"Silent" concert at Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art, St Petersburg

From Nicholas Lem.

This concert is silent in that the live audience wear wireless headphones. Lemnik is one of the recognised masters of these very complex Elektron instruments (from Sweden) and one of the top exponents of "dark ambient".

Two fathoms below deep: dual Monomachine demo

From MIDERA. Far better than just a 'demo' I'd say.

I'm a fan of these Elektron boxes too; their complexity is bewildering sometimes, but they're wonderful creative tools when you get the hang of them.

"Driving the Spaceship" by kv3x

From kv3x. "So I snuck the spaceship out of the garage the other night. Once I got it started, wow, what a ride!"

That ship is quite a character. Gets a bit temperamental after the asteroid shoot!

AsteroidKiller: "Live in the Studio"

From AsteroidKillerMusic. "This is a patch I've been working on over the last days. It's recorded live and nothing is added in post."

The way the arpeggios syncopate randomly keeps the old attention going. Unlike so much of what I rail against in this genre i.e. a 1 bar groove that goes on for 8 minutes with no variation, so doing in one's head. I also appreciate the stereo production - a sense of space in a mix lifts the whole thing out from the steel box, and if you're listening on headphones, out from your sinuses!



See the two keyboards on the left, close to the camera? I once owned both, but sold them for next to nothing when such gizmos were right out of fashion. They fetch 4-figure sums on eBay now. There's many a similar tale told by gentlemen of a certain age who lived through the arrival of digital synths in the early 80s.

"Synths that block out the sun" - number 4

"Cyrusrex + Baseck", from Muff Wiggler.

We may entertain the delusion of free will, but in fact HERE is where it's ALL controlled from.

A Zen Minute

"Mixing the Buddha Machines with the modular..." A dreamy hybrid of Tibetan gong samples and old-school analog synthesis. From kv3x.

"Spiral Waves" by Ebotronix

I've previously posted a few pieces by Ebotronix in my "Synths that block out the sun" series. For this one I'm leaving off the irony and posting on its musical merit alone. I love the way the sound evolves from one moment to the next, unlike so much of this genre where a simplistic groove repeats and repeats ad nauseam.

I'm not sure how he manages that quantity of patch cabling without losing track of what connects to what! As I've remarked before, it's unusual to hear such multilayered arrangements played in real time on this analog technology. That's some mental map you'd need to set it all up and perform it. Bravo Herr Ebotronix!

"I must get one of those" - number 6

Circuit Bent Gabriella High School Musical Doll - rehoused with Jazz Hands and doll head control. From freeform delusion.

Any golden age of mad wacky instruments would have to give rise to this kind of stuff too. Circuit Bent do a whole range of items as weird as this one.

"I must get one of those" - number 5

Last chance to get a Thingamagoop 2x. The golden age of mad wacky instruments isn't ending any time soon despite this.
 

"I must get one of those" - number 4

We're truly in the golden age of mad wacky instruments. Can't see how you're meant to play/programme this one; unless you're a dachshund.