Supercollider 140 is a free album of Twitter music – audio pieces composed of Twitter-sized snippets of SuperCollider code.

It started as a curious project, when live coding enthusiast and Toplap member Dan Stowell started tweeting tiny snippets of musical code using SuperCollider. Pleasantly surprised by the reaction, and “not wanting this stuff to vanish into the ether” he has recently collated the best pieces into a special download for The Wire’s online readership here.

Many of these pieces are actually generative, so if you re-run the source code (the track titles) you get a new piece of music.

The compositions are self-referentially named, with titles like:

{LocalOut.ar(a=CombN.ar(BPF.ar(LocalIn.ar(2)
*7.5+Saw.ar([32,33],0.2),2**LFNoise0.kr(4/3,4)*
300,0.1).distort,2,2,40));a}.play//#supercollider

Tweet that and put it in your SuperCollider!

You can preview the album below, or download it at the Internet Archive:

Detailed artist biographies for the composers are available at The Wire.

via SuperCollider

Free Music Friday: Have you had your recommended daily supply of free music yet today?

If not, click on the “Listen” link at the top of the page or click right here and check out the hundreds of tracks that Synthtopia readers have uploaded.

There is a ton of great music, and you can download hundreds of tracks, too.

Check it out every time you visit; there’s always something new. You can even keep listening after you leave!

And if you want to share your music with Synthtopia readers, upload your tracks via SoundCloud.

Image: lyzadanger

We’ve been pretty easy with you lately with our music video selections – but this video may have you running for the sanitary eye wash.

Cotton Museum’s Pus Pustules video promo is sort of NSFA (not safe for anywhere/anyone).

It appears to have been filmed in Disgust-o-rama. Appreciation of this video style is probably limited to fans of David Lynch’s Eraserhead. But it’s got a”throbbing cesspool” of electronic sound.

Here’s what those responsible for Pus Pustules have to say for themselves:

“PUS PUSTULES” is one of the most diseased COTTON MUSEUM recordings to date.

Clocking in at 21 minutes on side A, adorned with with a detailed etching of sickly beasts on side B and a five color silk screened album cover designed by Chris Pottinger. Theremin, Synth, and other odd electronic instruments create a bubbling cesspool of rotting sounds that leak from your stereo speakers like a cancerous sludge. Take a trip through a strange world where you can hear these sickly beasts devouring corpses while insects sting their bodies, leaving them covered with infected welts.

Cotton Museum is a solo electronic noise project from visual artist Chris Pottinger that has been performing for the past seven years.

Limited edition of 400 hand numbered copies, black vinyl with thick chipboard album cover.

Yum!

More info at TastySoil.com

This set of videos features Richard Devine demonstrating the techniques that he and Josh Kay used in capturing sounds for the sample kit Richard Devine – The Electronic Music Manuscript.

Click here to view the embedded video.

via Nonima1984:

I do not own copyright to this video, but I have uploaded it to generate interest in Richard Devine’s samples and for Richard Devine fans.

Raul Pena’s The Making of Raul’s World of Synths is a short documentary, created as a school project, that outlines Pena’s process for creating his synthesizer podcast, Raul’s World Of Synths.

via raulsworldofsynths:

All titles,motion graphics, video editing, audio editing, music composition, audio mixing,writing, and “acting”(?) by myself Raul Pena III.

My girlfriend helped by doing all the camerawork and emotional support.

All copyrights on materials held by myself.

Maurice Alexis Jarre was born Sept. 13, 1924, in Lyon, France. He studied music at the Paris Conservatory, where his teachers included the Swiss composer Arthur Honegger, the timpanist Félix Passerone and Joseph Martenot, the inventor of an electronic keyboard, a predecessor of the synthesizer.

Jarre married four times; he is survived by his wife, Fong, whom he married in 1984. Other survivors include two sons, synthesist Jean-Michel, and Kevin, a screenwriter; and a daughter, Stéfanie. Though Mr. Jarre had lived in the United States for decades, the president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, issued a statement after his death, calling Mr. Jarre “a great composer” who, by working in film, “broadened the public for symphonic music.”

“He showed everyone that music is just as important as images for the beauty and success of a film,” said French President Nicolas Sarkoz.

While Jarre’s son Jean-Michel Jarre is better known for his synthesizer music, Maurice Jarre helped pioneer the use of synthesizers in film soundtracks.

Here’s a segment from the German dub of Witness, 1984, that demonstrates Jarre’s use of synths in soundtracks:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Maurice Jarre’s electronic scores included:

• After Dark My Sweet
• Apology
• Dreamscape
• Enemy Mine
• Fatal Attraction
• Firefox
• Ghost
• Gorillas in the Mst
• No Way Out
• Witness

• Caption This Photo!
  Posted on Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 in Strange – Comments: (14)
  OK – who’s got the best caption for this?
• Yamaha SY77 Synthesizer
  Posted on Thursday, March 12th, 2009 in Keyboard Synthesizers – Comments: (7)
  This is an audio demo of the Yamaha SY77 Synthesizer.
• The Emu Emulator II
  Posted on Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 in Keyboard Synthesizers – Comments: (6)
  The E-mu Emulator II was E-mu’s second sampler, released in 1984.
• Will Apple “Crowdsource” DJing?
  Posted on Friday, March 13th, 2009 in DJ – Comments: (5)
  Apple has released a new version of iTunes, and it looks like they’re working on “crowdsourcing” DJing.
• Karl Bartos: German Traditionalism In Kraftwerk’s Music
  Posted on Friday, March 13th, 2009 in Electronic Musicians – Comments: (5)
  Quietus has an interesting interview with Kraftwerk’s Karl Bartos. One of the most interesting sections of the interview looks at traditionalism in Kraftwerk’s music:

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This is the first section of Discovering Electronic Music, a vintage look at electronic music production from 1983.

If you have any more information on the Discovery Electronic Music video, leave a comment!

Parts 2 & 3 below.  

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Director / Writer Bernard Wilets
Barr Films, Padadena, Calif – 1983

via takenae:

Discovering Electronic Music (Remix)

via slvrsrfrm:

Footage from an early 1980s documentary on electronic music, Discovering Electronic Music.

I simply added new audio, keeping only the vocal samples for use. All the music was created to sync with the video.

The video features some great vintage electronic music video and images, and fun vocoding effects, too.

Promo for a new movie about the life a DJ in the Berlin electronic music scene, Berlin Calling.

Berlin electronic music composer Martin (Paul Kalkbrenner), known as DJ Ickarus, is touring with his manager and girlfriend Mathilde (Rita Lengyel) from club to club around the globe and is about to release their biggest album to date. However, his plans are thrown out of kilter after Ickarus is submitted to the emergency ward of a psychiatric clinic high on drugs after a gig.

From the director of One Day in Europe (Berlinale 2005 in Official Competition) and Berlin is in Germany (Berlinale 2001 Panorama Audience Award) Hannes Stöhr.

Music by Paul Kalkbrenner (Bpitchcontrol)

Worldpremiere:
Filmfestival Locarno Piazza Grande 08.08.2008
German Cinema Release 02. Oktober 2008 
More Info: www.berlin-calling.de

Der Berliner Elektro Komponist Martin (Paul Kalkbrenner), genannt DJ Ickarus, tourt mit seiner Managerin und Freundin Mathilde (Rita Lengyel) durch die Tanzclubs der Welt und sie stehen kurz vor ihrer größten Albumveröffentlichung. Als Ickarus jedoch nach einem Auftritt im Drogenrausch in eine Berliner Nervenklinik eingeliefert wird, kommen alle Pläne durcheinander — Eine Tragikomödie im Berlin von heute.

Vom Regisseur von “One Day in Europe” (Berlinale 2005, Offizieller Wettbewerb) und “Berlin is in Germany “(Berlinale 2001 Panorama Publikumspreis) Hannes Stöhr.

Musik von Paul Kalkbrenner (Bpitchcontrol)

Worldpremiere:
Filmfestival Locarno Piazza Grande 08.08.2008
Deutscher Kinostart 02. Oktober 2008 
More Info: www.berlin-calling.de

Phileas describes it as an electronic music celebration of human diversity through speech and language.

Phileas spent three years wandering the globe collecting voice samples in more than 30 languages.

Phileas has been experimenting with human speech for 10 years, since working for LOT, a Peruvian theatre company that focused on spoken word performances. In his music, the voice is used just as others might use an instrument: the meaning of the words is less important than the sound that they make.

Citing influences as diverse as Jean Michel Jarre, Kraftwerk & Daft Punk, Phileas says Spoken Wor(l)d “is a positive message about the diversity and similarity of the people of this world”.

You can preview the album at Phileas’ site.

I wanted to make a library that would be useful for many different people. I was aiming for sound designers, composers working in Film/TV, radio, video games, and electronic music. I tried to create some really unique material that could be used in a loop format with ACID and Apple Loops, but also include single shot and Battery kits for those who want to program and manipulate the sounds on a more detailed level.

We recorded lots of strange instruments like the Water phones, Tibetan Singing Bowls, Talking Drums, Space Phones, Thunder Drums and Wooden Log Drums. We also recorded a small collection of Indian Pan Flutes, Bamboo Flutes, Ocarina’s and several Didgeridoo’s that I got in Australia. Some of favorite recordings came from the African Finger Pianos. We did a whole bunch of sessions doing prepared Finger Pianos. I have about 12 different ones that we recorded doing all sorts of strange stuff to. We would take a very John Cage approach to experimenting and getting new sounds out of these instruments. Sometime Hammering nails into the wood and using Magnets, Rubber Bands, Paper clips, wires, and small mechanical motors to play onto the metal tongs. You would be amazed at some of the variety of sounds we got. We did a 4-day recording session of my old Kurtzman grand piano, which was amazing. We placed the Water phone on top of the Piano Strings and played the water phone with a Violin bow, and let the metal bowel resonate into the chamber of the piano. It was a super creepy sound. All of these recordings made it into the final library. I was really happy with how this all turned out.

Lots of samples and demos from the library at the Sony site.

DJ Jez sends word about an electronic music show he does for 216Productions with several other electronic music DJs.

Musique Non Suck : All Electronic Radio features a weekly DJ mix of electronic music. The DJ’s influences range from Jean-Michel Jarre to Eno to Soft Cell – so you won’t know what to expect until you give it a listen.
Here’s their description for what they do:

Every show is compiled by a different DJ, so there is a large variety of electronic music in every style imaginable played on Musique Non Suck. Each DJ has their own history in music in some form or another… The majority of us are artists ourselves which tends to aid in the knowledge of what has been, is, & will be in the electronic music scene… We cannot however, find or play it all… We are always excited to get tips from listeners, music or links to downloads from musicians/bands and any other feedback our listeners may have… You may contact us individually if an email address is offered by the DJ or contact can be made via the general address titled ‘contact’ to the left…

You can listen at the site – look for the “Play” button on the left-hand side.

Microscopics is the label of Mat Jarvis, aka “Gas”, who had a cult electronic music hit with his CD Gas 0095, on the EM:T label.

Here’s info from the label on Gas 0095:

This first release on the new Microscopics label has been painstakingly remastered at 32bit/96khz with a luxurious 32db dynamic range, which in these days of hyper-compressed music is pure oxygen.

The album prompted one reviewer to predict ‘ It will be at the forefront of labels offering slot-in brain cards as accessories to the listening experience’, and another to exclaim ‘…will surely go down in history for being as important as the albums of Eno were in the 70s’.

Gas generates shapeshifting melodic soundtracks suggesting a near future of soft technology and extremes of miniaturisation: an imaginary, detailed world of molecular machines, where cybersurgeons crawl inside arteries to effect repairs. Here the flipside of miniaturization is revealed: technology you inhale, the ultimate interface [and the high of the future?]. Breathe deep.

This fan video gives a taste of what to expect with the music on Gas 0095:

The first single from the album, the 10 minute Gas – Microscopic, is available as a free MP3 (below).

The release is available as an instant download. The “ultra hi-fi” version includes the music and a booklet, plus postcard, bookmark and the ultra rare ‘Time Recording Guide to Particle Physics’.

Circuit bending is the process of creatively short-circuiting cheap electronic devices such as guitar effects, children’s toys and synthesizers to create new musical instruments and sound generators.

If you’re not familiar with it, you might want to check out this short preview for the circuit bending documentary by Derek Sajbel. The video features Q.R. Ghazala, Nebula Girl, The Shinths, Daedelus, Dave Wright, Cynthia and music by Venetian Snares. It was compiled of footage shot during 2003 (4 years and shooting) of answers to the question “What is Circuit Bending?”

It’s geektacular, it’s DIY and, sometimes, it’s even musical.

The series premieres with an interview with Barry Schrader, a leading composer of electro-acoustic music whose work is recorded on the Innova label.

This podcast is presented in conjunction with the Barry Schrader: Soundworld concert celebrating Schrader’s 60th birthday at REDCAT on February 22nd, as well as the forthcoming release of Schrader’s new CD Fallen Sparrow on Innova.

In conjunction with the Alive and Composing series and Schrader’s interview, Blackburn has started the Composers Forum Group on GATHER. This group will function as a discussion group on new music and also allow listeners to communicate with composers featured in the Alive and Composing podcasts on iTunes.

Schrader’s compositions for electronics, dance, film, video, mixed media, live/electro-acoustic music combinations, and real-time computer performance have been presented throughout the world. He has received recognition in the form of grants, awards, and commissions, from numerous organizations and has recently been awarded a Copland Grant through Innova Recordings.

To subscribe to the Alive and Composing podcast, add this feed URL to your podcast client:
http://acfmusic.org/innova/podcasts/xml/showinfo.xml

If you are not familiar with podcasting, a good starting point is the article What is Podcasting? at Podcasting News.

UniversumKiosk

The sound libraries were created in cooperation with the Institute of Sonology, Royal Conservatory The Hague.

The libaries are available in Kontakt II, EXS 24MKII, Reason, Gig 3.0 and Mach 5 formats for US $60 each.

Descriptions:

Sonic Sorcery Sounds Vol.1: Bea 5

The sounds for this volume where produced in studio Bea5, the voltage controlled studio at the Institute for Sonology in The Hague, Netherlands.

This is a modular studio, with great historical value. The studio is fully operational, and only accessible to sonology students and sonologists. The sound quality of the modules in the studio is unique and many modules were build within the institute itself.

The material was recorded from the studio’s patch board using an ADDA 2402 convertor by Digital Audio Danmark into Pro Tools software. The results were edited and processed with a digidesign TDM mix system, and various DSP plugins.

The Institute for Sonology is concerned with the production of music as well as with research into the properties of sounds and sound- structures, with the aid of electronic and electroacoustic means.

Sonic Sorcery Sounds Volume 2: Digital Different

This set was realized using various techniques in the digital domain; from simple time domain editing and plug-in chaining to granular synthesis and spectral manipulation.

This libary was also made in close cooperation with the Institure of Sonology, Royal Conservatory The Hague.

More information and demos are available at the UniversumKiosk site.

Known as podcasting (named after broadcasting + iPod, though not associated with Apple in any way), this new means of transmitting audio files allows you to subscribe to a “channel” and have their programs automatically download onto your computer whenevr new programs are made available. You can listen to these programs on your computer.

However, most people who subscribe to podcasts have their computers sync with their portable MP3 Players, be it an iPod or any other type. Like Tivo for television, podcast programs are stored on your hard drive for listening at your convenience, on-demand.

EMUSIC Podcast #1 is now available and #2 is ready to go very soon.

Visit the EMUSIC home page for links to:

• The RSS News Feed to get news from me about EMUSIC
• The EMUSIC Podcasting channel

Use your favorite news aggregating software to get the news and podcasts. Use your favorite podcasting software to subscribe to the EMUSIC Podcasting channel.

For information about RSS news feeds and podcasting, check Podcasting News.

Most of the work that Schrader presents here is entirely electronic. One piece, Dance from the Outside, combines electronic timbres with music concrete sound manipulation. Schrader does not discuss his techniques or tools, suggesting that the tracks should speak for themselves. In his liner notes, Schrader argues that “The various technologies behind the compositions on this CD…are…of little or no importance to the value of the music presented. I hope that the listener will simply accept these works for what they are: forays into musical invention and explorations of the world of sound.”

Schrader is a long-time advocate of electro-acoustic music, as an educator, author and composer. Schrader is also the founder and the first president of SEAMUS, the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States.

Electro-acoustic music is a term used to describe a broad range of modern classical electronic music. It often explores the interaction of natural and electronically generated sounds and effects. As a musical genre, electro-acoustic is sort of a catch-all term. As electronica is used to refer to any pop electronic music, electro-acoustic is often used to refer to any electronic music in the classical tradition.

With EAM, Schrader delivers a set of interesting and exciting pieces. The works showcase Schrader’s skill at creating music that carries on the experimental tradition of classical electronic music, while still managing to be immediately accessible.

The first work featured on the CD, Bachahama, reworks the music of Bach with synthesizers, but won’t be mistaken for a Switched-On version. Schrader arranges the originals with imitative electronic timbres, but that doesn’t seem to be the focus of this piece. He also uses the compositional capabilities offered by electronics to reshape the lines of the music, and to evolve the sound of individual voices over time.

The piece draws upon two works of Bach that will be familiar to fans of classical music: the C-Minor Fugue from The Well Tempered Clavier; and the Air on the G String. Schrader creates a fast-slow-fast form by sandwiching the Air between two takes on the Fugue. In the Fugue, Schrader arranges it with percussive harpsichord-like timbres that lull the listener into expecting traditional Bach. Schrader then begins to shift notes in time, and tone clusters begin to jump out of the stream of traditional counterpoint, punctuating the fact that this is a modern reinterpretation. In the middle section, the lyrical Air is also arranged with traditional-sounding tones, but they evolve over time in ways impossible with traditional instruments.

Bachahama serves as a fitting introduction to the music on the CD. The rhythms and textures of this piece, and others that Schrader presents here, have the feeling of a performance. They seem full of movement – they would be an ideal match for modern dance. With these pieces, Schrader embraces the experimental tradition of electro-acoustic music, but does not distance himself from the greater tradition of classical music.

The next piece, Ground, is based on the idea of an ostinato, or repeated figure, that continues throughout a piece. Schrader’s use of repeating material isn’t as static as many classical examples. Like traditional works, though, much of the interest in this piece is in how the composer weaves the figure into changing contexts, sometimes bringing it to the front, and sometimes disguising it.

Ground begins with a restrained expression of the figure. Schrader evolves the timbres of his voices, creating a sense of tension, and brings the piece to two clangorous climaxes before returning to the calm of the beginning.

Dance from the Outside combines pure electronic sounds and sampled, or music concrete, elements. The sampled elements add a more organic texture to this piece. Schrader contrasts breathy wind tones with percussive sounds. Some listeners may hear echoes of Otto Luening’s electro-acoustic flute pieces.

Still Lives is a set of five brief pieces. The first piece explores slowly evolving timbres. There’s no real melodic or harmonic movement, but the shifting tone color creates a feeling of constant change. The second piece is very polyrhythmic. Metallic, percussive sounds are added one after another, creating a texture that increases in complexity until the section ends in one climactic pop!

Schrader returns in the third piece to the slowly evolving textures of the first piece. The middle piece, though has a darker feel to it, because it uses more aggressive, discordant timbres. The fourth piece echoes the percussive feel of the second piece, but uses more drum-like sounds. The final piece again features slowly evolving textures, but also has a sense of foreground and background voices.

The last composition on the CD, Triptych, seems to sum up Schrader’s approach. It’s the longest of the works, with three main sections that run together continuously, lasting about twenty minutes altogether.

The piece has an overall slow – fast – slow form. Each section seems to focus primarily on one aspect of music: pitch, rhythm, or timbre. The first section explores slowly evolving timbres, and contrasts lyrical elements with harsher or piercing sounds. The second section is more rhythmic, and uses more traditional percussive sounds, including bell-like pitched sounds and drum tones. It alternates the melodic pitched sounds with driving tribal drum rhythms.

The final section explores changing electronic timbres, almost like an electro-acoustic parallel to Ravel’s Bolero. Schrader repeats a short musical phrase throughout the piece. With each repetition, the sounds used to voice the phrase change slightly, evolving from percussive tones to long, shifting tones.

With Triptych, Schrader starts with minimal material, yet creates a lengthy work that is full of interest, through variations in fundamental elements of music. His use of slowly evolving and changing timbres help give his work a unique voice.

With the works on EAM, Schrader balances the impulse to be experimental and original with a need to connect with the emotions and instincts of listeners. The result is music with lyricism, passion, rhythm and drive that makes music the master of technology. EAM is a must-have for electro-acoustic music fans.

Tracks:

• Bachahama
• Ground
• Dance from the Outside
• Still Life 1
• Still Life 2
• Still Life 3
• Still Life 4
• Still Life 5
• Triptych

The term electro-acoustic refers to a process that happens in any microphone or loudspeaker – sound is transformed into electrical signals, and then transformed from electrical form back to sound. This process is central to all electronic music, because it turns sound into something that can be shaped using electronics and computers.

As a musical genre, electro-acoustic is sort of a catch-all term. As electronica is used to refer to any pop electronic music, electro-acoustic is often used to refer to any electronic music in the classical tradition.

Electro-acoustic grew out of the pioneering work of experimental electronic musicians of the 1940’s and 1950’s, such as Pierre Schaeffer. Shaeffer created Musique Concrète, a style of music that anticipated the later rise of sampling. Schaeffer was interested in the idea of manipulating sound as a tangible object. He took tape recorded sounds and created a huge variety of effects through splicing, speed changes, looping and reversing them.

It also incorporates the tradition of the early synthesists, such as Edgar Varèse. Initially, electronically generated sounds were used as source materials for further tape manipulation. In the mid 1960’s, the emergence of modular synthesizers and computer-based sound manipulation allowed further control over the shaping of sound. Artists like Morton Subotnick explored using gestures to control sound, and combined electronics and synthesizers with acoustic instruments and even dance.

The term electro-acoustic has been adopted by many artists and organizations working in the world of classical electronic music. While the technology of electronic music is constantly changing, electro-acoustic artists continue to draw on the history of ideas pioneered by early electronic musicians.