Owen Lake is back — the alias of Jeff Snyder, who in these parts is best known for Snyderphonics, MPE innovator and Manta creator (of Princeton University). Here, we get twee-and-western, electro-country tunes with Anica Mrose Rissi that charmingly stick in your head, played partly on instruments Jeff invented, Electrosteel and Electrobass. And there’s a music video with dinos!
Fiddler and co-writer Anica Mrose Rissi is the other half of the duo. The song is catchy and smile-inducing as that handmade video. There’s even a hint of influence from George Jones and Tammy Wynette, but poppier. Just a little more Princeton, New Jersey in styling. It’s still got the rise to the minor six and a nice middle eight plus a slide solo.
And the video, animated by artist and sculptor Lydia Ricci, is irresistible. (Jeff says “probably the most high-tech thing I’ve ever been involved in.”) So to those genAI folks who say they don’t have the “budget” to make a music video, I think the word you might be searching for is “imagination.”
Credits:
Performer credits:
Owen Lake: vocals, Electrosteel, electric guitar, bass, drum programming
Domenica Romagni: vocals
Pamela Stein Lynde: background vocals
Anica Mrose Rissi: fiddles
Rich Hinman: pedal steel guitar, electric guitar
Mark Eichenberger: acoustic drums, aux percussion
About those instruments: Jeff has some inventions that have been in development for years. One is the Electrosteel, which is exactly what the name implies — best seen in action:
“The tune with the most obvious Electrosteel on the album is ‘One Last Sip,’ where Dan Kalisher is playing Electrosteel throughout,” Jeff tells us.
The Electrobass has its own paper:
The Electrobass: A New Electronic Instrument Inspired By The Bass Guitar
And it’s an instr– oh, uh, never mind, guess I kind of gave it away already.
There’s also the Vododec, which Jeff says he’s using “in the background vocals on ‘Cheat to Win’ and ‘Over You.’ You can hear it more clearly in my older tunes like ‘Will You Miss Me.'”
If this is all still too folk-y for you, Jeff has long been the director of the laptop orchestra at Princeton and directs electronic music there, plus has co-created microcontroller platforms and the Lightweight Embedded Audio Framework.
The takeaway is, code and engineering can still power hands-on interfaces and even instruments that connect to long-standing musical traditions. Digital tech can be weird and personal. And you can animate it with hand-constructed sculptures. It’s all up to you.
One more:
And probably if you can’t decide whether you’re interested in stop motion animation, learning Arabic maqamats, or the soul roots of Detroit techno, I mean, c’mon in, you’re family.