Here’s a perfect way to treat your ears at the start of the week. Sound artist and percussionist Lorenzo Colombo recorded this ethereal, cosmic live set at Torso Electronics in Copenhagen. The dadamachines automat toolkit and its mechanical possibilities get woven together with Torso’s T1 and S4 hardware, and the results are pure magic.
This is just what I need to ground a gray February week, anyway — like tuning back into the electromagnetic and acoustic worlds around us.
Torso unintentionally made a great ad for the Automat. That remains the most accessible way to get into this kind of physical activation — and crucially, while you can (and perhaps should!) experiment with your own hardware, the creator Johannes built Automat to be rugged enough to work in live sessions like this one.
This is also a nice use of the T1 and S4 in a hybrid context, though. The S4 is routing all the audio through it — a reminder that this little upstart box can be a hub of your rig, much as people traditionally used the Elektron Octatrack.
They have a nice detailed description from when they posted this late last month, so let’s paste all that prose:
Torso Electronics presents the third live session recorded at our office space in Copenhagen.
In this episode, percussionist and sound artist Lorenzo Colombo presents an electroacoustic concert featuring the T1 and S4 in a hybrid setup combining metal percussion instruments and solenoids.
The performance is driven by the T1, used as both sequencer and live MIDI keyboard. It controls the SOMA Pulsar-23 and a set of dadamachines solenoids. The solenoids hit a set of Kolberg percussion bell plates, which function simultaneously as acoustic instruments and conductive metallic surfaces. Through body-resistance and circuit-bending interactions, these plates influence electrical signals and directly modulate the Pulsar-23 as well as generates MIDI that control the same instrument . All audio is routed into the S4, used as the sole sound-shaping and modulation unit.
About Lorenzo Colombo Lorenzo
Colombo is a Copenhagen-based percussionist, performer, and sound artist dedicated to contemporary and experimental music. He teaches percussion and post-instrumental performance at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, where he earned his Soloist Diploma in 2023. A recipient of the Léonie Sonning Talent Prize and Musikanmelderringens Kunstnerpriser, Lorenzo was also part of Statens Kunstfond’s Den Unge Kunstneriske Elite program (2023–24).
Gorgeous. This series is evolving nicely — Mike Sheridan’s set is brilliant, too, with the addition of some unexpected gear — Pin Portabella MK IIIe, the Z.Vex Instant Lo-Fi Junky Vexter, and Boss GE-10. Dronilicious:
Mike Sheridan has been a part of the Copenhagen electronic music scene since the mid 00’s. He entered the scene, barely in his teens, with his landmark debut album I Syv Sind (In Two Minds, 2008). Sheridan traced an ambient and dreamy approach, and with limited tools at hand, he constructed a teenage masterwork that few could have predicted. Among the first in his generation, Mike Sheridan launched his career to high acclaim, effectively crossing over to mainstream audiences.
I think my favorite might actually be Milano’s IDRA here, partly in deference to the minimalism, and partly to just how moving it is. Also worth getting lost in:
About IDRA IDRA , Francesca Pavesi, is a musician, producer, and sound artist from Milan. Her work explores the intersection of ambient and experimental electronic music, where organic textures, modular synthesis, and acoustic elements merge into immersive sonic worlds. Guided by attentive listening, she uses sound as an introspective space for deep, focused listening and a sense of timelessness.
Not surprisingly, S4 showed up in a lot of your #jamuary vids. Here’s a beautiful combo with the Erica Synths Steampipe (plus a Teenage Engineering OP-XY). Wonderful work by Dexba:
My main purpose here is to give us some chilled ambience to listen to this Monday but if I did make you want some Torso gear, here you go:
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Torso Electronics at Perfect Circuit [as I write this, they have some sales on demo stock, too!]
Torso Electronics Samplers at Thomann
Torso Electronics T1 at Thomann [they also have some b-stock!]