Image: LittleO2

This awesomely iconic shot of Jean Michel Jarre playing the theremin comes from his 5/30/09 concert in Zurich.

via the Synthtopia Flickr Group

Eno will introduce the premier of the new arrangement at the concert on the 20th.

20 and 21 July 2009 (doors open at 19.00pm). £18 per person*

To book your place, call 0870 870 4771

* Children aged 14 and older are welcome to attend accompanied by an adult.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing the Science Museum, alongside Sound and Music, present the premiere of a new live arrangement of Brian Eno’s 1983 album ‘Apollo’.

The performance by amplified ensemble Icebreaker, with BJ Cole on pedal steel guitar, will be accompanied by original footage of the Moon landings by director Al Reinert (For All Mankind, 1989) projected onto the giant screen of the Science Museum IMAX cinema. Supporting the new arrangement of ‘Apollo’ will be performances of new material based on recordings from space.

Taking place in the Science Museum’s iconic ‘Making the Modern World’ gallery, which includes the real Apollo 10 Command Module, these performances will be by experimental artists Douglas Benford and Iris Garrelfs.

The concert will take place in the Science Museum IMAX Cinema and ‘Making the Modern World’ gallery.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania band Good Night, States wants you to come to their next show, bring your iPhone and get your synth on:

At the next Good Night, States show (and beyond), you (the show attendee) will have the opportunity to participate in the performance!

Steve has programmed a bank of sounds for the Noise.io iPhone/iPod Touch synth app. This bank of sounds, combined with the audio interface that will be at the front of the stage, will allow you to play along with the band.

Steve has posted instructional videos and written out instructions for how to use the app at the shows. You can view/download the instructions here. You can view the instructional videos here, here, and here.

Don’t miss the bands’ Jupiter 6-themed Web site, too. Check out the upcoming shows here.

“(Yes) asked Dad if he had anybody he recommended, and he recommended me, which is very nice,” says Oliver Wakeman, 37, who was born the same year one of the most popular Yes albums, “Close to the Edge,” was released.

“I’ve always been a fan of that style of music,” says Wakeman.

“I do distinctly remember being 9 or 10 and having a record player in my room,” Wakeman says. “And the records I had were records that Dad had left behind when he moved out. I remember to this day, there were ‘Six Wives of Henry VIII,’ ‘Tales of Topographic Oceans’ and Styx’s ‘The Grand Illusion,’ and I thought they were great.”

Wakeman didn’t look to his father for advice on re-creating his classic sounds and Minimoog solos.

“He wouldn’t tell me and I wouldn’t ask,” he says. “We never really talk about music, to be honest with you. I just went to the job as if I was any other keyboard player that had gotten the job.”

Wakeman is touring with a rig of about seven or eight keyboards. “We’re very close with a lot of the sounds; they’re pretty authentic. I have a Mellotron sampler, and I use a new Moog (synthesizer) rather than one of the old ones, because the new ones have auto-tuners and things like that that keep them a lot more stable.”

Yes is on a 26-city US tour.

“Movement 2009 was an overwhelming success on so many levels,” said festival producer Jason Huvaere. “People loved the lineup of performances we were able to put together this year. Our sponsors and vendors really stepped up this year despite the tough economy. The recycling program surpassed last year’s totals for collected items. And we had great weather the entire weekend, which definitely contributed to the record breaking turnout.”

Carl Craig Becomes Movement 2010 Creative Director

The announcement of Techno Music legend Carl Craig being named Creative Director for Movement 2010 dominated much of the conversation on blogs and among groups of festival-goers.

“We have received nothing but positive feedback from the announcement about Carl,” said Huvaere. “His involvement will strengthen the future of the Movement festival in Detroit.”

Craig will be involved in various creative aspects of Movement and serve as an ambassador for the Movement festival as he travels the world.

Detroit Electronic Music Fans Recycle 4 Tons Of Trash

Electronic Music fans in attendance at Movement 2009 proved to be an environmentally-friendly group. Four tons or 8,000 pounds of recyclable materials were collected over the course of the three-day festival. This year’s total surpassed 2008 totals by 5,000 pounds.

Paxahau partnered again with Recycle Detroit, a non-profit organization founded by Detroiter Sarah Kubik. The non-profit had a team of 100 volunteers, utilized 40 recycling stations and successfully convinced nearly 2,500 people to commit to be more environmentally conscious.

“We were very pleased to have Sarah and her Recycle Detroit volunteers be apart of Movement again this year,” said Huvaere. “They have single-handedly taken the festival’s recycling program to the next level. Recycle Detroit is a great organization.”

Image: Rev Voodoo

Tour Dates:

• Wed 6/17 San Francisco, CA – Grand Ballroom
• Sat 6/27, Los Angeles, CA – Electric Daisy Carnival
• Thu 7/30, Pontiac, MI – The Crofoot
• Fri 7/31, Columbus, OH – Boma
• Sat 8/1, Norfolk, VA – The Norva
• Sun 8/2, Charlotte, NC – Amos’ Southend
• Mon 8/3, Nashville, TN – Limelight
• Tue 8/4, Little Rock, AR – Juanita’s Cantina
• Wed 8/5, Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ballroom
• Thu 8/6, Albuquerque, NM – Sunshine Theatre
• Fri 8/7, Afton, NY – The New Echo Lake (DJ set)
• Sat 8/8, Washington D.C. – Fur (DJ set)
• Sun 8/9, San Diego, CA – Hard Rock Hotel (DJ set)

How about a visit to Synthtopia territory guys? Chicago, Minneapolis, or Kansas City?

If you’ve caught The Crystal Method on this tour, leave a comment and lets us know what you think!

NIN: Survivalism live w/ Saul Williams, Atlanta 5.10.09

Saul Williams makes a surprise appearance on stage with Nine Inch Nails for a performance of Survivalism, live in Atlanta, GA, May 10th, 2009

There’s a lot of things that impressed me in this video, ranging from the performance, to the surprise visit from Saul Williams to the awesome array of electronic music gear.

Watch closely, though, and you’ll see that, despite the fact that the video looks fantastic – this is a basically a glorified home movie, one shot, filmed by Rob Sheridan with a Canon 5d Mark II.

Like a lot of things that NIN has been doing, it’s not immediately obvious how insanely innovative this is.

Put a guy on stage with a relatively cheap HD video cameo and let him interact with both the band and the audience, and you’ve changed concert videos forever. There’s no reason a band can’t have an HD concert video made for all their shows, now.

Let me know what you think of this video.

Meanwhile, I’m going back to watch it again and do some synth-spotting.

via ninofficial

Orbital has posted a collection of images documenting their live setup:

It’s week’s away and Paul has sent through some images from the currentl live hardware setup.

Paul said “These pictures are of our current working live set some bits will change but it is the basis of what we are bringing on the road, all synths are analogue , using live for a sequencer and sampler… “.

It’s a trainspotters dream.

These are the dates that Orbital has announced:

• Brighton Dome (June 10th)
• Leeds Academy (June 11th)
• Global Gathering – (July 24th/25th)
• The Big Chill – (August 8th)
• Get Loaded in the Park – (August 30th)
• Manchester Academy (September 18th)
• Manchester Academy (September 19th)
• Newcastle Academy (September 21st)
• Sheffield Academy (September 23rd)
• London Brixton Academy (September 24th)
• London Brixton Academy (September 25th

See their site for details.

Surviving members of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop are scheduled to perform at London’s Camden Roundhouse this coming Sunday (May 17).

The event will feature Radiophonic alumni Peter Howell, Paddy Kingsland, Roger Limb, Dick Mills and Mark Ayres, and offer a Q&A and concert.

“The programme is still evolving,” says Ayers, “but we will be playing a selection of pieces from the entire BBC Radiophonic Workshop’s output. Many tracks will be familiar from the recent CD reissues of BBC Radiophonic Music, The Radiophonic Workshop and Retrospective. These include Doctor Who, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, The Astronauts, Children’s TV tracks, music by Delia Derbyshire and John Baker, Seatrek and The Body In Question.”

Tickets are £20.00 each.

If any UK Synthtopia readers can make it to the event, come back and leave a comment!

via sonicstate

Concert promoters Paxahau have announced dates for Movement 2009, the Detroit Electronic Music Festival – May 23rd-25th 2009, at Hart Plaza in Detroit, MI.

Last year’s attendance nearly reached 80,000 over three days on Detroit’s Hart Plaza during Memorial Day Weekend, with fans enjoying 36 hours of their favorite electronic music artists and DJs performing on five stages and was named “Festival of the Year” by the readers of URB Magazine.

The Prodigy Invades Movement 2009

The Prodigy will play the official opening party for Movement 2009 at The Fillmore in Detroit on Friday, May 22. Chuck Flask, Paxahau Resident DJ and Evan Evolution will be performing in the State Bar. The doors open at 7 p.m. Early bird tickets for this all ages show are available starting at $20 by visiting www.livenation.com. VIP tickets are available.

“Every year our goal is to build upon the success of the previous year by bringing the best available local, national and international talent to Detroit in order to create a weekend experience unlike any other in the World,” said Jason Huvaere, president of Paxahau. “Our team spends a lot of time selecting artist and DJs that will appeal to electronic music enthusiasts. This year there will be a major Detroit presence at the festival as well as some performers that rarely set foot on stage in the United States.”

An alphabetical listing of Movement 2009 Artists confirmed to date is as follows:

Adam Beyer
Adultnapper
Afrika Bambaataa
Al Ester
Anthony Attalla
Anthony Rother (Live)
Audion (Live)
Bad Boy Bill
Bassnectar
Benga
Benny Benassi
Busy P
Buzz Goree
Carl Cox
Carl Craig
Chloe Harris
Chuck Gibson a.k.a. Perception (Live)
Clark Warner
Craig Gonzalez
Damian Lazarus
Delano Smith
Dennis Ferrer
Derrick May
DJ Deeon
DJ Godfather
DJ Omega
DJ Slugo
Drumcell (Live)
Ellen Allien
Exchange Bureau (Live)
Flying Lotus (Live)
Francois K
Frankie Vega
Guy Gerber (Live)
Heidi
Innervisions Live: a critical mass (Live)
Jay Denham
Kate Simko (Live)
Kero (Live)
Kevin Reynolds (Live)
Kevin Saunderson
Krazy Baldhead (Live)
Lee Curtiss
Liz Copeland
Loco Dice vs. Luciano
Los Hermanos (Live)
Luke Hess (Live)
Lusine
Marc “MK” Kinchen & Scotty Deep (Live)
Marco Carola
Mieka du Franx
Mike Clark
Mike Huckaby
Neil Landstrumm (Live)
Nic Fanciulli
Nikola Baytala
Norm Talley
Octave One (Live)
Osunlade
Rick Wade
RJD2
Ryan Elliott
Seoul vs Linder 2×4
Seth Troxler
Shaun Reeves
Starski & Clutch
Steve Bug
The Glitch Mob (Live)
The Sight Below
Tiefschwarz
Tiga
Wighnomy Bros
Will Web
Z-Trip

Weekend Passes for Movement 2009

Discount presale Movement 2009 weekend passes are available for purchase at www.Paxahau.com for $40. The weekend passes give electronic music fans access to the festival from 12 noon to 12 midnight on May 23, 24, and 25, 2009.

The program will include three full days of concerts, seminars, demonstrations, and jam sessions. The scope of this festival is very broad, covering all aspects of electro-music: experimental electronic music, circuit bending, computer music, electro-jazz, modular synthesis, musique concrete, improvisation, algorithmic composition, multi-media, visual art and much more. The focus will be on participant involvement, sharing, community development, audience education, and great music.

The majority of the activities at electro-music 2009 will be contributions of members of electro-music.com, an international community of composers and musicians that share a passion for electro-music.

You can view video highlights of a previous event below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

You can actively participate in electro-music 2009 by performing music or visuals, giving a seminar, workshop, or demonstration, joining the jam sessions, or by volunteering to help with various tasks.

Details at the Electro-Music site.

This is an official Jean-Michel Jarre Souvenir of China, Oxygene – Concert Pékin.

via jeanmicheljarre

Image: mathotspot

In this fantastic shot, Blindoldfreak, aka NIN’s Alessandro Cortini, plays the Buchla 200e modular synthesizer.

Captured live at Oscar Peterson Hall 30.01.09.

Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Co

Mother Mallard presented its first concert in spring 1969. The group was founded by David Borden and has been recognized as the world’s first synthesizer ensemble. The first concert took place in Barnes Hall on the Cornell campus, and each piece on that concert was an Ithaca premiere, including a few by Morton Feldman and John Cage. The 40th anniversary concert will take place in Barnes Hall at 8 p.m. Sunday, March 29.

Three pieces will be given world premieres, with the featured work being Viola Farber in 7 Movements with live video showing Farber’s dancing and choreography both as a soloist and with her company. In addition, a section from Borden’s The Continuing Story of Counterpoint, composed in 1979, will receive its first performance. And finally, a piece honoring Jimmy Giuffre, the gifted jazz composer and clarinetist/saxophonist will be premiered. Giuffre was Borden’s first composition teacher who died last April at the age of 87.

Performing on this concert will be keyboardists David Yearsley, Blaise Bryski, Josh Oxford and David Borden, with Gabriel Borden on electric guitar. Live video is by Noni Korf Vidal and Franck Vidal.

The concert is free and open to the public. Visit music.cornell.edu or call 255-4760 for more information.

Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Company

Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Co. was formed in 1969 in Ithaca, NY as an ensemble dedicated to performing music not heard in the Ithaca area. It performed pieces by Robert Ashley, John Cage, Terry Riley, Philip Glass, Steve Reich and others. In less than a year, it developed into a live synthesizer ensemble, considered to be the first one in the world.

The group performed their own pieces for an RMI Electric Piano, three modular Moogs and two MiniMoogs, including the prototype which is now on display at the Audities Foundation at the Chinook Keyboard Centre in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

The Prodigy are prepping a full arena tour in April in the UK and May in the US.

Here are the dates that have been announced:

04/05 – Cardiff International Arena
04/06 – Newcastle Metro Radio Arena
04/07 – Glasgow SECC
04/09 – Birmingham NIA
04/10 – Manchester MEN Arena
04/11 – Nottingham Trent FM Arena
04/13 – Sheffield Arena
04/14 Brighton Centre
04/16 London Wembley Arena
04/17 London Wembley Arena

05/18 – 9:30 Club – Washington, DC
05/19 – Electric City – Philadelphia, PA
05/20 – House of Blues – Boston, MA
05/22 – The Filmore – Detroit, MI
05/23 – Congress Theater – Chicago, IL
05/26 – The Grove – Anaheim, CA
05/27 – Hollywood Paladium – Los Angeles, CA
05/28 – Warfield Theatre – San Francisco, CA
05/30 – WAMU Theatre – Seattle, WA

Tanner Menard, Antenna Gallery and Experimedia Records plan to present Sommeil: Concert for Sleep in New Orleans on April 11-12.

Sommeil will be an all-night event beginning at 10:00 pm on Saturday, April 11th, and ending on Sunday, April 12th, at 7:00 am. Participants are asked to slowly fall asleep while live ambient and environmental music is performed through the night by Tanner Menard.

Sommeil: Concert for Sleep will be Menard’s reinterpretation of the sleep concert experiment, first created by Robert Rich in 1982. It will be presented at the Antenna Gallery, 3161 Burgundy St., New Orleans, LA 70117, in he heart of the St Claude Arts District. The concert will be realized with Rich ’s permission and guidance.

Sounds like this could be an awesome evening. Details below.

Sleep concerts are all-night events in which the audience is asked to attend the concert with a sleeping bag and pillow and to fall asleep while slowly unfolding sonic texture evolves over he course of the night and into the morning. People attending the event are asked to be willing to sleep during the event or at least to remain silent during the course of the nine hour experience.

Not merely a recreation of Rich’s original idea, Sommeil is a conceptual, global remix of a performance type that addresses one of the most basic functionalities of ambient and environmental sound; music by which to sleep.

In the spirit of remix and the Creative Commons movement, Menard, Louisiana native, has compiled submissions of audio material for the concert from nearly seventy artists across the globe. These artists answered a call for submissions marketed online by Experimedia Records which asked for music and field recordings to be used, remixed and mashed up during this nocturnal event.

Submissions include drones, found sound, recordings of natural and unnatural environments and synthetic music created on synthesizers and computers. Submitters have included radio scientists, geologists, psychologists, sound artists, musicians, composers, installation artists as well as several well-known figures in the ambient music scene.

During the course of the evening, Menard will remix these sleep submissions into a constantly evolving sonic texture that will lull the audience to sleep. Quad-channel surround sound system will be provided by Piety St Studios for maximum sonic enhancement of the sleep space and ambient video lighting will be provided in the form of a video loop by the internationally acclaimed VJ HIKA. Experimedia Records has  agreed to release multiple out takes from this concert on its internet label under a free Creative Commons license.

Sommeil: Concert for Sleep will be nine hours of uninterrupted music beginning at 10:00 pm on Saturday April 11th and ending at 7:00 am on Sunday April 12th at Antenna Gallery. Tickets to the evening event will be $15 and will include a light breakfast at waking time.

During the day of April 11th, Antenna Gallery will be opening the space to allow people who do not wish to sleep through the night to hear the original submissions from the international community of artists. Organizers are asking $5 per hour to experience the meditative environment of the sleep space and $3 per half an hour from noon to 9:00 pm on Saturday April 11th.

Information via Ephemeral Radio

Kicking off in Toronto on July 24th, the band’s 22-city North American tour will cover both the US and Canada. Tickets for select markets are set to go on sale on March 13th.

Depeche Mode’s tour is happening in conjunction with the release of the group’s twelfth studio album, Sounds Of the Universe.

Cities and dates for the group’s 2009 North American concert tour are:

• Friday, July 24th (Toronto)
• Saturday, July 25th (Montreal)
• Tuesday, July 28th (Washington, DC)
• Friday, July 31st (Boston)
• Saturday, August 1st (Atlantic City)
• Monday, August 3rd (New York)
• Monday, August 10th (Seattle)
• Wednesday, August 12th (San Francisco)
• Friday, August 14th (San Diego)
• Sunday, August 16th (Los Angeles)
• Monday, August 17th (Los Angeles)
• Thursday, August 20th (Santa Barbara)
• Saturday, August 22nd (Las Vegas)
• Sunday, August 23rd (Phoenix)
• Tuesday, August 25th (Salt Lake City)
• Thursday, August 27th (Denver)
• Saturday, August 29th (Dallas)
• Sunday, August 30th (Houston)
• Tuesday, Sept 1st (Atlanta)
• Friday, Sept 4th (Tampa)
• Saturday, Sept 5th (Ft. Lauderdale)

Still no Vince Clarke, though.

February 17 – 22, 2009
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN.

If you’re a Twitter user, you can follow the events on Twitter.

Details below.

Douglas Geers & Ali Momeni, Artistic Directors
J. Anthony Allen, Producer
Phillip O’Toole, Technical Director
James P Hunglemann, Nightlife Curator

2009 Featured Artists

STEIM
STEIM (the studio for electro-instrumental music) is the only independent live electronic music centre in the world that is exclusively dedicated to the performing arts. The foundation’s artistic and technical departments supports an international community of performers and musicians, and a growing group of visual artists, to develop unique instruments for their work. STEIM invites these people for residencies and provides them with an artistic and technical environment in which concepts can be given concrete form. It catalyzes their ideas by providing critical feedback grounded in professional experience. These new creations are then exposed to a receptive responsive niche public at STEIM before being groomed for a larger audience.

STEIM – 40 years in live electronic arts by Takuro Mizuta Lippit / Artistic Director of STEIM

For the last forty years STEIM, STudio for Electro-Instrumental Music, Amsterdam has been the leading institution in research, development and facilitating live electronic music and arts. Many unique instruments and tools have been created over the years; Blackbox Modular Synth System, Crackle Box, SensorLab, The Hands, LiSa and JunXion are just to name a few. STEIM has also functioned as an active hub of ideas and people, becoming a safe house for an international community. Today, STEIM continues to support artists through it’s artist in residency program, educational program and concert series.

This presentation will introduce the general history of STEIM and it’s work method through various examples of artists and projects. Recent activities will also be presented as well as the challenges that the institution faced in 2008.
Visit the STEIM website…

Kanta Horio
Kanta Horio studied acoustics and sound art at the Kyushu Institute of Design in Fukuoka, Japan. He present audio performance using physical phenomena with electronic devices, kinetic objects, and assorted self-built gadgets. In recent presentations he has explored installations too. He has performed widely both internationally and throughout Japan. Alongside his performance activities, he organizes some unique events such as “dorkbot tokyo – people doing strange things with electricity”.
Visit Kanta Horio’s website…

David Wessel
David Wessel studied mathematics and experimental psychology at the University of Illinois and received a doctorate in mathematical psychology from Stanford in 1972. His work on the perception and compositional control of timbre in the early 70’s at Michigan State University led to a musical research position at IRCAM in Paris in 1976. In 1979 he began reshaping the Pedagogy Department to link the scientific and musical sectors of IRCAM. In 1985 he established a new IRCAM department devoted to the development of interactive musical software for personal computers. In 1988 he began his current position as Professor of Music at the University of California, Berkeley where he is Director of CNMAT. He is particularly interested in live-performance computer music where improvisation plays an essential role.
Visit David Wessel’s website…

Douglas Ewart
The kaleidoscopic talent of Douglas Ewart has expressed itself in so many forms–instruments that double as sculptures, music that combines the traditions of four continents with fresh inventions, masks and costumes fit for rituals ominous or joyous, death-defying improvisations combining master musicianship and acting-that the whole might be mistaken for the work of a small culture rather than one man.
Visit Douglas Ewart’s website…

Puzzleweasel
Puzzleweasel is the sonic output of Peter Dahlgren. Originally swedish, the puzzleweasel was brought up around europe in Zürich, Amsterdam and Stockholm and now resides in Aarhus, Denmark. Where he started churning out his music in 2001. Fueled by years of dance floor attendance at raves and jungle/ dnb venues he started sculpting away at his intricate take on beat programming. Quickly getting recognition for his uncompromising sound and overwhelming presence on stage.
Visit Puzzleweasel’s website…

Wafaa Bilal
Iraqi artist Wafaa Bilal is a professor at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. He has exhibited his art world wide, and traveled and lectured extensively to inform audiences of the situation of the Iraqi people, and the importance of peaceful conflict resolution. Bilal’s dynamic installation Domestic Tension placed him in front of a paintball gun which people could shoot at him over the internet, 24 hours a day. The month-long piece spurred online debates and intense conversations, garnering the praise of the Chicago Tribune, which called it “one of the sharpest works of political art to be seen in a long time” and named him Artist of the Year in 2007. Newsweek called it “breathtaking.” But it is the resulting dialogue that Bilal seeks, as an artist who feels he does not have the privilege to create work that is not political. In the face of a war that stretches on, the 2004 deaths of his brother and father, the violence in his own history, Bilal seeks to imbue his audiences with a sense of empowerment that comes from hope in the enduring potential of humanity. In fall 2008 City Lights published “Shoot an Iraqi: Life, Art and Resistance Under the Gun,” about Bilal’s life and the Domestic Tension project.
Visit Wafaa Bila’s website…

Ray Lee
UK sound artist Ray Lee’s bewitching sonic sculptures become an extraordinary choir that produces mesmerizing drones and whirls of light in a carefully shaped hourlong sound /theatrical performance. An indescribable experience, Siren incorporates 30 large metal tripods at varying heights with rotating arms that generate electronic tones. In near darkness, two performers set each arm in motion, building a dramatic, immersive spectacle of choreographed movement, light, and sound while the audience is free to roam the McGuire stage. Siren was a hit of the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Visit Ray Lee’s webite…

Pole
Although you won’t find his name in their catalog, Stefan Betke has been closely associated with the Berlin-based Basic Channel label and BC artists such as Maurizio, Monolake, and Vainqueur. Like those artists’ bassy, dub-laden reductions of techno and house, Betke’s work (appearing so far on the Kiff SM, Din, and Mute labels under the name Pole) has been all about doing more with less — snaps, clicks, crackles, and smudgy bass atmospheres occupy the whole of Pole 12- inches such as “Tanzen” and “Raum Eins/Raum Zwei,” as well as Betke’s aptly titled series of CD releases issued by Kiff and distributed to American audiences by Matador. Where most Basic Channel releases cling fearlessly to the throbbing momentum of 4/4 minimalism, however, Betke draws complex, intricate rhythms from the crisp analog haze, layering rich, ghosted melodies over multitracked tape hiss and a barrage of syncopated skips and stutters. Betke’s nom de plum derives, as usual, from a sound- processing device — the Waldorf 4 Pole-Filter, from which issue the strained creaks and crackles that identify and characterize his music.

Speedy J
Jochem Paap, aka Speedy J, is a Rotterdam-based techno musician whose polished blend of melodious electro-pop with a harder, more Detroit- fueled edge has been among the most highly-praised of post-rave European techno. The Dutch rep in Richie “Plastikman” Hawtin’s Plus 8 label, Paap was equally well-known as a club DJ (his nom de record is in reference to his prowess on the cut) before deciding in 1997 to curtail his DJ engagements and focus on his music. His 1993 debut LP, Ginger, was an engaging blend of ambient textures and hard, crisp beats, and was immediately smacked with the “intelligent dance music” tag, aided by the inclusion of a pair of tracks on the first volume of Warp’s influential (Artificial Intelligence) series. Paap has since released several follow-ups under the Speedy J moniker (G-Spot, Public Energy No. 1, A Shocking Hobby) and two solo albums in an ambient series for Fax titled Vrs-Mbnt-Pcs 9598 (just re-insert the missing vowels for a quick translation). He’s also recorded a scattering of material as Public Energy for Plus 8, as well as for his own Beam Me Up! label before discontinuing the latter in 1996.

Guerino Mazzola
Author of over ten books and over 90 papers in the fields of Arithmetic, Topology, Category Theory, Algebraic Geometry, Mathematical Music Theory, Brain Research, Computergraphics in the Arts, Performance Theory, Computer Musicology. Mazzola is an internationally recognized jazz pianist. Production of several LPs and CDs; composition grants of the City of Z¸rich. Extensive tours as a jazz pianist in Europe, USA, Corea, Japan, Indonesia, and Mexico.

Scott Pagano
Scott Pagano is a filmmaker, motion designer and spatial reconstructionist. He is a leading edge exemplar of the current digital vanguard reinventing the fine art as well as pop art worlds. He is a visionary and acclaimed Creator Director and Designer in the interactive visual storytelling arts that are being more and more demanded by feature film and video gaming audiences. His motion art works and music videos have been screened in venues ranging from, movie theaters, fine art galleries, international film and music festivals, and MTV. Working with some of the most innovative artists in the Music and Film worlds, Scott has created abstract and conventional digital artworks that push the boundaries of audio- visual composition and process combining a dynamic mix of cinematographic and synthetic imagery. The narratives streaming in his video artworks lay the foundation for the storytelling of a new age.

Keir Neuringer
Born in New York in 1976, KEIR NEURINGER is active as an improvising saxophonist, a composer of electronic and acoustic music, and a vocal performer. His output ranges from pulse-based electronic music, through free jazz and experimental electroacoustic improvisation, to notated compositions for contemporary classical ensembles. He also writes texts and makes videos and installations critical of the destructive behavior of the dominant culture. In 1999 he moved to Europe and spent ten years, during which time he was a Fulbright scholar at the Academy of Music in Kraków and a master’s degree graduate of The Hague’s experimental interdisciplinary ArtScience Institute. It was during these ten years that he cultivated a personal and intensely physical approach to solo saxophone performance that both honors and eschews many diverse music-making traditions. He also cleaned offices, worked as an undocumented helper at a children’s daycare center, and curated the audiovisual program at contemporary art platform <>TAG. Keir Neuringer collaborates with a wide and undefined network of musicians, including Rafal Mazur, Ensemble Klang, Joel Ryan, DJ Sniff, Carlos Iturralde and Matt Bauder. He has performed and exhibited works in the US, Mexico, Israel, Turkey, South Africathroughout Europe. He lives in New York.

Also Featuring:

Danceband, Second Life Avatar Orchestra, Beatrix*JAR, and many more!

This video captures a long section of an Alessandro Cortini BlindOldFreak show, live in Toronto in February, 2009.

If you’ve been to any of the BlindOldFreak shows, leave a comment and let us know what you thought of the show and if this video is representative of the show you attended!

Ferry Corsten kicks off his US tour tomorrow, starting in Atlanta and ending up, at the end of the month, in New York.

Tour Dates:

• 2/5 Atlanta, GA – Opera
• 2/6 Houston, TX – Bar Rio
• 2/7 Washington, DC – Glow at Fur
• 2/20 San Antonio, TX – Bar Rio
• 2/21 Dallas, TX – Lizard Lounge
• 2/23 New Orleans, LA – Ampersand
• 2/24 Orlando, FL – Tabu
• 2/25 Tampa, FL – The Kennedy
• 2/26 Boston, MA – The Roxy
• 2/27 Detroit, MI – Bleu
• 2/28 New York, NY – Webster Hall