This is a nice unexpected gift – some favorite adventurous sound artists and favorite futuristic Javier Senosiain architecture coming together in a new Arturia feature from Mexico.
Leslie García’s work I’ve enjoyed for a long, long time, back to some of the DIY and design efforts she mentions, including collaborating on MusicMakers Hacklab. You should absolutely follow Microhm, as she’s doing a ton of teaching as always – so it’s your chance to learn Max/MSP, among others. And speaking of favorite gear, the lovely Polyend Tracker gets featured, too.
But yeah, while this is a brand piece, I adore my MicroFreak – and when Leslie and I praise this one, we’ve each also been involved in designing instruments, so that surely counts for something. Leslie has been just a pillar of the Mexican-international scene, from Tijuana to Mexico City, and we can’t wait until she’s back in Berlin.
But Berlin can’t beat the setting (or light) here, at the spacey organic Senosiain residential landmark La Casa Orgánica. And if you think I’m plugging Arturia, I’m really plugging this house. It’s impossible not to want to produce music that sounds the way this building looks. It’s just one of my favorite pieces of architecture and … we seriously need to move on, or I’ll swap CDM to an architecture theme, which might not go over well.
Watch:
And here, have some more Microhm. More on her latest work soon (again / any time!).
Good artist relations pick, Arturia.
There’s also Alyosha Barreiro, at another iconic Senosiain site, with 100% more hat.
The intro video is well worth watching, dealing with the organicism and indigenous-inspired futurism that Senosiain famously embodies, but new generations are inventing, too:
There’s a growing scene of artists exploring organicism and Mexico’s so-called pre-Colombian indigenous culture. On that theme, we’ve also spoken to Hexorcismos, reimagining AI through a decolonialized lens:
And I love what Leslie says about electronic music in general – “the ability to convert something as abstract as electrical energy into emotions.”
If that doesn’t make you want to head to the studio / power up (or open up, software) your synth, nothing will.