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 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.
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.