There are festivals, and then there’s Unsound. While so much in electronic music programming walks the line between club accessibility and more adventurous experimentation, some time falling over one side or the other of that divide, Unsound consistently hits the center of the bullseye with some of the most creative, imaginative music around. It’s just smart music. You can catch Unsound in its home city of Krakow, Poland, or you can find it as it pulls an international roster of artist to the metropolis New York City. And, at the moment, you can enjoy it from the comfort of wherever you call home, thanks to a nice stream from Hype Machine and Unsound that hops to the top of our must-listen queue for Monday.

Who’s in store? Alongside Polish animation and other goodness, expect a night of ladies whose names begin with the letter J working with experimental sounds (LA’s Julia Holter, Norway’s Jenny Hval, New York’s Julia Kent), a reimagining of Herbie Hancock by Poland’s LXMP, Germany’s wonderful Pole and the ongoing tour of Monolake’s visual-sonic masterwork, England’s Demdike Stare, New York’s own ambient imagineer Zemi17, and bass mainstays like Sepalcure and 2562. There are talks on history, explorations of music technique and particularly performance, and even a tribute to (too-often unsung) Manhattan minimal pioneer La Monte Young. (That great herald of experimental sound, The Wire Magazine is involved in discussions.) I’m probably most disappointed myself not to witness the premiere of “TRINITY,” a promising-looking, epic exploration of nuclear testing in New Mexico by Biosphere and Lustmond, bringing together two of the world’s most sonically-imaginative artists.

If you can make it to Poland or Manhattan, I certainly endorse experiencing the festival in person, but in the meantime, let’s enjoy surveying its musical treats:

http://unsound.pl/en

The urgency of being way behind a single dominant player can make electronics makers do some odd stuff to promote their products. iPod, once an icon of digital cool, has achieved such ubiquity that it doesn’t even try to be hip any more. The thing is being promoted with American Idol, for crying out loud — not exactly indie cred. We saw Microsoft enlisting indie musicians and animators to sell Zune, of course.

But here’s where things get surprisingly amazing: Sony is using weird and wonderful Japanese experimental music to promote Walkman.

Now we’re talking.

And whether or not Walkman is cool again, this is for sure: Japanese experimental musicians? Mind-blowingly cool. And, apparently, in love with using light as a controller for sound.

Atsuhiro Ito uses contact mics on a fluorescent bulb he dubs the Optron. Instead of just being stage eye candy, the bulbs are really making the sounds here; coupled with guitar effects, he can solo on the bulbs. It’s what the Knitting Factory will be like after the nuclear winter. I can’t wait.

Taeji Sawai uses a light pen to draw melodic lines and rhythmic onto a screen. The basic effect – track light from a single source – is old. Yet he’s clearly got a brilliant aesthetic mind that makes it all work; the elements are strikingly simple but never fail to be engaging. And there’s a strong connection to work by his fellow sonic inventor Toshio Iwai.

Thanks to our friend Donald Bell of cnet, aka very talented and (cool) musician Chachi Jones, who has a great write-up:

Sony Walkman promos are awesome, confusing

Confusing? No, I’d say Sony is confusing; the real question is why their Walkman can’t be more like these ads. Plus, since neither Don nor I can read Japanese, how do we know those characters don’t say something like “Hey, guys, sorry for that bit with the lousy boring electronics – we’re coming back from the dark side to make awesome things again”? Okay, maybe not. (Do let me know if the next one says “Fine, you damned snarky blogger, I’d like to see you run a giant multinational corporation.”)

Admittedly, the problem here is this makes me want to toss my iPod touch out the window and build my own open source MP3 player with Popsicle sticks and wire, or, at best, mod an original Walkman so I can play circuit-bent OGG files using power from a bicycle. At the very least, I’m ready to add to my Atsuhiro Ito and Taeji Sawai collection. And I don’t think their full body of work is on iTunes. That’s just as well.

So, Sony, thanks. Now, will you let us run homebrew music apps on your PSP? Please?

Now, why would anyone imagine this wouldn’t have widespread commercial appeal?

If you enjoy real analog insanity – crazy noises that challenge the ears – you’ll like these videos sent to us by Hans Tammen, the composer, “endangered guitar” artist, and director of NYC’s Harvestworks. He writes:

you like analog stuff, as I know. Here are two excerpts of a concert with one of Rob Hordijk’s Blippoo Boxes. Just that tiny analog beast plus volume pedal…

Of course, part of what I like about analog — and digital — sound sources is their range. Want to make something that sounds noisy and chaotic? Want to make something that sounds more organic? Delicate? We really do have infinite timbral choices.

So I’d say, even if you hate these kinds of results, they’re a reminder that no sound is off-limits. You can make whatever noise you like.

See also: the slow section. (“Adagio” wouldn’t quite fit, somehow.)

Elsewhere: I see these have already been on Matrixsynth.
Matrixsynth: Blippoo Box Solo Concert (1) – Slow Movements Excerpt
Matrixsynth: [Noodle]Blippoo Box fun

I really, really love the knobs on this one. Lovely. From mono-poly’s blog, via Matrixsynth.

Ed.: 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:

Festival Dates:
Los Angeles Bent Festival – April 17th-19th, 2008.
New York Bent Festival – April 24th-26th, 2008.
Minneapolis Bent Festival – May 1st-3rd, 2008.

Proposals:
Proposal Deadline: February 5th, 2008
Participant Notification: February 15, 2008

This call is for all three festivals.

Proposals to each festival must be submitted separately.

In keeping with the expanding interests of the community, this year we 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.

We are currently seeking performers and artists to participate at each of the above locations and are specifically looking for submissions in these categories:

Performers
Installation Artists
Artwork Submissions
Workshop Instructors

Please send all proposals and questions to the appropriate email address:

Minneapolis Bent Festival – bentmpls@thetanknyc.org
New York Bent Festival – bentnyc@thetanknyc.org
Los Angeles Bent Festival – bentla@thetanknyc.org

Proposals to each festival must be submitted separately.

PERFORMERS
Bent Festival seeks bands and/or solo artists who incorporate home built or circuit bent instruments or ideas in their performance.

To have your work considered: Please email a short description of your act, along with a link to mp3s and photos if you have them. (Please do not send attachments larger than 1MB).

INSTALLATION ARTISTS
Bent Festival is looking for installation artists who can commit at least 15 hours to creating site-specific pieces of art at each of the venues during the duration of the festival.

Each of the three venues (New York, Minneapolis and LA) are quite different but our goal is to have artists creating work for each of them. Installation artists will be provided with
space, materials, electronic equipment and tools as we are able.

To have your work considered: Please submit via email a one-page proposal of your installation idea along with examples of your past work. Please be prepared to commit to spending time in the installation space during the festival and be prepared for a shared and at times hectic work environment. No white walls here!

ARTWORK SUBMISSIONS
In addition to installation artists, we would like to have featured art work that fits with the spirit of the festival from people who might not be able to join us in person or who cannot
commit to working in the space during the duration of the festival.

To have your work considered: Please submit via email digital images or links of your work and a brief description.

WORKSHOP INSTRUCTORS
Bent Festival is seeking workshop instructors to present on various topics. Topics in previous years have included: General circuit bending workshops for beginners and extremely technical, hands on workshops on a particular aspect or niche of the genre.

To have your work considered: Please describe the subject you would like to lead a workshop on and provide a one-page description of that workshop, in addition include links or examples of your current and past work in the field.

COMPENSATION
Stipends for all festival performers, artists, and workshop leaders will be provided. We have a limited number of travel grants available as well. Please contact for more information.

CONTACT INFO

Each festival has its own submission email address, so please apply accordingly. To apply to multiple festivals, you must send your submission to each email address separately.

Minneapolis Bent Festival – bentmpls@thetanknyc.org
New York Bent Festival – bentnyc@thetanknyc.org
Los Angeles Bent Festival – bentla@thetanknyc.org

Thanks, Wilfred Fumbly. (video’s gone now … more in a moment)

So, the original theory holds: most likely a sample rate issue. Well, unless Van Halen is really old school, run their backing tracks on reel-to-reels, and had that set to the wrong speed. Sample rates it is.

More importantly, we’ve definitively proven Eddie is a “great guitar player,” which I know is what was really bothering everybody about this clip. He demonstrates this greatness with true vigor, by playing as loudly as possible for five minutes completely out of tune with the backing track and the vocals (which were matching the backing track) as if he’s completely deaf. If you had any doubts about what a true Guitar Hero is, now you know. (And yeah, unfortunately, I do think that really was his only choice. Guess the techs couldn’t get the clock rate set back to normality.)

Speaking of Guitar Hero / Rock Band: Activision / Harmonix, if you’re listening, I think you know what my request for an Easter Egg in your game would be.

Updated: The video is gone. So now we can not only speculate about what happened to Van Halen, but what happened to the video. Perhaps WilfredFumbly noticed that, while the keyboard part in Greensboro was pitched higher than the original album recording, so were other gigs on the tour. That means the guitar is far from absolved. And it lends new credence to my “Wormhole Theory.” Maybe Eddie’s guitar was temporarily replaced with one from the past, in which the song was in a different key, or even an alternate universe where this is in tune.

Okay. I got nothing.