STRP Festival Eindhoven
March 25th, 2006I just got back from performing at the STRP Festival in Eindhoven; a new technology, music and arts event.
There were many superb performances. There were many fascinating installations and many sensor driven robots / things one of which was exceptional. Many runners ran on this one.
The staff were gracious and perfectly organized, the hospitality first class. The punters were of the highest intelligence and good taste.
The event took place in the former Phillips factory, Philips of course, being the inventors of the Compact Disc.
Many years ago, I wrote some essays on CD and digital audio which caused controversy and triggered accusations of ludditery against their noble author.
Now 14 years later, I perform a set of Fine Art Noise whose very nature is absolutely tied to and created from the specification of Compact Disc, in the very building that saw its initial development.
This was a great thrill for me; to enter this historic building, and to shock it from the inside with a mind destroying cascade of CD derived sound, in the place of CDs birth, the sound of the performance being a near echo of labor pangs that this factory felt as it unleahsed the idea and product that would totally change the way people consume music forever.
Another circle.
March 26th, 2006 at 11:45 am
Tell us about the performance…
March 26th, 2006 at 12:03 pm
I revived my piece called ‘purple circle’, played a live remix of my Dirk Raajmakers piece, ‘pelicula’, a new piece called ‘279’, another new one called ‘loopin’, and then improvised a rather violent noise piece.
March 26th, 2006 at 10:57 pm
Im interested in how you performed these piece as well. Did you use a laptop with pre-recorded loops and assemble live or a multitude of ‘treated’ cds and players?
March 26th, 2006 at 11:25 pm
For example, ‘Purple Circle’ is made from a synthesiser with a steped scratch wheel that controls the way one of a set of brutal sounds is produced, combined with a single purpose sampler box that can superimpose and transpose simultaneously. This was first performed at CORP in east London circa 1997.
During the STRP Festival I heard an amazing set done with a laptop, one of the best ever that was truely dynamic and impressive; the laptop was controlled by a small panel with knobs on it, so it was more like hands on synthesis and a whole generation on from those guys who used to mouse around making uninteristing, unmoving clicks and pops.
I am working on the ideas for a set of new material that uses a more physical approach…if anything interesting comes out of it, it will be posted.
March 28th, 2006 at 9:55 am
The video is now up.