Schletter has a varied background – ranging from music for SpongeBob SquarePants to playing with System Of A Down or acting as the drummer for the all-girl band Stone Fox (dressed as the skanky “Debbie”).

While other artists are looking to the past, Schletter has created a concept album based on the idea that “a military satellite finds itself in the midst of a musical “transmission” which forces it to rethink its primary directive.”

The album doesn’t hit you over the head with the concept, though.

Instead, Cosmic Christmas combines original songs and instrumentals with modern electronic exotica takes on Christmas classics. There’s some great “spacey” theremin work on Schletter’s versions of Christmas Time Is Here, We Three Kings and It Came Upon A Midnight Clear.

Schletter also uses tremendous variety in his arrangements. He channels Brian Wilson on Super Small – a song about protecting everything super small – using minimal instrumentation and layered vocals. His take on Carol Of The Bells has a 70’s modular synth vibe, somewhere between the happy synth-pop of Jean Jacques Perrey and the music of Isao Tomita. His Auld Lang Syne is a straightforward vibes & theremin duet.

Schletter even does a fairly solemn theremin and “strings” version of Silent Night.

The weak spot, at least for these ears, is a set of three spoken word interludes that serve the album concept – a sort of dialog of the military satellite’s computers. Kids may love it – but most would probably prefer a few more of Schletter’s quirky songs or his theremin arrangements of traditional tunes.

Eban Schletter’s Cosmic Christmas is one of the most original Christmas albums in years. It offers some very nice electronic exotica, some lovely theremin work and best of all, something daringly different.

You can check out some samples from Schletter’s Cosmic Christmas on his MySpace page.

Sunday Synth Jam: BarbieWire performs Cool Son live at the Box Salon in Toronto on October 21st, 2009.

via BarbieWireMusic

This is a demo for Drawdio – a pencil that lets you “draw” instruments.

While creator Jay Silver compares it to a theremin, it’s closer to a Tannerin or Electro-Theremin.

via wakeupsilver:

Imagine you could draw musical instruments on normal paper with any pencil (cheap circuit thumb-tacked on) and then play them with your finger. The Drawdio circuit-craft lets you MacGuyver your everyday objects into musical instruments: paintbrushes, macaroni, trees, grandpa, even the kitchen sink…

One day I bought a “harmonium” kit at the street market in Bangalore. I hacksawed the keyboard off to make the first ever Drawdio circuit. We played with it at a local school in the slums using plants, water, our foreheads, etc. My friend told me graphite would work too. Meditating on it, I realized the Drawdio circuit should be literally attached to a pencil to “draw audio,” and that’s where the name came from: Draw + Audio.

DIY: Make it. Remix it. Play it.

See http://drawdio.com

This video demonstrates using Max For Live with a Wacom Tablet to control the Analog synth instrument in Ableton Live 8.

The “Wacom Theremin” offers a lot of expressive musical potential, with 5 degrees of control over the sound.

Details below.

via rerunnermusic:

The live.remote~ object passes data at many times the resolution of MIDI (one of the great things about the Wacom tablet and sample accurate modulation from MSP to Ableton Live using the API objects in Max for Live).

The Wacom tablet has 5 degrees of hi-res expressive freedom (see below for mappings). Very promising, this is just a quick little study… Cheers.

x axis = pitch (tempered)
y axis = volume
pen pressure =vibrato amount
tilt axis y = vibrato rate
tilt axis x = detune +/- semitone.

Dr Bleep is trickling out more info on the new Thingamagoop 2 synth robot.

The video above demonstrates using a Thingamagoop 2 to control a Moog Prodigy.

Dr Bleep says:

The Thingamagoop has a stereo 1/8? jack on the side to facilitate control voltage in and out. You can make your own cable very simply or order a nice, shielded one from us. It’s simply a stereo 1/8? to two, mono female 1/4? jacks. Here’s Dr. Bleep and his band, The Hearts and the Minds, using the Thingamagoop 2 to control a Moog Prodigy.

Note that the CV input is not 1volt/Octave but you can use it to make some ridiculous sound!

Arduino Support

The Thingamagoop 2 uses Arduino to control the analog VCO as well as the LEDacle. You don’t need an Arduino board to use the Thingamagoop 2; you only need on if you want to reprogram it.

The Thingamagoop 2 circuit incorporates an AVR chip that has been programed without the Arduino bootloader. This allows the device to start up immediately but you’ll have to switch out the chip for one with the bootloader if you want to reprogram it.

The programmer cable is a stereo 1/8? cable with a ferrite noise suppressor and 3 pins on the other end that go into the Arduino headers. Not only can you directly program the Thingamgoop 2, you can communicate with it.

“Who will be the first to get processing to use the photocell as a variable!? Or build a MIDI i/o!?” asks Dr Bleep.

Ranjit Bhatnagar’s Lev is a robot that plays the theremin.

And while he’s far from being a virtuoso, he plays better than a lot of thereminists.

Lev may be the ultimate MacGyver music hack. He was made out of an old floor lamp, some plumbing supplies, a few empty mint tins, and some microprocessors.

Lev is named after Lev Termen or Leon Theremin, a Russian scientist who invented one of the first electronic musical instruments, an instrument which is played without touching, and which bears his name.

via MoonMilk, synthgear

Sunday Synth Jam: This is another very nice theremin performance by Peter Pringle, Duparc’s L’invitation au voyage.

Pringle’s intonation sets an example for other thereminists and the intensity and expression of his playing is equally amazing.

via copperleaves:

This is one of my favorite songs from the works of French composer Henri Duparc, originally written to a poem by Charles Baudelaire. I have taken certain liberties with the arrangement in order to make up for the absence of the words which are extraordinarily powerful.

Duparc lived an unhappy, tormented life and did not write many compositions. Along with composer Camille Saint-Saens, he founded the National Society Of Modern Music in his native France.

I should mention that I probably would not have been able to play this on my Moog Etherwave Pro theremin if it’s volume circuit linearity had not been greatly improved by the addition of the EPVM1345, a tiny module invented by French engineer Thierry Frenkel.

This is the music video for theminist May Roosevelt’s Phantasma, made for the Moog Halloween Theremin contest.

This video’s fantastic on a lot of levels – including Roosevelt’s performance and the video filming and editing.

Let me know what you think!

via MayRoosevelt:

My video for the Moog Halloween contest using the etherwave standard!

Music by May Roosevelt.

Video done with the help of Alex Al.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s another entry for Moog’s Halloween theremin contest, working the cute baby angle.

via matrix12x:

My 17 month old playing with the Theremin. She loves to play, and often uses her head or entire body to play.

In this video she is playing Saint-Saëns: Carnival of the Animals Aquarium. She likes the modular synth on the side.

The insides of the Theremin is a Moog Etherwave, in a Paia Tmax case. I like that case a little better because you can put sheet music on top.Also I am submitting this for the Moog Halloween Theremin Contest, please vote for her.

Pure analog sound on the night of Halloween, for the Moog Music Halloween Theremin Contest 2009.

via SemenCritico

Night Of The Theremin is a terror-filled short about a strange encounter on a dark, desolate highway.

Here’s the sequel – Dawn Of The Theremin:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Happy Moogloween!

via iloveanalogue:

Learn more about the Moog Etherwave Theremin at http://www.moogmusic.comLearn more about Bob Moog’s Legacy at http://www.moogfoundation.org

Free Music Friday: Electronica artist and music blogger Mark Mosher has released a new album, Reboot, that’s just a little spooky.

Mosher says:

Two years in the making, REBOOT is an album containing 7 richly layered electronica songs that blend contemporary synthesizer sounds with classical music motifs. The end result is dark electronica for those who love synth “ear candy” with a “dirty” industrial edge.

Make sure you check out the track They Walk Among Us. It dives straight into B-movie territory, with its use of theremin, flying saucer sounds and vintage horror sounds. Could be a perfect soundtrack for Halloween.

Mosher has released Reboot with a pay-what-you like model. You can preview the album above or check it out at his Bandcamp site. If you like it, you can download it for free or pay Mosher whatever you like.

Mosher’s suggested price is $6 for the album (7 songs, 22 min. + digital booklet) and $1 for singles. Enter $0 for free download.

This “wee theremin”, the Gakken Theremin, is sized for a Barbie doll, but Ken Moore proves that it’s actually “playable”.

via kenmoore:

For my wife’s baby shower our friends Sarah and Mika got us a tiny Gakken Theremin so we can get our girl a head start as the next Theremin virtuosa. It’s a fun but very sensitive instrument, and since Sidney can’t even get her hand in her mouth yet I’ll wait a few more months before starting her lessons. THANKS SARAH AND MIKA!

Jan van Nuenen created this IKEA solar-powered optical theremin thing, the Sunnan Synth.

The Sunnan Synth is made with an IKEA Sunnan solar lamp, photoresistors, pots and a cmos 556 ic. The IKEA Sunnan lamp is $20 at IKEA stores, and if you buy one, they donate another to UNICEF to help kids in small villages.

Moog Music is celebrating Halloween with a Halloween Theremin Video Contest.

They’re asking thereminists to recreate the classic sounds of horror/sci-fi theremin in a music video.

Here’s how it works:

1. Create your best Theremin video with a Halloween Theme.
2. Upload it to your YouTube channel.
3. Post the YouTube URL for your video on the Moog Music Forum www.moogmusic.com/forum in the Theremin Forum, under the Halloween Theremin Contest topic by Saturday, October 31 at 3:00 pm EST. If you are not already a Moog Music Forum member, you must register.

Prizes:

• 1st prize – Best Video – MF-104Z Analog Delay
• 2nd prize – Most views – MF-102 Ring Modulator
• All contestants whose videos make it to the poll will receive a Moog t-shirt. Limit one t-shirt per video.Videos must be at least one minute in length. Theremin(s) used must be manufactured by Moog Music.

DJ/Producer Gaudi scratches the theremin at Techno-Tribal, “the North Bay’s largest and most epic dance party of the year.”

It looks like Gaudi dispenses with the tradition of theremin playing and takes it in a new direction.

A very cool performance from a party that does truly look epic.

This is a trailer for The Italian Moog.

RE_production is producing a documentary movie on Moog instruments in Italian music, directed by Ernesto Romano.

Description:

The movie shows all the most significant Moog experiences of the Italian music history, from the Progressive Rock to the nowadays electronic experimentation, through the voice and the notes of the main musicians.

All of them, from the milestones to the youngest artists, express an endless passion for all the Moog inventions, since they have been introduced in Italy during the Seventies, until the last products.

Finally, all the musicians express an extraordinary love for Bob Moog, as everybody say, the father of synthesizers.

Sunday Synth Jam: This video captures a great cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, arranged for piano, vocal, theremin and MIDI theremin by Peter Pringle.

Details on the theremins & synths used below.

via copperleaves:

First of all, I’m sorry this video is so long but I wanted to sing all the verses of it that I could find. Leonard Cohen (who wrote the song) said that he wished people would stop singing it but you might as well ask people to stop looking at the Mona Lisa! In its genre, this song is a masterpiece.

I discovered Leonard Cohen back in the early 60’s when a family friend gave my parents a copy of LOVE WHERE THE NIGHTS ARE LONG, a collection of the works of Cohen and his friend and mentor, the late, brilliant Irving Layton. I had never really appreciated poetry until I read that book. Perhaps what has always impressed me most about Leonard Cohen’s work is his ability to be distant and objective about his subject while resting quietly in its heart.

There are two theremins in this video, Samuel Hoffman’s 1929 RCA and the Moog MIDI Ethervox. I have never been able to sing and accurately play the theremin at the same time, so verse three (where I play the Hoffman RCA) is the only verse where I did not sing live. The MIDI theremin (which you see on verse five) is fairly easy to play while singing. Simple gestures of the arm trigger sounds from a separate MIDI module (in this case a Roland JV 2080).

The keyboard on this video is a Korg Triton Extreme (doubled with a Roland Fantom XR). The advantage of an electronic keyboard over an acoustic piano is that there is no leakage into the vocal mike when a singer is playing and singing at the same time. Nothing will ever replace a good Steinway but the latest generations of electronic keyboards are awesome!

The mike I used is a cordless Sennheiser that I have had for years. It was given to me by Sennheiser when they sponsored a tour in the 1980’s and it works as well today as it did when I got it.

Here’s a little bit of trivia you may not know about the RCA theremin in this video. According to Apollo astronaut Neil Armstrong’s biographer, Andrew Smith, Armstrong actually took a recording of this theremin with him into space for the moon landing in 1969. The previous owner of this instrument, Dr. Samuel Hoffman, used it on his 1947 recording, MUSIC OUT OF THE MOON. Neil Armstrong liked the sound of it so much that he made a cassette tape of it from his personal record collection and took it with him to the moon.

Andrew Smith ends his book, MOONDUST, with the following words, “…..when I’ve thought of Apollo, I’ve thought of him [Neil Armstrong] and his little band drifting out there toward the secret Moon…..spilling theremin music out at the stars.”

A thereminist plays the Moog Etherwave theremin and attracts the attention of convention-goers at Music Moscow 2009.

If you know anything about the thereminist, leave a comment below.

via aclexvideo

Matrix is getting his daughter Alexandra off to a good start – letting her rock the theremin at 15 months.

She also likes the knob-laden glory of the x0xb0x:

Click here to view the embedded video.

If that’s not enough cute for you, here’s Matrix’s Mexican Bag-Killing Cat:

Click here to view the embedded video.