Create Digital Music » music-videos

Visual Music: A Waveform Made of Vinyl Records, Benga Single, Inspired by Seeing Sound

Peter Kirn — Mon, 21 May 2012 13:17:13 +0000

Benga’s latest video was released early last month and made the blog rounds, but it’s worth considering as we continue our ongoing thread on visual music and how sound can go from invisible to tangible. A stunning video whets fans appetite for the upcoming Benga full-length Chapter 2, constructing a wave shape in physical form as a series of vinyl records. Using some 960 hand-cut vinyl records, the track’s waveform materializes in stop motion-filmed animation.

Physical as it may be, the inspiration, say the creative team, was SoundCloud. UK-based creative team Us, consisting of Christopher Barrett and Luke Taylor, explain:

When we were asked to pitch on the promo they sent us the track as a ‘Soundcloud’ link, we usually get it sent as an MP3. For the first time we were not just listening to the track we were also watching it. There was something mesmerising about this in its simplicity. This ignited the idea to create a real life three dimensional waveform. We started to think about the fact that a vast amount of our music is consumed online and has lost a sense of physicality this lead us to the idea of using vinyl records. We also loved the way it related to Benga as an artist who’s background comes from using records as a DJ or producer.

The maths worked we would need 960 records to create 1 minute and 20 seconds worth of wave form. Each one had to be individually cut to a specific size, hand labeled, hand numbered and then finally polished. This prep took 7 full working days and then the animation process took around 30 hours.

No 3D printers here: the process of making the individual, differently-sized records sounds painstaking. Us tells Creative Review:

To animate the wave form, we built it and then carefully removed each individual record. This had to be done very gently as any shift in the position of the sculpture would result in the failure of the animation and as we had to literally destroy each piece of vinyl to get it off, there was only one chance to get it right. Once the sculpture was finally built, the animation process took about 30 hours.

As you can see in the behind-the-scenes photos, actually working those records onto the pipe involved removing the far end, making this still more challenging (though adding a great deal to the impact of the effect).

This is all quite similar to another radial, sample-by-sample waveform made of physical circles we saw earlier this year:
Voice Messages Become 3D Paper Waveform Sculptures: Paper Note

Making a waveform view in the digital realm is dead-simple. But something about going to physical media makes that decision more than just afterthought, as though these creators really are touching frozen sound.

Having Benga as your soundtrack doesn’t hurt, either. You can grab this single on iTunes.

Full credits:

Directors – Us
Producer – Liz Kessler
Line Producer – Connor Hollman
DoP – Matt Fox
Gaffer – Ben Fordesman
Editor – Vid Price
Grade – Mark Horrobin
Animation – Alice Dupre
Structural consultant – Jorge Betancor
Runners – Tayo Rapoport, Paul Mckelvie, Chaelyn Allcock
Production Company – A+
Commissioner – Dan Millar
Management – Phil Hutcheon / Andrew Foggin

Behind-the-scenes photos courtesy Us.

See the full project page for lots of additional images and details:

http://www.weareus.co.uk/projects/benga-i-will-never-change

Thanks, Andrew Cavette!

From the iPad’s Screen, the Music of Human Boot Project [Tabletop]

Peter Kirn — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:36:14 +0000

Speaking of the iPad and music making, Japan’s Human Boot Project draw a music video release for their latest track directly from screen as they play, working in the app Tabletop. I really love the personality of the resulting sounds. There’s a rawness to their music, the dense downtempo jazz-inspired electronics, which you can enjoy on their new EP “Picture Over Picture.” It’s a Beatport exclusive from Greece’s V.I.M. Records:

http://www.beatport.com/release/picture-over-picture-ep/887326

The artists say it’s “Downtempo beauty to Jazz Electronica futurism !!” (Exclamation points theirs, but … I agree.)

Human Boot Project are a Japanese underground music unit. This is a genre breaker fusing Jazz with Rock and Drum and Bass and one to get the synapses twinging.

http://www.humanboot.com
http://www.facebook.com/humanboot
http://soundcloud.com/hbp

Tabletop ~~is on sale now for 99 cents~~ currently free, though note that a lot of what you’re seeing here requires in-app purchases of add-ons:
http://apps.createdigitalmusic.com/apps/tabletop

Artist Paul Salva consulted on the app, and in a video with the LA Times walks through the features in detail, if you want a closer look at the app. (Interestingly, he notes many in the LA scene are going iPad live.)

New Matthew Dear Pops Ears; Morgan Beringer Video Melts Retinas

Peter Kirn — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 19:18:12 +0000

Texas-born, Detroit-raised, New York-based artist Matthew Dear has a new EP, to be followed by a full-length in 2012. It’s worth mentioning now for two reasons: one, the driving, “chugging” rhythms of the single, “Headcage,” will pop into your head and stay there, led by Dear’s vocal ability to croon and groove simultaneously. Second, the opening of this video may well make your mind go squish. The work of London-based director Morgan Beringer, seen previously milking monochrome textures out of another Matthew Dear collab, the film makes it look like some very colorful part of the Earth’s crust turned a film into magma. It settles down, but the opening frames are to me transcendent, especially when set to a similarly-morphing sonic backdrop.

You can stream and download the single via SoundCloud:

Matthew Dear – Headcage by ghostly

More on the upcoming release from Ghostly:
Matthew Dear: Headcage

The music writing echoes a bit for me Eno and Byrne on My Life in the Bush of Ghosts; perhaps channeling that, the album art by Michael Cina for Dear has washes of indistinct color, like a kaleidoscope set into motion, then blurred. Ghostly reports Dear co-produced the single with Van Rivers and The Subliminal Kid, vets of the acclaimed self-titled Fever Ray. The rest of the album is full of other vocal and producer collaborations. More on this when it arrives.

Remixing the World: A Sampler of Sampling, via Readers

Peter Kirn — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:30:24 +0000

The possibilities of a microphone and the world are limitless, so as this week we looked at a recording of music made with playgrounds, a mic, and Ableton Live, readers responded in kind with a fantastic spectrum of sampling-inspired, real world-produced musical wonder. From comments, a few examples:

Diego Stocco, a favorite sound designer on this site, ventures in his latest installment into a dry cleaner. Clean, wrinkle-free clothes and great music – see, you don’t actually have to choose. See top.

“Vega” by CDM reader Cordovan Music (Gregory Reeves), is an eerily-lovely ambient score made from LA’s freeways – and perhaps an ominous, if beautiful, portent of a lot of us driving on said freeways for NAMM in January.

Vega by Cordovan Music

From the experimental and minimal ambient release “Photic”, “Vega” is made entirely from field recordings taken on Los Angeles freeways.
About the album:
Gregory Reeves is a Los Angeles-based electronic artist, composer, and musician. His work can be heard on A&E, History Channel, FUEL TV, Universal, EA Games and many more. His sound art and installation work includes pieces for the Gaffa Gallery, Sydney, as well as creating a soundscape for the huge geodesic dome at the Peats Ridge festival in Australia, New Years eve. Electronic releases under various aliases have received winning reviews in XLR8R, URB, JazzTimes, and Rolling Stone. Remixes include Bob Marley and the Wailers (“One Love” from “Roots Rock Remixed” on Tuff Gong/Quango), Sarah Vaughan, and others.
“Photic” is a collection of minimal, generative ambient works. “Vega” is made entirely from manipulated field recordings taken on Los Angeles freeways. “Dark Field” uses convolved urban sounds to create a brooding ambient soundscape (the piece was originally composed for the DUOscope multimedia installation in Sydney). “Anemone” was created using undersea video footage to generate musical events, while “Haiku in C” is based on classical Japanese Gagaku music. For fans of Brian Eno, Murcof, and Loscil

Reader Cillian John, in the more pedestrian-friendly city of Stockholm, looked instead to escalators.

On and on by cillianjohn

He writes:

The urban environment is full of inspiring noises. I particularly enjoy the mechanical rhythms you hear all round.
The rhythmic element of this track is a field recording of escalator I recorded while on a trip to Stockholm.

Audiovisual remix superstar Pogo, aka Perth, Australia-based Nick Bertke, is embarking on a mission to “remix the world” as has inspired the headline of this post. Check out the spectacular results, and perhaps even get involved (thanks, BenAlex):

http://www.pogomix.net/remixing-the-world/
Kickstarter on Tibet

(I’m awaiting further details, but I am personally angered by the apparent mistreatment of Bertke which recently resulted in a 10-year deportation from the United States of America – and even that only after seemingly-extreme prison time and detainment that required the intervention of the consulate of New Zealand; you can follow on his blog. I’ve been deeply frustrated by the apparent targeting of artists, whatever the requirements of the law, in the US and Canada. More on that soon; anyone with expertise or experience in these matters, I’d love to hear from you. I feel it’s worth bringing up, as I’m sure that someone would have done so in comments as this story has spread.)

I’m sure there are many, many other examples, but this seems to me a nice place to begin – and fertile ground for inspiration to make something yourself.

Punched-Hole Tunes: Ritornell’s Musicbox Business Cards, as Delicate and Magical as the Music

Peter Kirn — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 17:07:47 +0000

Experimenting with twinkling timbres made both by acoustic and electronic means, the music of Ritornell (the duo of composer Dr. Richard Eigner and pianist Roman Gerold, Austria) is effortlessly expressive and spontaneous. Little wonder that that spirit could translate even to a small object.

Designer Katharina Hölzl made business cards into both a signature identity for Ritornell and a physical manifestation of how they play their music. They’re not just a physical gimmick, though: audiences get to participate with music making in the production of live, performative loops. (Sadly, no site for Katharina – you just have to get hold of one of her designs!)

Description of the project:

Ritornell’s business cards are inspired by the project’s live show. The improvised concerts evoke a lively atmosphere by the combination of filigree electronics with playful timbres of diverse acoustic instruments and utensils such as egg whisks, toilet brushes, chopsticks or sewing needles. As an integral part of their set list, Ritornell invites the audience to bring along their private musicboxes. Arranged in a big circle, the players’ speed of turning levers is conducted: the results are as shimmering as you would expect.

Katharina Hölzl designed very special business cards to recreate this playful sonic universe. With the aid of laser assisted milling, nine micro compositions consisting of circles, triangles and Ritornell’s contact information were applied onto a long musicbox paper stripe. Before handing out the cards to interested adressees, each individual subdivision is played back via an especially designed musical box – thus providing every business card receiver with a tailor made musical experience.

More information on the project:
Ritornell for Musicbox

Punched cards of this kind of a profound relationship to generative music and computer music. For its part, the very genesis of the computer comes from punched cards: the punched cards in early mechanical looms used for textiles would inspire Charles Babbage. It’s possible that Max Mathews’ first digital audio, and other computer music that employed punched cards, would not have done so without the precedent of the textile industry.

And, of course, the music box and player piano also owe their genesis to punched cards, and thus the pre-digital mechanical reproduction of music. In an era before MIDI, composer Conlon Nancarrow made his own piano rolls, punched to his custom specifications, to play parts that would otherwise be impossible – before complex, glitchy, tracker-made electronic music. (Kyle Gann has a great piece on Nancarrow.) Those piano rolls have echoes in the interactive work of digital artist Toshio Iwai, and in the mechanical, push-button simplicity of the falling tracks of gems in music games from developers like Harmonix. By adding hand-cranked audience participation, though, Ritornell brings the mechanism into the realm of jazz.

And speaking of jazz influence, it’s well worth looking at the rest of the music of Ritornell.

Ritornell, the duo. Photo by Mirjam Unger, courtesy Ritornell.

As glowing ambient worlds cross paths with cooly-casual jazz, Ritornell’s music is to me endlessly evocative. Jazz gesture and good humor merge with waves of richly-imagined sonic textures. It’s music that’s both cinematic and improvisatory, dreamlike but well worth repeated listens. (I find it quite hard not to put it on loop, with warm swells of timbre against percussive rhythms, it fits perfectly with the deep mustard and gold hues of the last wave of autumn leaves in November.)

With the slightly-distant allure of Vienna-based vocalist Mimu added to the mix, the music is a kind of ambient pop reverie.

Don’t miss the music videos, shot seemingly through a thick, warm mist. And check out the rest of the music on the site. I hope we hear more from these folks.

Listening:
Golden Solitude, an eclectic, jazz-inflected sonic journey of an LP

Full discography

Richard Eigner also did drums on “German Haircut” for Flying Lotus’ epic Cosmogramma

http://www.ritornell.at/

Versatile vocalist Mimu, right, as Richard looks on. Photo: Nina Divitschek.

Studio photos, Clemens Fantur.

Modeselektor and Thom Yorke in Crazy-Good Track: New Video, More from Monkeytown

Peter Kirn — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 11:37:13 +0000

You know they’re enjoying this. So you will, too. Photo: Ragnar Schmuck Studio, courtesy Modeselektor.

Absorbing the earnestly-nervous urgency of Thom Yorke’s rhythms, Modeselektor dial in a perfect collaboration on “Shipwreck,” a highlight from their latest full-length. Tony T. Datis directs the music video adaptation into a dark narrative. Wandering children set the scene, but keep watching as the cadence of the video begins to gather momentum; Datis finds his way into the phrasing of the music and the story becomes gripping as it moves on.

Thom Yorke, meanwhile, has quietly become a voice beyond his band or even his solo work, effortlessly stepping into extraordinary electronic collaborations in recent years.

And Modeselektor, for their part, have I think a real triumph with Monkeytown. I caught the duo in an intimate setting in Berlin, and was struck as always by their compulsive, sometimes whimsical invention – it comes across in their music, in the gleeful rapport they share together. That’s a fancy way of saying these boys enjoy messing around with music. (They also enjoy, in the show I saw, ripping apart the walls, fiddling with strobe lights, and spraying champagne on people. But that doesn’t stop them from operating their machines beautifully.) The album deserves a track-by-track review – I welcome guest contributions in case I don’t get to it – but in one terrific collaboration after another, Gernot and Sebastian craft perfect, dance-inspiring songs. The PR says something about how they still “assault the dance floor” with songs with “structure” but that doesn’t sound nearly as good as it feels.

Have a listen and let us know if you can put it better. With Busdriver, you get a much … less dark … sound than the one above, with some of the signature humor Modeselektor manages to make eminently danceable. On SoundCloud:

Modeselektor feat. Busdriver “Pretentious Friends” (MONKEYTOWN) OUT SEP 30 by Modeselektor

“Shipwreck” EP release, with HD video, is out on November 4.
Shipwreck @ Monkeytown Records

For everything else:
http://www.modeselektor.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Modeselektor/104116429625888?ref=ts
http://twitter.com/#!/modeselektor
http://www.myspace.com/mdslktr
http://monkeytownrecords.de/

French Rock Band Makes Steve Jobs Tribute From His Words

Peter Kirn — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 09:45:34 +0000

People still find heroes – imperfect as they may be, people who provide inspiration. I’ve been talking a lot this year about the impact of Max Mathews; more on that soon. But in the aftermath of Steve Jobs’ death, it’s touching to see some of the reactions. French Rock band Bravery in Battle write CDM to share their music video homage to the Apple leader. They’ve gotten quite a lot of attention in French, as well (French-language links):

«Ayez faim, soyez fous»… les bonnes paroles de Steve jobs mises en musique [Liberation]
Un bel hommage à Steve Jobs en musique (vidéo) [stevejobs.fr]

We are Bravery in Battle, a French rock band. When we heard of Steve Jobs’s death, on October the 5th, we decided at once to write some music to pay him homage.
We have been using the Mac to make music for almost 15 years now and it’s completely part of our creative process. We also have been using
the iPad on stage since the very first days of its launching to trigger samples and play instruments too cumbersome to carry.
Without Apple and its products, we wouldn’t the artists we are today.
But we didn’t want to write a song, we wanted to use Steve’s very words and hear his own voice. That’s why we used his memorable 2005 Stanford Commencement Address. We have chosen the words which seemed the most meaningful for us and for the occasion.
As an additional homage, we played all the music on an iPad, with GarageBand : a Steve Jobs Tribute using only his devices and softwares.
To make a video; we used the same Stanford Address (made on a Mac, too, with Final Cut Pro X).
The original speech was very widely consulted on the Net in the hours following Steve Jobs’s death but our video tells something else. It focuses on a single point and increases its emotion.
For Bravery in Battle
Paul Malinowski

Kompal Make a Crazy Sound and Light Machine, Ask You to Hunt for Triangles; Music + Video

Peter Kirn — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 20:29:56 +0000

They are so totally invited to our platonic solid and regular polygon music festival. Let’s hold it on the island of Samos, okay? Who’s in? Photo courtesy the artists.

Perhaps channeling ancient cults of Pythagoras, the producer duo Kompal, based in Austria, have not only made an insane noise machine powered by light, but also ask you to hunt for triangles. Yes, the shape. Instead of a remix contest or photo contest or “like our Facebook page” business, they want you to take pictures of polygons.

First, about that sound-and-light-and-noise thing that will scare your friends. It is “a unique soundmachine controlled by light, containing controllable flashlights
as well as an optical filter, loudspeakers, an audio output and a hall effect drive. And last but not least the red “turbo button”.”

It isn’t entirely unique, in that it recalls designs like Bleep Labs’ Thinamagoop and the classic STEIM cracklebox, among others, but it is a lot bigger and more frightening. (I know at least one person trying to carry something like this through 9/11 security in NYC yesterday, and am curious how that went.)

The good news: you can win this:

Win the Kompalisator!
The Kompal producers Bernhard Belej and Jodok Dietrich have started a
galactic photo contest themed “Kompalisiere your world”. Those who
would like to join the contest should keep their eyes wide open and be
after any kind of triangle. Take a picture, upload it on Kompal fb or
www.kompal.eu and hope for plenty of user ratings. The pictures could
also be sent via mail to meinewelt@kompal.eu. A jury will choose the
winner of the fantastic “Kompalisator” out of the ten pictures
that got the most likes on September 30.

For more information about Kompal, their music and live shows visit
www.kompal.eu
YOUTUBE: http://youtu.be/AknizoL7zZY
Photos: http://gallery.me.com/bernhard.be#100144
“KOMPALISATOR”: http://kompal.eu/kompalisator.php
http://kompal.eu/kompalisator-postcards.pdf

Their music is actually rather lovely, not the mayhem of this particular box – think dreamy and slick, if thoroughly technological, sparkling and then adding in amiable beats and bass.

And full of triangles. A nicely-built, silly video, and some tracks:

Latest tracks by Kompal

Sigur Ros: INNI, New Project Trailer

Peter Kirn — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 23:29:28 +0000

Out of an explosion of terrifying industrial noise, through a murky haze of retro-tinged monochromatic texture, Sigur Rós emerge in an enigmatic teaser for a new project dubbed INNI.

In case that arresting grind of gears and aggressive cacophony don’t square you away, you’re treated to film of the band playing and more-characteristic, lullaby-like tunes.

It remains extraordinary to me what a phenomenon Sigur Rós and, via bandmates, Jónsi have become. These Icelandic maestros have made all manner of sonic experimentation wildly popular, bringing their moody, sometimes-cinematic, meandering compositional genius around the planet.

Some music I like, personally, is very unpopular. Some makes Stereogum – like Sigur Rós. And in this case, I’m excited for a new release. (Most readers are betting, and I agree, on a live concert video release. If it all looks like this, that’ll be just fine.) Strip away the visibility, the artiness of a particular band, and to me Sigur Rós’ members have represented some vitally important musical imagination in recent years. You?

Side note – thanks for using Topspin, and making things embeddable and not exclusive. Embed on.

Autechre Set, 1991-2002, With Videos, With or Without the Actual Box

Peter Kirn — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 17:26:34 +0000

Rob Brown and Sean Booth, aka Autechre, remain one of the most forward-thinking acts in electronic music; going back to their work from a decade or two ago feels less like history and more like futuristic artifact, a musical seed from space unearthed in a cornfield somewhere and about to rip your throat (or ears) out. Warp Records’ Bleep service doing the hard work for you and collecting all their EPs? That’s very good news.

EPs 1991-2002 promises to be what a box set should be: all substance, no nonsense, and with 47 tracks, many of them rare and out of print, for US$30-50, this is an astoundingly-good deal.

In a sign of the times, you can even forgo the box if you don’t want it. (Yes, yes, tangible objects and whatnot – but many electronic music lovers live in cramped urban quarters.) US$29.99 buys you high-quality 320kbps MP3s, and an extra $3 gets you the proper, uncompressed files. Or you can get the box set with the five CDs and some lovely packaging. Regardless of which option you choose, the fine folks at Warp don’t hold on out you; you still get three of Autechre’s ground-breaking music videos in high-quality form. It’s about time we get to see them somewhere other than grainy YouTube clips, or, erm, the countless music videos by other artists that have tried to clone them cheaply.

Nor do you have to wait. Pre-order the physical box or buy only the downloads, and video and audio downloads are ready for you, right now.

Highlights:

Cavity Job (1991 – First Autechre release from before they signed to Warp and not available on CD before)
Basscad EP (1994)
Anti EP (1995)
Garbage (1995)
Anvil Vapre (1995)
Peel Session (Transmitted 1995, released 1999)
Envane (1997)
Cichlisuite (1997)
EP7 (1999)
Peel Session 2 (Transmitted 1999, released 2001)
Gantz_Graf (2002)

All versions come with 3 High Quality Videos:
Second Bad Vilbel (Chris Cunningham)
Gantz_Graf (Alexander Rutterford)
Basscadet (Jess Scott Hunter)

Release page: EPS, 1991-2001

Actually, full track listing:
1. Cavity Job
2. Accelera 1 & 2
3. Basscadet (Bcdtmx)
4. Basscadet (Basscadoublemx)
5. Basscadet (Tazmx)
6. Basscadet (Basscadubmx)
7. Lost
8. Djarum
9. Flutter
10.Garbagemx
11. PIOBmx
12. Bronchusevenmx
13. VLetrmx
14. Second Bad Vilbel
15. Second Scepe
16. Second Scout
17. Second Peng
18. Milk DX
19. Inhake 2
20. Drane
21. Goz Quarter
22. Latent Quarter
23. Laughing Quarter
24. Draun Quarter
25. Yeesland
26. Pencha
27. Characi
28. Krib
29. Tilapia
30. Rpeg
31. Ccec
32. Squeller
33. Left Blank
34. Outpt
35. Dropp
36. Liccflii
37. Maphive6.1
38. Zeiss Contarex
39. Netlon Sentinel
40. Pir
41. Gelk
42. Blifil
43. Gaekwad
44. 19 Headaches
45. Gantz_Graf
46. Dial.
47. Cap IV

For reference only (you really need those high-quality files), here are the videos in question; first, the legendary, oft-copied Gantz_Graf video by Alexander Rutterford:

Next, Chris Cunningham’s contribution:

Actually, watching these with all the TV artefacts is … kind of awesome. So here’s another:

Lastly, Jess Scott Hunter’s interpretation of Basscadet: