Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Polyphony, August 1983

Offered here is John K. Diliberto's interview of Don Buchla from the August 1983 issue of Polyphony magazine. Plenty of great information within, both for those acquainted with his family of electronic instruments as well as the uninitiated.


"Despite being an innovator of electronic music design, Buchla claims to know little about the actual technology in his creations."I don't care about circuitry", he asserts. "I design my instruments from the outside in". He speaks of music in terms of language, gesture orientation, and interactiveness. He doesn't seek the touch-sensitivity of so many keyboard synthesists, but rather an almost cybernetic interface between the body, mind, and instrument."

Download a PDF copy of the entire interview by clicking here.

Monday, October 26, 2009

LeFlash Atlanta 2009

LeFlash 2009

For our fourth outing, Don and I performed for four hours as part of the LeFlash event here in Atlanta on October 2, 2009. Existing at the crux between art walk and street party in the Castleberry Hill neighborhood, this marked the second occurance of LeFlash. Having exhibited a collaborative piece (Fiat Lux - with Scott Carter and Mario Schambon) as part of last year's event, it seemed natural to approach the curatorial team of Cathy Byrd and R. Stuart Keeler about performing on the Buchla in collaboration with Don Hassler for this year's event.

Although we initially had other intentions (which may yet see the light of day), in the end the performance became about using the Electric Music Boxes to control aspects of a visualization developed in Max/MSP. The process leading up to the event was fraught with frustration - but in the end it proved to be an interesting experiment. Don and I were situated at the top of a stairwell and projected the visualization down to the landing between the two staircases.

Photographs are once again provided by artist Alex Kvares. Check my blog in the future for info on another collaborative piece I created for this year's event.

(Recording Removed/Archived)