Michel Waisvisz, leader of the STEIM foundation in Amsterdam since the early eighties, has died.
From the STEIM obituary:
Michel Waisvisz died peacefully in his home last night after fighting the mean cells in his body for the last eight months.
He was born on the 8th of July 1949 and lead STEIM as Director for 27 years. [...]

The Sound of eBay is a net art project by Ubermorgen that translates scraped eBay user data into electronica music.
Here’s an example - generated from eBay user basketofkittens:

 

 basketofkittens [2:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

howsthatsound has posted an interesting experimental track that explores using the iPod’s shuffle function to create chance music:

 

 iPod Improv [15:55m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tod Machover of MIT’s Media Lab is devoted to extending musical expression for everyone — from virtuosi to amateurs, and in the most diverse forms — from opera to videogames (Guitar Hero grew out of his group).
At TED2008, he talked about what’s coming next, from new tools for music creativity to the world’s first robotic [...]

Got a brain? Then you can make music!
At the UK Aldeburgh Festival, set for June 13-29, Norwegian composer Rolf Wallin is going to be demonstrating the latest brain music action.
This isn’t like controlling modular synthesizers with mind bullets, though.
According to the Telegraph, you simply “let a skilled assistant fasten electrodes to your head, relax and [...]

Music Thing’s Tom Whitnell put out the word that Steim - the Dutch experimental music organization behind the Cracklebox - needs help to avoid getting shut down by the man:
Steim is the Amsterdam-based electronic music lab best known around here for inventing the Cracklebox. They’ve done a great deal more - lots of work on [...]

Electro-Music - a forum & site focusing on electro-acoustic music, has announced electro-music 2008, a three day conference/music festival to be held at the Renaissance Center in Kingsport Tennessee, August 14 - 16, 2008.
The program will include lectures, demos, jam sessions, and concerts.
The scope of this festival is very broad, covering all aspects of electro-music, [...]

ixi audio is an experimental project concerned with the creation of free digital musical instruments and environments for generative music.
ixiQuarks is a software environment designed for live improvisation that allows for user interaction on hardware, GUI and code [...]

Remember Eboman’s car crash music?
Eboman specialises in the production of audiovisual sample compositions (which he calls Sample madnesS), the development of audiovisual sampling software and hardware and performances as a DVJ or with his SenSorSuit.
This is a compilation of clips of an Eboman performance in Utrecht in April 2008:
Guillermo uses the video drumkit to trigger [...]

The £50,000 PRS New Music Award has been given to the Fragmented Orchestra, a project designed to work in reflection of the neural functions of our brains.
The Fragmented Orchestra is a huge distributed musical structure modeled on the firing of neurons within the brain’s cortex. It is designed by its composers to perform a profound [...]

Check this out: The Sound of Touch is an instrument for real-time capture and physical stimulation of digital sound samples, using a specially constructed wand and any physical material.
The hand-held wand can be used to (1) record sound, then (2) brush, scrape, strike or otherwise physically manipulate this sound against physical objects.
These actions produce sound [...]

This promo video for Happy Crashing was made by Eboman, aka sampList.
Eboman specialises in the production of audiovisual sample compositions (which he calls Sample madnesS), the development of audiovisual sampling software and hardware and performances as a DVJ or with his SenSorSuit.
Here’s Eboman’s I Am Eboman:

The SenSorSuit is part of an audiovisual sampling system, called [...]

Dave Cornutt, an aerospace software engineer based in Huntsville, AL, is also an experimental electronic musician, as Source Code.
He blogs at Sequence 15, and has an interesting collection of free tracks that you can download from his site. With each of his pieces, he provides some information on the process and gear that he used [...]

 

 Maryland: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Another interesting electronic music festival is being held in Singapore:
Since January 2007, C.H.O.P.P.A. has been the only regular improvised music series in Singapore presenting monthly concerts showcasing the underbelly of the Singapore and regional music scenes and giving a forum for sound artists and musicians to present their work.
C.H.O.P.P.A. FESTIVAL 08 will mark 1 year [...]

Mick Grierson offers this video of his brain-controlled music interface in action:

“This video shows me demoing my initial Brain Computer Music Interface. There are many ways that I can improve this system (it’s still a bit slow at the moment), but I think it demonstrates the potential of the idea well enough. This video was [...]