The most wonderful time of the gay year, isn’t it. How much we’ve gay learned, and gay we’ve all become. I mean joking aside, there’s a lot of people have had a chance to spend some time with themselves and have come out as fuck. So it’s not all bad. What is ambiguous from this whole lockdown stuff is the effect it’s had on Eurovision. Here’s the skinny: […]
features
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Ever since discovering electronic music while at university, Ian Boddy has immersed himself in the world of synthesis, becoming a renowned exponent of the form, particularly active in ambient electronica as well as specialising in sound library creations and sound design. Working with collaborators including Robert Rich, Chris Carter, Markus Reuter, Erik Wøllo and Nigel Mullaney, as well as with Mark Shreeve as ARC, he has been busy […]
Francisco Meirino (also known as Phroq up to 2009 when creating harsh noise). Using instrumentation including modular synths, reel-to-reel tape recorders and various home-made electronics, he has collaborated with artists such as Leif Elggren, Michael Gendreau and Gerritt Wittmer and also writes for contemporary music ensembles and dance with releases on labels such as The Helen Scarsdale Agency, (who have just released his A New Instability LP) Flag Days […]
Ross Healy is not only the founding member of VICMOD, the co-owner of VICMOD Records and part of the VICMOD ENSemble, but also performs and records prolifically as This Digital Ocean, Amnesia, Roland Oberheim, Oskar T Oram, as well as Cray and many more. Cray’s longform Modulisme session explores the diversity of Healy’s modular electronic music while taking the listener on a journey into inner and outer space.
One of the most flamboyant, original and exciting of synthesists in the world of modular synths and beyond, Thighpaulsandra has been pushing the boundaries of electronic music as a solo performer and as a member of Coil, Uruk (as a duo with Massimo Pupillo) and UUUU (with Valentina Magaletti, Matthew Simms and Edvard Graham Lewis) or while working with Julian Cope, Spiritualized and more in ways both weird and […]
Richard Scott has been a key figure on both the UK improv and modular synthesis scene for many years, including the seminal Sines & Squares festival held at Manchester University. With a background in post-punk and the joys of improvised saxophony, Scott took to the modular synthesiser as his preferred instrument and also runs the Sound Anatomy label. Interviewed by Freq as part of the ongoing cross-pollination with […]
André Stordeur was a pioneer of modular synth music and the leading exponent of the form in his native Belgium; sadly, he passed away in April 2020 before being able to complete a session or be interviewed for Philippe Petit‘s Modulisme. A session was however constructed from historic recordings, and the interview (which has already appeared on Modulisme) reproduced below dates from 2018, conducted by Chris Ferreira.
I first caught Edwin Stevens perform as Irma Vep sometime in the late noughties at London’s Mascara Bar venue. He took to the stage solo and struck me as an earthier Will Oldham-type character: radiating emotion and pathos with only a guitar and voice. The set was intense and beautiful; it also involved humour and belching. In the intervening years, Irma Vep has released a flurry of LPs, […]
Kevin Rix is perhaps best known for his work in Hollywood as composer at Paul Dinletir‘s Audiomachine production company, where he has been responsible for the trailer music for films such as Avatar, How To Train Your Dragon and many more.
Benge (Ben Edwards) built his MemeTune studio as a haven and playground for his wondrous collection of vintage synthesizers. He has released numerous solo albums as well as forming the duo Tennis with Douglas Benford of Sprawl club and label fame, and has branched out to curate the Expanding label. Freq interviewed Ben about his session for Philippe Petit‘s Modulisme project, and he reveals a deep and lifelong fascination […]
With virtually every public event in Europe and beyond cancelled, postponed or taking place on screens only, it comes as no surprise that the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 will not appear as a live and direct spectacle from Rotterdam to a billion television sets this May; but never fear, for Kev Nckells is still going to give each and every entrant into the non-happening competition a thoroughly superficial […]
Founder of the N&B Research Digest label and member of Night Prospekt, F.R.U.I.T.S., Volga, ASTMA and the Fake Cats Project among others, Alexei Borisov has been a key member of the Russian underground since the Soviet era. He is also the curator of the Noise And Fury festival of experimental music at the DOM Cultural Centre in Moscow.
Celebrating a decade of promoting emerging and underground music gigs, the Chaos Theory collective takes over sprawling double venues at The Dome and Boston Music Room in Tufnell Park, north London for their Ten Years of Chaos festival for one day only on 29 February 2020. In advance of the festivities, Freq asked a few of the day’s acts about chaos, festivals and how they intermingle. Zu, Chantal […]
San Francisco residents Thomas Dimuzio, Tom Djll and Gino Robair are three leading lights in the world of improvisation and modular synthesis. All have been active on the ever-bountiful Bay Area experimental music scene for many years, and are interviewed below about their individual contributions to the Modulisme sessions organised by Philippe Petit. Their answers reveal the many and varied approaches, options and possibilities that the form offers […]
Doug Lynner started out as a keyboard and guitar player in psychedelic rock bands in California in the 1960s. Doug also teaches music composition and is known internationally for his modular synthesis performances and online tutorials. He was editor and publisher of Synapse magazine and currently helms the Neat Net Noise label. Doug improvises as Bloop Quack with R Duck on processed guitar, and the duo hosted a weekly live […]
Todd Barton has been composing for films, theatre, radio, quartets, orchestras and more besides over many decades. Nowadays, Todd teaches Buchla, Serge, Hordijk and eurorack online. and is a consulting artist for Buchla Electronic Musical Instruments. To accompany Todd’s session for Philippe Petit‘s Modulisme platform, Freq interviewed him about a life in modular synthesis.
Robin Rimbaud, best-known as Scanner, has been pushing the boundaries of soundscaping since he first brought intercepted unencrypted mobile phone conversations to the world of the avant-garde on his self-titled debut album in 1993. More than a couple of decades and tens of releases on, he provided Philippe Petit‘s Modulisme platform with a session and talks about it and his immersion in modular synthesis as part of Freq‘s […]
Turntablist, BiP_HOp and Pandemonium label owner, radio host and more, self-professed “musical travel-agent” Philippe Petit has been a tireless bastion of electronic and experimental music, having released more than fifty albums over the last decade alone, some featuring a cast of co-conspirators including Lydia Lunch, Edward Ka-Spel, James Johnston and Eugene S Robinson. His latest venture is Modulisme, a platform / label / radio programme to promote modular […]