Scanner’s ‘The Phonogene Sisters’

Scanner (Robin Rimbaud) shared this video, The Phonogene Sisters, “In anticipation of a special release of a radical remix album of his album with Anni HoganScanni.”

Here’s what Rimbaud has to say about the technical details of the track:

I let the machines have their evil way again.

This time I extensively used the Make Noise Phonogene in a very simple patch, alongside the Endorphin es Furthrrr Generator biting and easing its way into the soundscape.

Despite the scale of the visual set up what you are hearing is remarkably simple, with the Cwejman DMF-2 and Three Sisters filters gently massaging the sounds. The Xoac Batumi is moving the sliced audio in the Phonogene and it’s all happily mixed into the Intellijel Linix and Mutamix.

7 thoughts on “Scanner’s ‘The Phonogene Sisters’

  1. I wanted to like this, but I’ve yet to hear something from the modular world that is equally amazing as what the gear itself looks like. The video was stunning. The wall of gear is something I might only be able to screen cap and lust after… but the sound – that has yet to impress me. I’m not saying that I don’t respect the effort that was involved by the artist in the video – there’s no doubt skill was involved – but maybe I have set my expectations too high for what a wall of gear that cost more than most high-end vehicles cost should sound like. I’ll admit, it’s most likely me.

    1. HI Lux

      Sorry to disappoint you there but the work is making no great claims for itself. As I wrote it’s very simple and that was the point of it. I could have moved those few modules out into a smaller case to demonstrate the flexibility of options of using just a handful of modules but it didn’t feel absolutely necessary to be honest.

      As for the skills I can’t comment on that but the musical results, whether they appeal or not, came from the almost chance encounter of several machines having a fun conversation with each other, more like a chat than a major speech 😀

      As for the gear it can indeed offer up a heavily complex wild sonic adventure but I’m much more of a minimalist so am drawn to reduction rather than maxing it all out. So many amazing modules offer so many options it’s such fun and for me that’s the key joy of such creative tools. No screen, no four bar rules, etc. Such a freedom offers such a joy.

      1. I listened to this while writing some code this afternoon, and it was the perfect sonic backdrop for my mood. Ultimately, that’s what art is about — it has to fit a moment in time. My thought at the end was simple. “I enjoyed that.” Thanks.

        The wonder of modular systems is that they make it very easy for machines to interact with and influence other machines — it’s not like in the 1980s and 1990s, where we were forced to have heavily quantized one way conversations with a stack of synths and maybe a 909.

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