Although less prolific and less visible over the last decade after a rewarding thirty or so years of jointly directing The Walkabouts and Chris & Carla, Chris Eckman has remained a reassuring background presence as an adaptable Americana ambassador embedded in Europe.
interviews
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Australian experimental, improvisational and traditional multi-instrumentalist Mat Watson is known for being part of large and uusual orchestras and collaborations. He has played with Boredoms, conducted an orchestra for 40 synthesisers at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, has multiple solo and collaborative projects on the go at any one time.
Yet, out of the blue in the middle of this year came word of a new solo album -- via the Drums & Wires Recordings label run by her erstwhile bandmate and still-fellow Seattleite Michael Wells -- in the shape of the very welcoming and much-welcomed Beckonings. A richly diverse collection that reacquaints us with Torgerson’s skills as a singer, a song-interpreter, an arranger and a collaborator, as well as her lesser-explored role as a writer.
Latterly, although Bardo Pond’s new activities have slowed somewhat, the band’s bounteous back catalogue and previously unreleased tape vault extractions are being given considered curatorial care through regular releases on Fire Records, Three Lobed and Matador. With the latter label having just exhumed 1999’s churningly squally Set And Setting long-player, alongside Melt Away, a double-LP of choice rarities built-up around the ensemble’s four-album Matador affiliation, the time seemed more than ripe to converse over email with Michael Gibbons on the past, present and future of Bardo Pond...
The concept of a “desert sound,” if such a term truly exists, is more about a state of mind than a specific genre. It embodies a sense of vastness, solitude, and sounds stretched to the limits of the infinite. While I wouldn’t say the desert sound has always been a direct influence, the themes it represents have certainly resonated with me throughout my music.
Since the mid-1970s, Allen Ravenstine has experimented with and expanded on the uses of creative synthesis, perhaps most famously with Pere Ubu (and later Red Krayola), where he brought "unpredictable textures, effects and pulsating washes of sound" to the mix.
You can harness it to make music in many ways, from just observing it do its thing and occasionally tuning something, to rapid playing with knobs and switches as musical performance. Also, from a compositional point of view, the concentration on one source or one process at a time and the interaction between sources and processes within a network can be used as a template for structure and inspires articulation.
Midori's session for Philippe Petit's Modulisme series allowed her to showcase the impact that modular synthesis has had on her electronic sound, and she outlines the ways in which her music has evolved as a result.
Experimental musician, singer and songwriter Siôn Orgon creates electroacoustic music, sound design and production in Cardiff. He has worked with the likes of Thighpaulsandra and is a member of Rocketgoldstar as well as collaborating over the years with groups and artists including Coil, Splintered, William D Drake, Peter Christopherson, Andrew Liles, Damo Suzuki, Faust and many more. Siôn also does sound design for BBC TV, as well as dance […]
A member of Thee Silver Mt Zion and a co-creator of the avant-klezmer group Black Ox Orkestar, Jessica Moss has collaborated and played with the likes of Daniel O’Sullivan, Sarah Davachi and Big|Brave. To accompany her fifth solo album, Galaxy Heart on Constellation, she is on tour throughout Europe. Mr Olivetti put some pertinent questions to the Montréal-based composer and violinist. This album feels like a rather wild and […]
Electronic musician, artist, producer, engineer as well as module designer and maker for Future Sound Systems, Bristol-based Finlay Shakespeare‘s session for Philippe Petit‘s Modulisme project shows off his grasp of the classic British sound of independent modular-adjacent pop music from its heady early years. His influences also are also steeped in experimental electronic music, which led him to create the Throbbing Gristle-inspired Gristelizer eurorack module in association with its […]
Active since 1971, the Canadian Electronic Ensemble has the distinction of being the longest-running live electronic music formation in the world. Their session for Philippe Petit‘s Modulisme project showcases the sort of modular synthesis sounds that the ensemble have been performing annually in Toronto and on tour around the world for over fifty years. The current membership includes founder members Jim Montgomery and David Jaeger alongside John Kameel […]
Daniel Burke has been recording and performing music as Illusion of Safety since 1983, with a variety of collaborators joining him along the way. Dormant from 2015, he revived IOS in 2020, continuing the exploration of unconventional sound using unorthodox devices and methods. Daniel’s session for Philippe Petit‘s encyclopaedic ongoing Modulisme project last no less than eight hours, and is a tour de force of experimental music in […]
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 […]