Category Archives: 7 – MIXED MEDIA

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The Art of Toyz

Last week, after too many coffees and a slushy walk through the wintry East Village, I stopped by NYU to warm up in the digital glow of the ITP Winter Show. Up on the 4th floor of Tisch School of the Arts, the scene was crowded and upbeat, as the department showed off its latest explorations into technology, media and art.

I tend to think of ITP’s huge loft space as a high-tech romper room, with its computer labs, circuit workshops, and reactive sculptures lining the halls. This “engineering for artists” program was founded in 1979, and since then has become a tight community of technologists, programmers, designers, and theorists experimenting with mechanical and digital technology. Using up-to-the-minute developments in software and hardware to inspire wonder and share information, the department describes itself as a “Center for the Recently Possible.”

Below is a video of some of the projects in the winter exhibit and conversations with a few of the many artists who showed their work (yes, it was very loud in there, almost like a New Year’s Eve Party!):

The projects in the show come out of ITP courses such as Introduction to Physical Computing, Virtual Worlds Workshop, Live Web, Live Image Processing and Performance, New Interfaces for Musical Expression, and several others. These include web-based experiments, gameplay, robotics, interactive objects and mobile applications.

Please check out some project pages by students in the Interactive Telecommunication Program, as they do a much better job of describing their work than what I was able to pick up on the fly. You can find all of the projects listed on the main ITP exhibit page as well:

Human Wind Chime
Historical Radio
Interactive Triangle Matrix
Beat Feet
Vonome
Dynamic Ground
Borealis MIDI Controller
The Bed
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– Jocelyn

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The Promotion Becomes the Product?

For music fans and listeners who don’t have the DJ chops, but still want to join in today’s remix culture, there’s a new suite of interactive listening tools from .MXP4.

I’ve been playing around on this company’s website, and as they say, with the .MXP4 format you don’t just listen to music, you can play with it as well: separate & mix the voices & instruments in a song the way you like it; construct a remix on the fly from different versions of a song; sing along in karaoke mode; and even buy digital albums that allow you to re-order the tracks and create a seamless party mix. It’s basically iTunes on steroids.

I cruised through some of the .MXP4 player features with examples on their website – 1) pulling instruments and voices out of a Bravery song 2) remixing a Calvin Harris tune 3) playing DJ with an eighties compilation. Check it out:

(Sorry ’bout that frame rate. What you get with free screencast software. )

.MXP4 lets the musician provide a richer multimedia presentation of a single or track. Other kinds of data can be laid into an .MXP4 file besides the sub-tracks or different versions, such as images and text. And there will be mobile and social media applications, so fans can share their mixes with friends.

For the listener, you can check out the .MXP4 player or widgets and browse through their current offerings. And for the band or artist, there is an .MXP4 editor in private beta testing. (There’s a prototype tutorial for that HERE.)

I’m not sure how widely received this technology will become, but I will say that I spent a lot more time listening to & tinkering with songs than I ever would with just my iPod. Which I guess is what .MXP4 and the artists involved would like you to do, especially if it means you’ll open your wallet and buy the music. 🙂

– Jocelyn

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Fiery Redhead vs Pyro Punks

When I heard that Kathy Supove was going to be performing with Toy Killers at the Stone on Halloween, I thought, “Toy Killers? Hmm…might be before my time.” I think I was still playing with toys when these guys were in full swing during the late ’70s and early ’80s. So I set off to see if I could find out more about them.

Lo and behold – YouTube has everything you know? – there’s a video trailer for a CD of unreleased Toy Killer material that came out last year. The band was/is made up of madmen percussionists Mark E. Miller and Charles K. Noyes, who apparently liked to literally tear it up and burn it down during their downtown performances. Mayhem ensued!

The pyromaniac pair made some industrial punk, no-wave noise with a host of downtown musicians like Elliott Sharp, John Zorn, Nicky Skopelitis, Bill Laswell, Arto Lindsay and the Golden Palominos. Actually, you can listen to a bunch recent demos from Miller and Noyes on their MySpace page. They sound just as clangy, buzzy and aggressive, but I didn’t hear firecrackers or blowtorches going off. Fire codes are a bit different these days, but it will be perfect Halloween fun to see Kathy (ahem, Kathleen) Supove go head to head with this infamous duo.

– Jocelyn

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Monome-Nucleosis

One of the most prominent new musical tools I saw in use during the MMiX performances and workshops last month was the Akai APC 40, a controller with buttons, knobs and sliders that was created specifically to work with Ableton LIVE.

The APC hasn’t been out that long, but already Ableton users have developed some far-out finger skills on the device, which almost remind me of keyboardists or guitarists with that kind of high speed dexterity on their own instruments. Some examples:

You could say the APC 40 is similar to the very popular monome, which made it’s first appearance on the electronic music scene as early as 2005. But the monome does not include knobs or faders, using just the minimal grid of backlit buttons on a square box, which is an open-ended interface that can be configured as toggles, groups, or sliders for pretty much any audio application. At this point, the active community of monome users and developers has started using the device for more sophisticated open source video, text and game applications.

Not to be left out in the cold, Novation releases their own Ableton controller this month. It’s called the Launchpad, designed to work with Ableton:

The Novation design seems to split the difference between the APC and the monome, but it probably won’t be as open as the monome. I haven’t found anything solid yet on whether it will work with anything other than Ableton, but I expect someone will figure how to hack it. But the basis for all these controllers are those backlit chicklets, like it’s the most natural musical act to press something and make sound, whether it’s keys, frets, pedals or silicone buttons.

– Jocelyn

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Getting Scientific at the Stone

A tip of the hat to a friend of MMiX who’s got some special performances coming up…

Elan Vytal (a.k.a. DJ Scientific) will drop a set tonight, Thursday, Oct 29 at The Stone in NYC, busting out the turntables and laptop to perform as the group LB (Pound) with electric violinist, Matt Szemela (a.k.a. String Theory). Elan and Matt have been cooking up an eclectic mix of urban beat juggling and melodic string popping that blends all kinds of underground and concert hall sounds in one high energy performance. It’s a rockin’ house party turned high art and you won’t want to miss it.

Also, on NOVEMBER 8 at 3pm, Elan Vytal performs at the Flea Theater’s Music With a View series curated by the great Kathleen Supove. The event is called “Instruments of Your Dreams”, a showcase of various artists working with unusual musical instruments. It features performances by Phyllis Chen (toy piano), Judy Dunaway (balloon), Doug Van Nort (laptop ensemble), Elan Vytal (turntables) and guest moderator, Ralph Farris (composer/arranger/violist of experimental indie string quartet, Ethel).

You may know that Elan Vytal is a long-time collaborator of acclaimed violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) and a member of DBR & The Mission. Both artists recently performed together for a First Fridays event at WNYC’s Greene Space. Here’s a taste of that night’s jam which highlights Elan’s skills on the turntables:

– Jocelyn

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In Case You MMiXed Out the First Time Around

Wondering why in the world you missed some of the incredible performances at the MMiX Festival 2 weeks ago? Well, I’ll help you redeem yourself because there are several opportunities to see some of those composers and musicians who participated in MMiX at some deeply cool gigs this week:

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***First off, composer, violinist and loop-meister, Todd Reynolds, performs with his string quartet and The Meredith Monk Ensemble TONIGHT at BAM’s Next Wave Festival. To quote Todd’s own description of this special performance:

“Songs of Ascension is Meredith Monk’s seminal work for her own vocal ensemble and string quartet.  It’s the first time Meredith has used string quartet as part of a larger work, and of course, as Meredith is one of my most-revered interdisciplinary and musical heroes, I am honored to be a part.  Early on, Meredith asked me to collaborate with her on this project and to put together the perfect string quartet team with great-spirited, flexible, excellent players, willing to seek virtuosity in the clear and simple, willing to memorize an hour’s worth of music and treat physical space as if it were the greatest musical score…”

Performance starts at 7:30pm and you can find out more about it at the BAM website or visit Todd Reynolds’ own blog, right here.

patrick

***Tomorrow night, Thursday, head downtown to The Stone for MMiX Festival curator, Patrick Grant, who will perform at 8:00pm. After rocking it out ensemble-style at MMiX, Patrick takes it down a notch for this appearance. Here’s the plan, according to Patrick’s Facebook event:

“PATRICK GRANT: IN BOCCA AL LOOPER – Armed with a keyboard, guitar and a laptop, I’ll be performing a solo set of music that grooves to the looping and layering of angular interlocking riffs, mash ups of both urban and world beats, and pop timbres used in the service of avant tonality. A sonic soup for the mind, body AND spirit. I hope you can make it. More info at http://www.patrickgrant.com.”

The Stone is located at the corner of Ave. C and East 2nd St., NYC (F train to 2nd Ave.), $10 at the door. The Stone is curated in the 2nd half of October by Kathleen Supové and its artistic director is John Zorn. If you stick around for the 10:00pm show, you can also catch Bora Yoon performing in HUMAYUN KHAN & GUESTS: Humayun Khan (Indian classical vocal improvisation, Afghan sufi) Said Tinat, Shahin Shahida (guitar), Bora Yoon (vocals, tanpura), Haroon Alam (tabla, percussion) Douglas J. Cuomo (guitar, electronica).

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***Finally, get the weekend started right with Joshua Fried/Radio Wonderland performing at free103point9‘s annual fall festival of radio art and experimentation at St. Mark’s Ontological Theater:

“Radio Wonderland: Joshua Fried turns the very bits and bytes of commercial culture into the driving backbeat to our dance of independence. In this developing solo, Fried abstracts live FM radio with laptop, electrified shoes hit with sticks, and a computer-hacked steering wheel (from a Buick 6).”

That’s Friday at 8:00pm, $7-$10 on a sliding scale. Shake a leg in the aisles people!

So that’s it, what a wealth of performances to expand your mind and entertain your senses! Don’t say I never tipped you off to any of the cool stuff.

More MMiXers to come…

– Jocelyn

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MMiX Festival Part Four

OK. The thing is done. Long exhales, a good long nap and heart-felt thanks to everyone. Your support, artistry and friendship (not to mention your cables and power strips) have meant the world to us. 🙂

More pics to follow in the days ahead:

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There’ll be plenty of content (video too) coming out as we get it together after a well deserved rest.

In the meantime, there’s many a point to ponder. We all learned so much about HOW music is being made in its current state that now the question shifts to WHAT is being made, let alone WHY.

Ben Neill made a great point, as far as “interactive” music goes, that being: It connects best with an audience when there is some level, structured as it may be, of improvisation. That made a lot of sense to hear that put so clearly. Without it, where is the risk, where is the edge-of-our-seat excitement which has always made for great music/performance no matter the decade, epoch or technology (?). With that in mind, nothing worthwhile is truly new. It’s simply this year’s extension of what humans have been doing since time immemorial.

Which means, for us here: more to come.

Thank you everybody!

-The MMiX Team

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Sound the Mutantrumpets!

Ben Neill‘s Tripycal is one of those albums that looms large in my personal soundscape. Back in my publishing days, I used to wrestle with 300 page manuscripts and marathon voice recording sessions. My head was so often jammed with words and speech, that I’d escape to my office and put on Neill’s record, with it’s ambient, dub-oriented jazz that seemed to knock the text-based stress right out. And on weekend chill-out nights, I’d sometimes hear those sophisticated bass lines and spacey horn notes floating through The Cooler, that old metal dungeon of a nightclub on far West 14th street.

Ben Neill

Ben Neill

More than 10 years later, I have the pleasure of seeing innovative trumpeter and composer, Ben Neill perform this week at the MMiX Festival on Sunday night. Neill invented the mutantrumpet, a trumpet that’s been tricked out with extra valves, knobs, switches and electronics so that he can use the it to control audio and video components in live performance. He first introduced the instrument in the ’80s, working with synthesizer pioneer Robert Moog to create the electronic interface, and he further developed its computer capabilities during a residency in Amsterdam during the ’90s. The result is several albums’ worth of uniquely trippy, adventurous music flavored with jazz improvisation and dance-floor grooves, plus a career that includes many collaborators such as Mimi Goese, DJ Spooky, DJ Olive, John Cale, Page Hamilton from Helmet and the late artist David Wojnarowicz.

A few years ago, Ben Neill began working with photographer and visual artist Bill Jones, with whom he created Palladio, an interactive, playable movie based on the novel by Jonathan Dee.  In their performances together, both VJ and trumpeter control music and video as a single hybrid form – a truly interactive, live duet of images and sound.

Ben Neill’s latest album is Night Science, available on Thirsty Ear Recordings. Ben Neill and Bill Jones will perform at the MMiX Festival on Sunday, October 11th at Theaterlab.

– Jocelyn