Call for Submissions: The Kinder, Gentler Bent Festival 2008

Bent Festival LA 2007

Bent Festival LogoEd.: Circuit bending too destructive for you? Don’t let that scare you away from this year’s Bent Festival, in NYC, LA, and Minneapolis. Key pioneering circuit benders like founding artist Reed Ghazala are quick to argue that bending is a creative, not a destructive act — though some more radical benders might disagree. You say creation, she says destruction — let’s call the whole thing off: this year, handmade instruments and art of all kinds are welcome, say conference organizers, who are…

… continuing to open the Bent Festival to performers and artists that create their own electronics as well as to those who hack, bend, modify and destroy them

Full details:

The Tank is currently accepting proposals for Bent 2008: The Fifth Annual Circuit Bending Festival:

read more

Refresh: Asides

Elsewhere: Throw Away Your Drums, Plus a Hands-On with eSession

David Battino sends along this image. What’s wrong with this photo?

esession-mastelotto

Yeah, I guess once you have a Roland Handsonic and M-Audio Trigger Finger you don’t really need drums, huh? Your neighbors / roommate / significant other / Mom are going to clip that sentence out and paste it to your studio door.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t point to the story this comes from: author Spencer Critchley, via the good folks at O’Reilly Digital Media, takes on eSession. It’s a Web-based, collaborative recording system, and this has to be the most extensive feature ever written about it:

The eSession Experience: Online Recording for All

Updated: In case you don’t read comments, we’re getting like an interactive caption going. Brian T writes:


The picture? I think you picked on the wrong guy there… that’s Pat Mastelotto, drummer with Mr. Mister, XTC, King Crimson, and a lot of sessions and electronic projects e.g. mastica, TU, Centrozoon. Just about the best mixer of acoustic and electronic drums (& sequencers) around today.

It’s, uh, not actually the brilliant Pat Mastelotto I’m picking on, it’s the incongruous MIDI gear amongst that giant drum setup. To make matters worse, David notes it looks like he’s giving the finger to the M-Audio. M-Audio, apologies.