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]](http://socks-studio.com/img/blog/news-from-nowhere-0111-150x150.jpg)
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...]
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...]
Don’t do this at work – 22
Isle of tune is a a musical sequencer whose chords, notes and drum blips are represented by little roads with houses, trees, streetlights. As the … [Read more...]
From AE 2010: Braun Tube Jazz Band
Or: Nam June Paik meets Pan Sonic. One of the most amazing performance we attented during the festival was this piece by Japanese artist / composer … [Read more...]
Back from Ars Electronica / Linz: “It’s too late to be a pessimist” *
We are back from Linz and so, so impressed. Despite still being overwhelmed by ideas, imagination and people from this edition of the world's most … [Read more...]
80’s punk at Rome’s slaughterhouse (Mattatoio di Testaccio)
A quite popular Italian personality from the 80's, Jo Squillo was formerly known as a singer for "seminal" Italian punk/new wave feminist bands like … [Read more...]
J.S. Bach – Crab Canon on a Möbius Strip
The enigmatic Canon 1 à 2 from J. S. Bachs Musical Offering (1747), The manuscript depicts a single musical sequence that is to be played front to … [Read more...]
Beethoven 5th Symphony (No. 5, graphical score animation, allegro)
Beethoven 5th Symphony 5 (graphical score animation) FAQ Q: What do the colors in the bar-graph score mean? A: The colors show which instruments are … [Read more...]
Diego Stocco, sound artist
Diego creates dynamic and innovative music experiences. His music extensively uses unique sounds created specifically for each project through custom … [Read more...]
