Move over, marching band: laptop orchestras are here. Princeton’s laptop orchestra PLOrk will be the featured guest at dorkbot in New York this week, but it’s not the only “laptop ensemble.” The Electronic Music Foundation’s Arts Electric notes laptop orchestras span the globe from New Jersey to Russia:

PLOrk @ Princeton

Moscow Laptop Cyber Orchestra

Oddly enough, these pictures seem to go against the zeitgeist of readers here on Create Digital Music, many of whom prefer to stow their laptop out of the way and focus on physical controllers. I’m hoping that occasionally these laptopists (?) get some more physical interaction with their machines. But there’s no question laptops open up new possibilities for ensemble playing. Challenge: find a way to build rhythms as intricate as those in Indonesian gamelans, only with new wave sounds. Not easy, huh?

Anyone got some other computer music ensembles? I saw Berklee School of Music’s ensemble (a school that also has a turntable ensemble), so that’s at least one, but I expect readers here know of / play in / direct others.

Personally, I rely almost entirely on friends (both web- and meatspace-based) for my musical enlightenment. Occasionally I’ll do the rounds of MP3 blogs, generally stopping at Aurgasm, 3hive, Stereogum and more recently The Hype Machine, but more often I let those more musically inquisitive than I do the filtering and feed me the best bits. Most of the artists I’ve “discovered myself” recently were through music video blogs such as No Fat Clips and Ticklebooth.

For music purchases I’m tending to use label sites much more than services such as iTunes Music Store. Having a seperate account for each niche-label isn’t the most friendly setup, but I feel like more of my money is making it to the artist, and the label sites and releases are definitely more fun and personable.

I enjoyed the leadup to Hybrid’s most recent release “I Choose Noise“. First came the single “Just For Today”, released for free download on the Hybrid Sound System site. Then came the “I Choose Noise EP“, containing 2 extra tracks as an MP3 single for £2, which was followed, finally, by the full album release for £8 as MP3 download or £8.50 for a “cd exclusive” including live DVD. All of the downloads are DRM free, format-shiftable, share-with-your-friends-able, 320KBit MP3 files. Lovely.

To get an idea of what other CDM readers and contributors are listening to, check out the CDM group on Last.fm (and join up if you haven’t done so already). There’s also the Today I have been mostly listening to… thread, which could do with some reanimating. That’s only a tiny cross-section of the CDM readership though, so I’d really love to hear from those who are making and releasing music. Sources of free legal tracks we can copy and share with friends are great too, of course.

You can hear the piece in its entirety, thanks to an installation that plays free daily at Washington DC’s National Gallery of Art. That installation was supposed to end last month as part of the Dada show, but it’s been extended through May 7, including a concert with new music written for the “ensemble.” I know it’s still running, because the other day I got a mysterious cell phone call from my Dad with what sounded like a 15-car automobile accident in progress. Of . . . player pianos.

The installation runs entirely via MIDI, in a fairly conventional setup. A Power Mac G5 running MOTU Digital Performer simply plays a MIDI sequence that plays the instruments. It’s the instruments themselves that are unusual: every single one is played in an entirely automated fashion, though all of them are acoustic. (And, I might add, loud.)

Popular demand has extended the piece, challenging the notion that audiences don’t like avant-garde. After all, one listen to this piece and some of our more contemporary “avant-garde” works sound positively pedestrian.

Especially when the robotic xylophone rebels against its human masters and leads a cyborg metallophone revolution.

Full details of the concert, the installation, the work, the composer, and everything else here:

The Ballet Mechanique Page

Related:
Gulbransen, who made the pianos, have also created self-playing violins and beer bottle organs, as seen previously here on CDM. Eric Singer has been responsible for flaming propane-powered organs, and (with LEMUR) the GuitarBot robotic guitar instrument.

For still more, see tag robotics.

Let me know if you’re able to get to DC.

This weekend in New York and Philadelphia, the American Composers Orchestra presents a concert mixing electronic music tech with the biggest acoustic sound on the planet, the orchestra. They’ve pulled all the stops: electric violin with laptop, laptop and turntablist DJs, drum pads, and even the orchestra reimagined through the filter of DJ and electronica techniques. Involved forces involve everyone from choreographer Bill T. Jones to composer Neil Rolnick to Daniel Bernard Roumain (pictured). I’ll be at the New York show and plan to cover this more, but in the meantime, here’s some reading material. And if you’re local, hope you’ll check this out and let us know what you think.

ACO Orchestra Underground Tech & Techno

Frank Oteri: Future Shock

Composer Neil Rolnick and Violinist Todd Reynolds, Interviewed by Joel Chadabe

A Composer, a Dance Choreographer, a DJ, and Filmmaker (sounds like the opening line from a really exclusive joke . . . so a turntablist, an interactive media artist, and Merce Cunningham walk into a bar . . . especially excited about this one)