Almost 1100 men fought World War II as members of the US "Ghost Army", the result of an uncommon lateral thinking in war strategy. Created … [Read more...]
Yannis Xenakis’ Polytopes: Cosmogonies in Sound and Architecture
Fusing the ancient greek terms "poly" (“many”) and "topos" (“place”), Greek-French composer Iannis Xenakis coined a neologism for … [Read more...]
“Before and After Science” and the Eno/Schmidt collaboration
According to Wikipedia, Peter Schmidt was "a Berlin-born British artist, painter, theoretician of color and composition, pioneering multimedia … [Read more...]
dOCUMENTA 13: News From Nowhere, by Moon Kyungwon & Jeon Joonho, [a Retrospective from the Future]
News from Nowhere is probably the most ambitious art-project of Kassel's dOCUMENTA 13. Presented in three forms: a film, an installation, a … [Read more...]
Athanasius Kircher SJ – ‘Musurgia Universalis’, 1650
Just yesterday we quoted an Athanasius Kircher's excerpt from his Musurgia Universalis (Rome: 1650). This seminal works of musicology in two volumes … [Read more...]
Katzenklavier (Cat Organ)
Thanks (indirectly) to Matteo Pasquinelli, I discovered the Katzenclavier. A "Cat Organ" is a fictive musical instrument consisting in a line of … [Read more...]
The Unplayable Score: Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz – John Stump
"Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz (from ‘A Tribute to Zdenko G. Fibich’)", by American John Stump is a parody of a composition, meant to be impossible to … [Read more...]
Bernhard Leitner’s Soundcube, 1969
Many years before the Cylindre Sonore, (see previous post), in 1969, Leitner began his research on sound defined space. A room composed of 64 … [Read more...]
Bernhard Leitner’s Le Cylindre Sonore, 1987
Despite living in Paris since 2007 and regularly enjoying a walk in the Park de la Villette, we honestly never happened to find a little sound … [Read more...]
Some Kraftwerk for Christmas
“Can you hear me, Major Tom?” (David Bowie’s Space Oddity as a children’s book)
The sad story of Space Oddity, by David Bowie, illustrated by Andrew Kolb. Download here or here. (links updated 2015/09/12) DAVID … [Read more...]
Vintage synths catalogues and brochures
When the music stopped being a matter of virtuosism and started being a ground for scientific research. Roland, Synclavier, Arp, DA … [Read more...]
More on the Harmonic Synthesizer, and on the Harmonic Analyser
Harmonic Synth Lord Kelvin's harmonic synthesizer is basically Henrici's harmonic analyzer (see later) in reverse. Originally designed as a tide … [Read more...]
Steampunk looking but actually old Harmonic Synthesizer
The Harmonic Synthesizer is an the lobby of the McLennan physics building, University of Toronto. Here’s the description from the accompanying … [Read more...]
R.E.M., 2 October 85, Complete Show in Germany
Fantastic performance! Thank to Valentina Tanni for the link. Don't miss So. Central Rain (30' 35'') and Have you ever seen the rain? (34' … [Read more...]
So Long, Atlantis
A mix of videos from cameras mounted on the two solid rocket boosters from the Atlantis Space Shuttle's last trip, (mission STS-135) on July 8. The … [Read more...]
Computional Sonic Vibrations
Curated by Valentina Tanni, "Computional Sonic Vibrations" by Roberto Pugliese, just opened in Verona last Saturday, 19th March in Studio la Città … [Read more...]
Reminds Me of Remind Me
Reminds you of what? Remind me, of course! It's Brandt Brauer Frick's music video for "Caffeine", by Patricia Luna and Danae … [Read more...]
One Robot One Orchestra
On May 17th, 2008 an industrial FANUC robot directs an entire orchestra alone, for more than one and a half hour. … [Read more...]
Visualizing sound waves
Update: Mauro made a similar experiment with a suspended beam, obtaining one-dimensional patterns. "Chladni Patterns are created by the sand that … [Read more...]
The labyrinths of musical genres
A list of apps which let you explore music like a geography of relationships. The labyrinth of genre "I’m fascinated with how music genres … [Read more...]
Xenakis Emulator, by Kammerbauer + Schnellboegl
The Xenakis-Emulator is an audiovisual adaptation of two key works of architect/composer Iannis Xenakis - the composition "Metastasseis" and the … [Read more...]
No Wave/Mutant Disco whimpers from Downtown 81
What's Downtown 81? Watch the trailer here. 'New York Beat' was shot over December 1980 and January 1981. It was initially funded by Fiorucci and … [Read more...]
Kraftwerk and the electronic revolution
This is the kind of documentary that blows me away. the other 18 parts are here. … [Read more...]
