ABSTRACTIONAIRES

A bit of Serge M-Class ritualistic noodling here.  The phrase "My Name Has Knots"  comes from THE EGYPTIAN BOOK OF THE DEAD which I recently had the chance to see at the Brooklyn Museum,  and that certainly refers to a deity,  but can just as easily refer to the rich complexity of individuals and the myriad contradictions that form us all..  The beauty of these words and their inherent complexities suggest a flux we should celebrate,  the gods whose mysteries drive us,  and  the creative shifts (and  accidents) at the root of discovery.

DAPHNE & SERGE

UNDER CONSTRUCTION: Serge Dual Oscillator & Wave Processor

I'm in the process of adding two new M-odules to my Serge Modular system,  a collection of somewhat incomprehensible, but ultimately rewarding synthesis and modulation devices.  Most Moogs and Arps seem fairly easy to understand when confronted with their knobs, sliders, pitchwheels,  and traditional keyboards,  but Serge Modular (like Buchla) is something of a different language that needs experimentation to come alive and be fully appreciated.  The Dual Oscillator contains the New Timbral Oscillator and the Precision VCO,  a combination that yields a dazzling variety of sounds,  sounds that can be furthered mangled with the Ring Mod, Triple Waveshaper,  and Wave Multipliers of the Wave Processor.  Who knows what will happen when they encounter the Creature/Seq A/TKB combo? Videos to follow.  Many thanks to Rex Probe and my fellow Sergians at Quadslope for their invaluable help and inspiration.

NEW ADDITION: The Serge TKB

Another day,  another addition to a studio already overburdened with strange and wonderful sound-making  machinery.  This time it's from those providers of Wisconsin (via the west coast) banana-cabled contraptions aptly named Sound Transform Systems or simply Serge.  Like Buchla,  STS offers a non-moving capacitive keyboard (and sequencer) rolled into a neat little box called the TKB.  And to make things even more interesting, STS honcho Rex Probe doesn't include manuals with his boxes of monkeys,  as words like play, chance,  and happy accident perfectly describe his approach to synthesis.  During one of our phone conversations,  we both agreed that adding a quantizer to the TKB just wasn't in the spirit of cajoling chaos from this machinery.  Long may this sensibility prosper! Who says that electronic music need be humorless?  Now it's time to slowly wreak havoc with a forest of bananas!