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."
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)
Our third live improvisation together - this time at Eyedrum in Atlanta on July 20, 2009. The excellent photography provided by artist Alex Kvares can be viewed in entirety here.
This set is the first not performed exclusively on Buchla instruments, but rather through the developments made on his recent "Work Order" series Don decided to include his remarkable EMS Synthi A as well with interesting results.
Our intention for this performance was to take advantage of the opportunity to perform at a higher volume than we had previously, and rely on some techniques which couldn't be as well explored otherwise.
- TRACK REMOVED / ARCHIVED -
Our second collaborative performance was for the second CitySkies Electronic Music Festival on May 23, 2009 at Kavarna in Atlanta, Georgia. An excerpt from this performance is available on youtube.
As an additional point of reference, a projected presentation of Smith, R. D. (1998) 'Social Structures and Chaos Theory' Sociological Research Online, vol. 3, no. 1 was included.
A recording of our first collaboration - a performance on 2/14/09 for the monthly CitySkies electronic music event held at Kavarna, in Atlanta, Georgia.
(track removed)
