Greensboro, NC-based art music band Invisible are indiscriminate about technology – in a good way. Plastic cups, keyboards, typewriters, machines controlled by robotics, if it’s in the trash or at a thrift store, it has a place in the band. Sequences are executed in physical, radial player instruments, without a controlling computer anywhere in site. As voicemail tapes get sampled and typewriters tap lines of absurdist lyrics as each typed letter plays a piano note, something magical happens. Perhaps it’s that, novelty aside, somehow these sound-making objects come together for a reason – the machines assemble in the way the band does. And then a chair is a marimba.

The Rhythm 1001 takes “tangible” to a whole new level — everything sequenced is mechanical, triggering found objects. The video above features the sequencer at Charlottesville, Virginia’s Second Street Gallery. (Gents, if you ever visit Brooklyn…) Thanks to Evan Hill for the tip.

Is it “Digital Music”? I think it is very deeply so, perhaps because the objects get treated as discrete musical events (read: percussion).

Incidentally, guys, I agree with a lot of things you’re saying about the use of computers for music, but HAL here tell me he won’t let me fr

Transmission ends.

Mari Kimura is an experimental string player extraordinaire, regularly venturing to the edge of what’s possible at the meeting of acoustic and electronic technology. GuitarBot is a “guitar”-playing robot (perhaps more reminiscent of a shamisen), an invention of Eric Singer, founder of the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots. The two meet above in a lovely video – not new, but well worth watching any old time, as reminded to us by Richard Swelling’s Etherbomb blog. Mari writes in comments on YouTube:

HI, Mari here. For those wondering what’s happening: Behind the white box, there is a Mac and an audio interface. I am running a software MaxMSP, which is LISTENING to the pitch. loundess and the timing of the violin. The ‘patch’ I created in Max contains certain interactive instructions such as "listen to the E (highest open string on the violin)". For example in the beginning, if you listen carefully you notice when I play above E, it stops. Iinteractions change in predetermined time frames.

It’s a reminder that, technology aside, the key ingredient in electro-acoustic music is great musicianship.

Quite nice stuff! And the video is shot by my friend Liubo Borrisov; Liubo, if you’re out there, say hi.

Digital music is extending more deeply into the physical world, thanks to sensors and robotics. The result: gorgeous acoustic sounds as part of the lexicon. When we last spotted Simon Kirby and the Found Electronics collective, they were taking the tangible interface out of electronic music and applying them to ambient sampled sounds out in the woods. Now, they’re talking to plants and channeling traditional Chinese instruments.

Found Electronics: Three Pieces Project Page

Simon writes with some of the details:

It’s called "Three Pieces", and it’s our attempt to create an interactive musical installation that is in keeping with the natural environment of the beautifully restored Victorian Palm House. Rather than use computers and a PA, we decided to try and build something completely acoustic. In the end, we’ve got a traditional Chinese dulcimer and 12 chimes spread throughout the plants and foliage of the Palm House. The instruments are played robotically, controlled by two Arduinos. Motion detectors and a soil sensor allow us to react to people in the space and to the state of the plants to remix the music we’ve composed especially for the installation. The result is a strange combination of traditional and modern, organic and electronic, nature and artifice. Despite being composed in advance, the music will never be exactly the same twice, in part because it will change in response to the environment and audience, and also because the robots are a combination of accurately machined parts (e.g. mechanical solenoids) and natural materials (e.g. bamboo canes).

The installation will be open from Saturday [June] 14th for two weeks. On Saturday 21st, there will be a performance in the Palm House by the band Found for midsummer’s day, and we are planning a Q&A session for the public sometime in the two weeks, to be announced on our website: www.foundelectronics.net

You might also be interested in the other work we’re doing, also on www.foundelectronics.net. For example, we’ve been developing a purpose-built combination of audio-looper software and controller, which is quite fun…

The “mood” of the musical robots is actually affected by the plants:

The moisture content of the soil changes slowly as the plants absorb water, while on a much faster timescale, the temperature changes in the building as animals, including humans, move about. The installation detects this living presence in the Palm House and the music changes accordingly. The robots react to humans, but their mood alters with the plants.

The show has been extended through July 13, so if you’re near the Royal Botanic Garden, you can go have a look!

Eat your heart out, Microsoft Surface! Musicians are taking up interactive tables as new ways of making their creations physically accessible, so listeners can reach out and touch the work.

Etiquette is a new interactive installation at the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, featuring a light box on which musical elements can be manipulated by moving around blocks. It uses the same underlying library that was developed for the ReacTable synth, currently made famous by its use on Bjork’s tour.

But what’s nice about the Etiquette is — surprise — the music. Rather than predictable electronic sounds, Etiquette echoes and vibrates with laptop-sampled acoustic timbres, such as stand-up bass, banjo, brass, flute, and even glockenspiel. It’s still digital music: fragments of music are reconceived in the digital world, overlapping into an ambient landscape. But the common criticism of installation art — that you wouldn’t want to sit and listen to the music produced — is answered here. Etiquette is available as a downloadable Creative Commons-licensed four-track album. I just sat and listened to it, and was quite happy! It’s real music played by real musicians that seems perfectly suited to its interactive counterpart; the free-flowing form of the music is ideal for rearranging in an installation. (In somewhat less interactive form, I expect I may have it on repeat here in my studio on and off for the next few days!)

Everything was produced on-location: many of the materials themselves were found on site, and recordings were made around the workshop.

The project is a collaboration between musicians and technologists: the band FOUND worked with computer scientist (and CDM reader) Simon Kirby.

Simon writes in with additional details of the setup, which features Ableton Live, Max/MSP, and the ReacTIVision library:

I’m a big fan of Create Digital Music, and in fact it was through reading your blog that I came across the Reactivision project which has lead directly to the commission and event I’m writing to you about. So, firstly, thank you!

I am involved with a music/art collective based in Edinburgh called Found, and we have been commission by the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop to produce ETIQUETTE: an ambitious, interactive sound installation to commemorate their 20th anniversary. It will be unveiled on 4 August in their gallery space / workshop and will feature a special performance from Found at the opening event. The installation will take the form of a light box table – visitors to the gallery over the next month will be able to compose their own variations of our specially commissioned music by moving objects around the table.

The project brings together a lot of the previous strands of our work including: pop music, visual art and an innovative use of technology.

The table itself uses a combination of the reactivision software, MAX/ MSP and Ableton Live to deliver the sound over a quadraphonic audio set up. We’re trying to steer clear of some of the cliches of this kind of music technology by using found sounds and building materials from the workshop and by recording only acoustic musical instruments on location at the workshop and its grounds.

It’s funny; I’m sympathetic to their approach not only literally, but philosophically, as well. I think when technology is working, the process feels more like discovery.

Thanks, Simon! If anyone visits, let us know how it goes!

Etiquette: Photos, videos, downloadable album, and project details

Since Simon got these resources from CDM, here they are, again:

Max/MSP on CDM; official site
Ableton Live on CDM; official site
Reactable on CDM
Free ReacTIVision library (with examples for Flash, Java, C++, Max, Processing, Pure Data, C#, SuperCollider, Quartz Composer, GEM, and vvvv!)

And there’s a terrific lineup of responses, like this performance on Tupperware musical instruments, by Adachi Tomomi:

Video is a natural medium, after all, for showing off DIY instruments. Now, if only we could start doing this on a service with less craptacular video quality. Blip.tv or Revver or Vimeo, anyone? (I’d love to start a CDM group, but we’d need to pick a service first. So far, I’ve been really impressed by Blip, as used by the folks at Make.)

… as seen via Beepglitch, who points out some faves.

I find kalimbas beautiful and delicate to begin with. Throw in some faux fur and Korg KAOSS Pad effects, and they take on a whole new life:

Other designs add all-new functionality, like the Sampimer, a “self-sampling” thumb piano with integrated 20-second voice recorder, a speaker covered by a lens cap, and a body made out of a jewelry caddy:

I asked Bob a bit more about the designs, and out came still more ingenious re-adaptations of the lowly kalimba. He explains how he got started with this series in the first place:

Partly it flowed from an interest in making found object assemblage sculpture. I had owned and played kalimbas, I had made stringed instruments and percussion instruments. After I eventually made my own thumb piano, I found that a lot of the found object materials I encountered lent themselves most readily to an exploration of the thumb piano concept.

… There is an interplay between “what will this sound like?” and “what will this look like?” The shape of a component — like
soundboard or resonator — can limit how the instrument is held and played, and this can influence the optimal tuning.
At a basic level it is about vibrating materials and how applied structures affect the sound. When you add audio fx into the equation, the thumb piano can be viewed as a controller for percussive effects. I see people using their Blackberry’s or text messaging on their cell phones and it looks like they are playing a thumb piano. Someone with the skills should design a MIDI version. There is something about the responsiveness of a vibrating tine that seems to have a great deal of potential.

[The inspiration from] … cell phones is not only about the use of thumbs to run a controller, but also the idea of a portable pocket size interface.

So far the most functional integrated unit I’ve made is the camera piano:

Fits in the pocket and the tuning is protected.

This one is near the limit of playability, requiring a backing board to be able to play:

This is the smallest with an internal 1/8″ jack:

Anything smaller or thinner would need an external bracket to mount a 1/8″ jack. Another direction related to this is “what is the smallest size kalimba that retains playability with an externally mounted 1/4″ jack?”

Along with exploring the limits of size (scalability?), there is also a give and take between minimalism and complexity. This is an example of a lamellaphone that technically uses no hardware (such as machine screws etc.):

The parts of the unit are all held in place by a large magnet, making things easily adjustable.

Bob also sends along a prototype of the amberCan, which integrates an amp and speaker:

Via the Flickr description:

…in this instance with a Smokey Amp and added rheostat. The Smokey amp has no output control so the rheostat was added to provide volume control.

At low volume the instrument sounds normally electrified but at mid and hi volume the thumb piano becomes a feedback unit as the vibrations of the speaker are cycled into the piezo. Interestingly, at that point the pitch and tone can be altered by gently applying and varying finger pressure on the tines and lid rather than plucking.

For more on that instrument:
amerpCan shot
Exterior shot showing base and lid
Interior shot showing innards

And to hear what all of these instruments sound like, there’s a whole set of recorded tracks:
RP Collier Thumb Piano Project [SoundClick MP3s/streams]

Thanks for these gorgeous designs and insight into instrument-building, Bob. (All photos come by way of his seemingly-endless Flickr photo set of kalimbas, where you’ll find many more designs.)

Thumb piano set @ Flickr, with lots o’ links and more videos, etc.

I’m curious if any one else has approached kalimba amplification or construction, though it would be tough to top these. One tutorial on making thumb pianos:
instructables: Thumb Piano, via MAKE:Blog

Thanks, Brent, who pulls the most telling quote in the story: “But the behavior of one demographic remained absolutely consistent. Every single time a child walked past, he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent scooted the kid away.” We’re all old now, but happily we don’t have to act like it.

Say hi to this quartet over on MySpace. Sorry to Mac users who like me remember hearing this theme for the first time at Macworld Expo. How’d that all end, again? (Get your revenge by running Halo 2 under Vista in Boot Camp. Then play Myth.)

Aside from introducing me to the magic of arithmetic (I’ve been away from Sesame Street far too long), our eagle-eyed readers note that Kotaku has interviewed the violinist, Hanah Stuart. Or, anyway, there’s an extended crush-fest that you might call an interview:

That adorable, auburn-haired sprite with the exposed milky calves, hugging her violin? That’s Hanah Stuart… teenage girl, classical violinist, and the pixy who casually pranced upon a high school auditorium stage and rocked the Halo 2 theme song so hard that Steve Vai started spitting up bloody chunks of lung.

There’s nothing like a Gawker blog journalist in love. Now, before I have to re-take Kindergarten, I’m out for the holidays. See you soon.