entries are available for download as MP3 files.

Contest Rules

• All entries must be no longer than exactly 3 minutes in length.
• Equipment wise, anything goes! Analog or Digital, Softsynth or Hardware!
• Cyndustries has the right to reject any material deemed offensive.
• 3. Only those who own the rights to the music may submit their music and in the interest of a clear playing field for all, we ask that the submitted piece must be originated with this contest in mind, (please do not submit any masterpieces that you have previously labored on for many months or years).

The deadline for entries is February 12th. Voting will commence immediately on the 13th.

Visit the Cyndustries site for more information and to enter the contest.