#moogfest 2016

[djhoratioalger]

Moogfest Day Two - A Condensed Recap pt. 2

After spending a bit of downtime, I walked over to the Carolina Theater where I caught the performance of London based electronic DJ, Rival Consoles.  Displaying more of a straightforward IDM style, the music felt very similar to fellow UK electronic musician Clark.  Although I’d consider myself a pretty big fan of Clark, I really wasn’t wowed by the performance. So, after staying for a few songs I decided to head on over to the Pinhook music club which was a couple blocks away.

          Around 7:45 p.m. I made it over to Pinhook (a small, intimate bar / music venue) where I caught the performance of local hip hop producer / rapper known as “Trandle”. His hip hop music performance featured a bare bones set-up composed of a sampler and a small mixer, which he used for mixing and triggering loops and drum sequences. Despite its simplicity, the minimalist set-up only served to highlight Trandle’s skill as a music producer. I found Trandle’s performance reminiscent of that of Well$ (another performer at this year’s Moogfest). Another aspect which really drew me in were the live visuals, which were composed of clips from various VHS tapes ranging from subjects such as old 90’s video games and commercials.  With Trandle’s quality drum beats and easy going vibe, I thought this was one of the better performances of the Festival.  

             The next performance I caught was from Portland based drone composer/sound installation artist “Grouper” (aka. Liz Harris) at the Carolina Theater.  After having stood for most of Trandle’s performance, it was a much needed relief to get off my feet and enjoy the performance.  Grouper’s sedate set was composed of her trademark ethereal vocals, mellow guitar tone, and frequent synthesizer loops. Another aspect that greatly enhanced the performance was the visual ambience, namely the use of low-level stage lighting and fog machines. Further adding to the low key performance, Liz sat on the stage Indian style playing her guitar for a majority of the set.  It was a very intimate and hypnotic performance which I thoroughly enjoyed.

             Following Grouper’s performance, I stayed around at the Carolina Theater so that I could catch the festival’s featured artist-in-residence, synth/pop superstar Gary Numan.  If the name isn’t familiar to you, Numan is best remembered for his 80’s new wave hit “Cars.”  However, in the many years since then, Numan has undergone a Gothic Rock phase that has seen him adopt many of the genre’s visual aesthetics, grimly music stylings that have pushed his recent albums closer towards the Darkwave genre.  Such music can be heard on Numan’s latest album called “Splinter”.    Numan has a large touring band which performed songs from a different album for each night.  On the first night they performed songs from Numan’s  album, “Replicants”.  The night that I saw him, the band performed songs from his most famous album, “Pleasure Principle.”   For this performance, Numan artfully combined the heavy edge of his latest material with the classic retro vibe of his earlier albums.  This was accompanied by crunchy, distorted guitars and a series of intense stage lighting.   The standing room only audience was very receptive to Numan’s performance.  Having seen Numan perform for the first time, I was actually blown away and surprised at how well his music has held up over time. Considering I wasn’t able to catch their very first performance of the festival, I was very satisfied to catch them at least once during the fest.

           For the last performance of the night, I headed over to The Armory to catch Detroit based DJ, Robert Hood.  Robert Hood is fairly well known for his lasting brand of Detroit Techno and Minimal Techno music. Hood’s performance was heavily comprised of assembly line four-on-the-floor beats and repetitive electronic samples, which were dished out through his small assortment of mixers and sequencers. His DJ set was also accompanied by amazing visuals which were projected on a screen behind him.  These visuals had greatly enhanced the performance and were provided by the same Moogfest staff who managed the live visuals for UV Boi’s earlier performance. Amazingly, Hood’s performance had the feel of an actual underground club performance and the audience seemed to enjoy the experience.  

[djhoratioalger]

Moogfest Day Two - A Condensed Recap

Day two of the Moogfest Music Festival was quite a contrast from my very first day in Durham, NC. While I spent majority of the first day of the festival catching numerous performances and lingering around venues; the second day was mostly dedicated to exploring Downtown Durham and visiting some of the many Moogfest art installations and attractions. 

 My first stop for the day was the Armory where they were holding the Masterclass Discussion Panel with Alex Paterson (The Orb) and Daniel Lanois.  This turned out to be part Q&A and part mediated discussion with artists.   For those of you not familiar with Alex Patterson, he is the co-founding member of the UK based dub group “The Orb”.  As I previously mentioned in Day 1, Daniel Lanois has a long list of credits as major studio producer, as well as a Alt Rock solo artist.  The panel discussion covered Paterson and Lanois’ training and experience working in the recording industry.  While I wasn’t able to catch very much of Mr. Paterson’s side of the session, I was able to stick around long enough to hear a fellow audience member ask him whether illicit “substances” have had an effect on the development of The Orb’s musical style.  Humorously enough, Patterson acknowledged that hallucinogenic drugs were a major influence on his group’s music and artistic direction in their early years.  

As for Lanois’ portion of the discussion, he reflected on a lot of his memories of working as a producer.  Probably the most interesting story was his recollection of his first meeting with Bob Dylan.  He also discussed his performance on the first night of Moogfest, namely how the sound board / PA system that used greatly distorted the band’s instruments. He thought this may have put off some of the audience.  However, I caught Lanois’ performance and found it to be a very unusual and intriguing in a good way.  The distorted sound reminded me of certain bands, such as Earth, who combine Western styles with Doom metal on some of their albums. After answering a few questions, Daniel Lanois’ treated the audience with a demonstration of the lap steel guitar (was featured in his performance the previous night).   I enjoyed this discussion and found it to be both informative and entertaining.

             I next walked over to the American Tobacco Campus to see what was going on over there. As I mentioned in my Day 1 festival recap, the Campus includes a variety of business offices, restaurants, and outlets. Moogfest had the Pop-up Factory and Modular Market Place, however our first stop was at the Pollinator Synthesizer Installation over at the Burt’s Bees Factory.   Created by mixed media artist Ranjit Bhatnagar, this sound installation explored the tireless activities of honey bees, such as the ones in the Burt’s Bees Observation Hive. Using a series of small microphones, heat sensors, and motion sensors, the Bees activity in the hive was recorded and analyzed and then converted into a series of ambient soundscapes that were projected from two speakers next to the hive.  I thought the sound was very euphoric and  surprisingly, the soundscape had little buzzing and more of a drone quality to it.

     After viewing the Pollinator Synthesizer, I headed over to The Power House building where the Moog Music Pop-Up Factory and Modular Marketplace were located.  I first explored the Pop-Up Factory, which was a room containing vintage synthesizer components / exhibits, makeshift assembly areas (where Moog staff were assembling brand new models of Moog synthesizers), as well as a retail area with various Moog Music instruments and merchandise (such as synthesizers, theremins, mugs, etc.).   To top it off, many of the Moog synthesizers and merchandise were being sold at below market prices. In addition, there was also a few retrospective exhibits on early electronic instruments such as the theremin and Minimoog, along with a table area where Festivalgoers could create a simple scale oscillator unit (a synthesizer component).   However, the coolest part of the Pop-Up Factory was a giant sound installation entitled “Global Synthesizer Project” which was designed by sound artist / electronic musician Yuri Suzuki.  This installation was composed of a multitude of various interconnected synthesizer models, which covered an entire wall.  Festivalgoers were able to interact with the installation and change the various control settings and physical inputs on the synthesizers to create different sounds.  

             Across the hall from the Moog Pop-up Factory was the Modular Marketplace, where representatives from numerous instrument retailers, manufacturers, and designers had brought in a wide selection of both analog and digital synthesizers which were on display for Festivalgoers to test out.  Out of the many synthesizers that I tried at the Marketplace, my favorites were featured at the tables of DJW and Audulus.  First, DJW is a independent manufacturer out of Colorado which builds custom Eurorack synthesizers and effects pedals. At the time, the DJW rep gave me a demonstration of one of the Eurorack models on display. Although it was one of their smaller Eurorack models, I still found the plethora of controls and inputs to be complex and overwhelming.  The second display that really caught my eye was at the Audulus table, where I was given a brief demonstration of their latest music processing software.   The interface was very scaled and could cover an immense number of inputs and channels in regards to digital audio workstations. It actually took me back to my first introduction to Propellerhead’s reasoned software.  

             Before leaving the Modular Marketplace I visited the Revolution Restaurant, which as I now understand, specialized in New American and Modern European cuisine. When I first walked into the Restaurant, I thought it was a Cuban restaurant because the décor had the feel of 1950’s Cold War era.  There were large portraits of Revolutionaries such as Vladimir Lenin, Che Guevara, and Malcom X, along with a small set of vintage T.V.’s (which were showing old news reel footage from that that era). I ordered a fish street taco with a side of black beans and rice, which I found to be reasonably priced and satisfying.    

           Having fortified myself with some lunch, I decided to walk a few blocks over to the 21c. Museum Hotel . There I caught the performance of electronic musician EMA and mixed media artist Jana Hunter as a part of their “Durational Sound Installation”. This turned out to be a free form performance that featured a continuous visual display along with a small cast of musicians playing electronic drone music.  I found this performance to be hypnotic to say the least.   

           I next stopped by a downtown ice cream shop called “The Parlour” for a couple of scoops of decadent dessert.  This shop featured ice cream flavors such as Vietnamese Coffee, strawberry cheesecake, and Key lime pie which were among my favorites. During the course of the festival, I made several return trips back to this ice cream shop.  

          Since I had some time to kill before the next performance, I looked up some of the local record stores in Durham and found one that was about 12 blocks away called  “Schoolkid Records”.  Mainly, I was interested in picking up a copy of Tim Hecker’s latest album (Love Streams) on vinyl, so I decided walk down there. The store had a very good selection of vinyl, and although they didn’t have Tim Hecker’s latest album in stock, I did find one of his earlier albums (”Mirages”) along with some other gems that I purchased.  

[shipinthewoods]

Moogfest 2016, Part I -- Top to bottom: 1 - 3. Larry Gus at The Pinhook, Durham, NC, 19 May 2016 4 - 5. Kode9 and Lawrence Lek at The Armory, Durham, NC, 20 May 2016 6 - 9. Gwenno at the First Presbyterian Church, Durham, NC, 21 May 2016 -- All images by Bernie Brooks -- Bernie Brooks is Ship’s editor-at-large and bloggist. This is his electronic mail address: bernie [at] shipinthewoods [dot] com

[shipinthewoods]

Moogfest 2016, Part II -- Top to bottom: 1. Sam Aaron performing using his educational live-coding software, Sonic Pi, at The Armory, Durham, NC, 19 May 2016 2 - 4. Ben Frost at The Carolina Theater, Durham, NC, 21 May 2016 5. The Orb at The Armory, Durham, NC, 21 May 2016 -- There are perks to having an especially brilliant spouse. Like, three weeks ago, five minutes after arriving at Moogfest, Durham, NC, I'm standing a few feet away from Gary Numan as he's being interviewed by DJ Lance Rock of Yo! Gabba Gabba fame, while K waits to be photographed by a dude from Rolling Stone. She's a Future Thought speaker, she's organized a panel, so we've got the hook up--artist's passes, free food and drinks, the whole deal. The passes let us slip in and out of venues with ease. Only twice do we have to wait to get in anywhere--once for Numan, once for The Orb. It's maybe an hour before I've somehow lost my phone during a lively panel discussion presented by RVNG Intl. Soon, I'm crawling around the floor, looking under tables with Heiroglyphic Being and Matt from RVNG. The phone's a pretty generic thing, so I think it's been accidentally lifted. K meets up with me after her theremin workshop, and we use hers to send a bunch of slightly panicked texts. Almost farcically, I find mine in our bag, while Larry Gus loses his mind in front of a large crowd gathered at The Pinhook. (K says I probably shouldn't tell anyone what happened. Naturally, I tell everyone.) Minimally equipped with his anarchic voice, some samplers, maybe a couple pedals, and a floor tom, LG deconstructs his songs endlessly, winds up bloodied after using his forehead as a percussion instrument. He is profound and wild. His ecstatic performance sets a high bar for the rest of the events we plan to attend throughout the weekend. Surprisingly, more then a few of them meet the standard he's set. Thursday's turns out to be a night of missed connections. We're trying to get together with the rest of the Spatial Sounds and Subhistories Crew (read: K's fellow panelists), but totally blow it. Jlin's nearly deafened K with a surprise drop, and, eventually, we give up, settle on a breakfast gathering the following morning. In the end, we manage about half the crew. Over mammoth sausage biscuits, breakfast burritos, and grits, we coordinate, resolve to meet for lunch and drinks later at artists' services. After which, we walk over to Carolina Soul Records to catch author and Spatial Sounds panelist Dave Tompkins spin the most wonderfully gross, just-plain-wrong remix of "Working in a Coal Mine." 8 o'clock creeps up, and we're working our way into The Armory to watch Kode9--aka Steve Goodman, founder of Hyperdub--and Lawrence Lek perform selections from the appropriately titled Nothing, the former's pean to absence, loss, and nothingness. Still bass heavy, but almost a delicate record by Kode9's standards, I'm surprised to find it transformed into a brutal, intensely physical experience. The music asserts its thing-ness. Through its suffocating bass, it occupies space in the room, rattles our bones, and in turn emphasizes our corporeality, our own thing-ness. This contrast between the performance and the compositions themselves--songs ostensibly about nothing (n.)--creates a riveting tension that Goodman maintains throughout the duration of the set. Lek, for his part, emphasizes this through the visuals he's created for the show: a sprawling virtual environment--the Notel--an empty monument to "fully automated luxury communism." He pilots his avatar, a drone, through cold, lonely corridors triggering events in time with the music. It's terrific, one of those things that, even in moments when what's on the screen isn't particularly interesting, is still engrossing simply because of what it is, what it represents, and what might happen next. Saturday we meet again for breakfast. Same spot, Foster’s Market, basically the same stuff. This is not a problem. The whole panel's here this time: Kristen, Dave, Steve Goodman and sound researcher / artist Toby Heys--both acting as formal representatives of AUDINT, and esteemed writer / editor James Hughes, the panel's moderator. Steve's brought Lawrence, everyone's having a nice chat, getting at the nuts and bolts of the afternoon's talk. Then, before I can really process what I'm doing, I'm booking it across Durham on the only sorta hot day of the week to catch Gwenno perform her Welsh-language, Sci-fi pop at the historic First Presbyterian Church. I arrive sweaty and a bit late, sit in pew up front. I'm expecting a full-band set-up for whatever reason, so when I see her stood alone on the alter behind a Korg and a few other bits of gear, all decked out in an evening gown, I'm pleasantly surprised. In between numbers, she's self deprecating and charming as she talks us non-Welsh-language speakers through the themes of the next sweet-sounding, dystopic tune she'll be playing from her outstanding LP, Y Dydd Olaf. She's nailing every one of them. Her voice is in fine form, and the church's acoustics complement her dreamy arrangements wonderfully--all of which seem beefier live, and those kicks, oh the kicks! Maybe a good synth kick always sounds unbelievable in a church? Anyway, the sun is pouring through the stained-glass windows, and everything sounds perfect, and for forty minutes everything seems perfect. People of all ages are dancing in the aisles, another ecstatic moment in as many days. Thirty minutes later, Kristen and her fellow panelists are getting ready to talk sound, spectres, weird science, and our secret past-future history to a full-house of engaged Moogfest attendees. They're talking stratospheric turtles, coral-obsessed booty bass progenitors, ghost currency. Q*bert swears, too. Afterwards, we're milling around, and I'm thinking that, frankly, this is the only festival of its size that I’m aware of, maybe anywhere, that places equal emphasis on expanding minds via both intellectual rigor and apocalyptic bass, and succeeds on both counts. When Moogfest talks about exploring the future, it's not happening at Grimes installations or even during most of the performances, it's happening at these panels. We're on the way to get some celebratory drinks, and I'm having a moment while listening to The Body from outside The Pinhook. The others laugh, acknowledging it as such. Eventually, the club-like venues start reaching a grim sort of asthmatic capacity, so K and I walk to the stately Carolina Theater to eat Milk Duds and watch Ben Frost from comfortable chairs in the balcony. Sat up there, we're on an airport tarmac without sound blockers, we're involved in some kind of dare, a test of auditory endurance. I have no idea what it sounds like inside the supercollider, but maybe it's this? It's heart-stoppingly beautiful, too, when I'm not worried that the bass is actually going to stop my heart. There are strobes and fog. And wolves. For a long time there are wolves. It is the loudest thing I've ever experienced. (SunnO)))? Psh.)  Also one of the most transcendent and life affirming--an indelible performance. When it's all done, and the fog clears, Frost stands on the stage barefoot, and I swear he applauds us. I get up to leave and notice that I'm covered in plaster. My drink is full of it. We catch up with everyone at The Armory. The Orb is playing. Seriously, it's like watching / listening to drugs in the '90s. We stay for the whole set, hypnotized and kinda dumbfounded by the visuals, which, for better or worse, clearly haven't changed since the heyday of British rave culture, leaving just as DJ Harvey starts his three-hours of debauchery. Our ears and bodies are spent, so we and Toby head back to the hotel. Sunday, after breakfast and goodbyes, K and I are heading to meet James at a panel presented by Google. Icon-design icon Susan Kare will be discussing her career, along with Manuel Clément, Senior VR Designer at Google, and secret special guest Jimmy Hasse, Managing Graphics Editor at The Onion. The Germick Bros. of the Google Doodle team are moderating. It's goofy as hell, but wildly entertaining. Topics on the docket: sad Macs, solitaire, the efficiency of condom bitmaps, the questionable worth of VR, a fictional Biden filching throwing stars, accurate depictions of Subway sandwiches. Soon, we've parted ways with James. We’re on the freeway, on our way to some hot springs to decompress. Well, after a lengthy detour to visit Grave Digger's Graveyard. I mean, how could we skip that? We're discussing the weekend. -- All images by Bernie Brooks -- You can read Kristen’s recap here. -- Bernie Brooks is Ship’s editor-at-large and blogging guy. Emails go to here: bernie [at] shipinthewoods [dot] com

[djhoratioalger]

Moogfest Day One - A Condensed Recap pt.1

I arrived in Durham, N.C. around 1:00 pm and headed downtown to the Carolina Theater to collect my fest armband and press passes for the weekend’s performances. As a student in the Recording Industry Program at Middle Tennessee State University (“MTSU”) and a DJ at the student run radio station (88.3 FM WMTS), I agreed to cover the Moogfest music festival on behalf of the station. The key benefit of performing the festival coverage is that I could spread the station’s name and hopefully attract a bit of interest outside of Tennessee. On the other hand, by having press and photo access to the festival’s numerous venues, I could get up-close access to many of the performances and bring back plenty of photos and videos.

As such, I have uploaded some of my festival photos to the Photo Gallery to share with my followers and fellow readers of this blog.   

After picking up the festival passes, I went for a short trip around the block to see what was in the area. This was actually supposed to mark the first year that Moogfest has been held outside of Asheville NC, and yet I did not see any signs of disorganization during my first few hours on the festival grounds.    The Festival’s many workshops, performances, and art installations were spread out among several venues within a 3-5 block radius of the downtown area, which made travel between the venues very convenient. To top it off, the weather for the first day was comfortable and around the mid-60s, so exploring the downtown Durham area was fairly pleasant.

Since I had some time to kill before the first workshop of the day, I decided to walk a few blocks down to The American Tobacco Campus. Originally the site of a local Lucky Strike tobacco factory, this complex is now home to numerous restaurants, business offices, and public attractions within its many warehouses.  While I didn’t have much time to explore the entire area, I took some of my first photos of the festival while I was over here.  Of particular note is the area called “the Cage”, which is an enclosed basketball court located near the front gate of the Campus. (See Picture above).  

This is where Moogfest had one of its main Merch Booths set up, along with a sound installation called, “PLAY,” (created by the design firm IDEO). The sound installation was composed of 7 to 8 giant rubber balls that would trigger an individual tone (corresponding to the size of the sphere) upon contact. The main purpose behind the installation was to create spontaneous music through the use of casual play, therefore, festivalgoers were highly encouraged to join in a play around. During my brief visit (and return visits) to The Cage) it appeared that the Installation was quite popular with festival attendees.

Around 2:30 p.m., I walked back over to the Carolina Theater so I could prepare for my interview with Steve Moore and Anthony Paterra of the Pittsburg synth duo, Zombi. Since the duo was slated to perform later that night at the Motorco Music Hall, I had greatly appreciated them for taking the time to speak on behalf of WMTS. 

                                                        To Be Continued...

[hayleyfiasco]

Reggie Watts Moogfest American Tobacco Campus Durham, North Carolina May 21, 2016

(See more of my photos from this show here on Flickr)

[wkncweb]

Visit Original Link

Marissa Jerden interviews people on the streets at Moogfest 2016 and discusses the panels she attended. 

[creativity-moves-the-world]

СОБРАТЬ ВСЕ ЗВУКИ МИРА В ОДНОМ ИНСТРУМЕНТЕ?

The Global Synthesizer (Мировой синтезатор) глобализирует музыкальный мир до самых косточек и создает музыку всего мира... Амбициозно, правда? 

С 2009 года Юрий Сузуки (Yuri Suzuki) - звуковой дизайнер, известный разнообразными интерактивными работами (например, музыкальный робот-поезд) - путешествовал по всему миру, собирая диктофоном звуки стран. После 7 лет коллекционирования звуков, Suzuki спросил себя: как бы выглядел инструмент, способный сыграть все эти звуки. Идея настолько воодушевила, что Mr.Suzuki решил объединиться с компанией Moog  для создания подобного инструмента, который в последующем получил название Global Synthesizer.

Global Synthesizer выглядит как географическая карта мира из грецких аудио шкафов. По факту, эти шкафы - отдельные модули Moog, каждый из которых содержит библиотеку звуков, собранных посредством краудсорсинга международным сообществом Moog + личная коллекция звуков  Mr. Suzuki. Один модуль, например, может содержать звуки из Европы, другой - звуки из южной части Тихого океана. Аудио файлы охватывают все, начиная от украинских церковных колоколов до португальского лая собаки, традиционной индийской народной музыки.

В отличие от современных электрических синтезаторов, которые выглядят как цифровые пианино, Global Synthesizer имеет гибкую модульную конструкцию в стиле old school и работает путем непосредственного соединения проводов, подключив которые к различным модулям, можно создавать новые звуки и эффекты. 

Global Synthesizer дебютировал в  мае 2016 года.Mr. Suzuki намерен продолжить развитие своего детища, собирая ещё больше звуков, и, в конечном итоге, он надеется, что сможет воплотить в проекте все возможные и доступные звуки на планете.

Получается, Global Synthesizer сам по себе представляет некое перекрестное опыление звуков и влияний, которые и определяют мировую музыку в целом. 

Послушать результаты экспериментов можно тут.